CITING SOURCES
MLA STYLE
Why Cite Sources?
To avoid plagiarism To credit the source with the original idea
or information To lend credibility and authority to a thesis To back up ideas with credible illustrations,
known facts, and accepted statistics
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a crime – it is the the theft of someone’s else’s words, ideas, or research.
If you commit plagiarism, you can fail a course, be expelled from college, lose your job.
The easiest route to plagiarism today is cutting and pasting from the internet.
Avoid Plagiarism Introduce any material you have borrowed from another
source with a signal phrase that mentions the author (or if there is no author, the title ) of the source.
Put in quotation marks, any phrase or sentence(s) you have borrowed from the source.
If the quotation is longer than 3 lines, indent the quoted words.
ANY PHRASES OR SENTENCES QUOTED EXACTLY AND NOT IN QUOTATION MARKS OR INDENTED ARE PLAGIARIZED.
Help is Here
If you are confused about what plagiarism is or how to cite sources, please make an appointment with me to clarify any issues you might have.
If this is a last minute issue, email me, and I will try to respond promptly.
Internal Documentation
Citing Sources in the Text of an Essay
What Needs To Be Cited?
Quotations Paraphrased ideas Summarized information Facts Statistics Studies When in doubt, acknowledge the source of the
information
Ways To Cite Sources Include:
QuotationParaphraseSummary
Parenthetical Citation The parenthetical citation must match the first word
of the Works Cited citation -- usually the author’s last name -- and must include the page number of the quote, if taken from a paginated text: (Bragg 123).
Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country Music and Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.
In-text reference an in-text reference to show that a piece of
information, idea, quotation, etc. you have included in your writing belongs to another writer. It is always designed to be short because it is interrupting the text, and is usually in parentheses:
In recent years, there has been a rapid increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda 1995).
OR In recent years, there has been a rapid
increase in car sales in Thailand (Honda, 1995). OR In recent years there has been a rapid increase
in car sales in Thailand [1].
Remember...
The parenthetical citation must match the first word of the Works Cited citation, usually the author’s last name, and include a page reference or a year
Quotes repeat the author’s exact words. Paraphrases restate the author’s words in the
writer’s own words. Summaries abbreviate the author’s words.
Reference List
Overall Format The title -- Works Cited -- is centered at the top of the
page. It is not underlined, italicized or quoted. It should be the same font size as the rest of the citations.
The citation list is double-spaced throughout. The citation list is alphabetized. If there is no author, the citation begins with the title
of the work – quoted if an article or poem, underlined or italicized if a book.
The first line of each citation is at the margin; subsequent lines should be indented about ten spaces.
Sample Citations:
MLA FORMAT
A Book
Bragg, Rick. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.
author title of book
subtitle of book city of publication
publisher year of publication
Chapter in a Book
Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy:
Country Music and Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody
Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.
Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.
author title of chapter
original publication date reprint
city publisher year of publication
inclusive chapter pages
title of book subtitle of book
Article in a Multi-Volume Reference Work
Larkin, Joan. "Frontiers of Language: Three Poets."
1974. Exc. in "Audre Lord.” Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Vol. 18. Ed. Sharon R.
Gunton. Detroit: Gale Research, 1982. 307-08.
author title of work
original date volume editor
city publisher year of publication
inclusive pages of work
excerpted title of article title of reference work
Article in a Journal
Maxwell, Bill. “Angry Young Man.” Forum:
The Magazine of the Florida Humanities Council.
XXII.2 (Summer 1999): 8-17.
author title of article name of journal
volume number date inclusive pages of article
Article in a Journal found in an Online Database
author title of article
name of journalEder, Richard, "The Greatest Woman Poet Since
Sappho." Los Angeles Times Book Review
18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature
Resource Center. LINCC. 10 Jan. 2004.
date pages publisher database
provider date accessed
Article found on an Internet Site
author title of webpage date posted
name of websiteLu Yanguang. "Madame Li." 1997.
Asia Pac: 100 Celebrated Chinese Women.
Trans. Kate Foster. 10 Feb. 2000 < http://www.span.com.au/100women/18.html > .
translator date accessed
URL: web address
Work in an Anthology
Whitman, Walt. “Osceola.” 1892. Florida in Poetry:.
A History of the Imagination. Eds. Jane Anderson
author title of work title of book original publication date
publisher year of publication
inclusive pages of work
subtitle of book editors
Jones and Maurice O’Sullivan. Sarasota:
Pineapple Press, 1995. 30-31.
city
Bibliography
Bragg, Rick. “Country Club Meets the Enemy: Country Music and
Pigs.” 1999. Rpt. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories
of Rick Bragg. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000. 123-25.
______. Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg.
Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.
Eder, Richard, "The Greatest Woman Poet Since Sappho." Los Angeles
Times Book Review 18 Mar. 1990. 3+. Galenet: Literature
Resource Center. LINCC. 10 Jan. 2004.
Using Numerical References
In some fields of study, the preferred style is to number references in the text rather than cite the author’s name. If the number style is used, the references are listed in numerical order, not in alphabetic order.
In the text:
Anecdotes intended to associate individual radar operators’ actual health problems with their use of radar equipment have appeared in the literature [1,2]. These concerns have led some law enforcement agencies to suspend the use of radar [2].
In the list of references
Appendices
Appendices follow the list of references. Number or letter appendices and give each a title as if it were a chapter.
Example: Appendix 1: Questionnaire Appendix 2: BOI Regulations Appendix A: Derivation of Equations
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