GIVING CREDIT TO OUTSIDE SOURCES

Using the Modern Language Association

(MLA) style to document a research paper

When professionals write papers that require

research, they use the documentation style chosen

by their discipline.

For example: An English professor would use the

Modern Language Association style (MLA).

A historian would use the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS), also known as Turabian.

A nursing professional would use the American Psychological Association (APA) style.

In this workshop, we’ll look at the basic requirements for using MLA. This is an overview. For details, be

sure to consult a handbook or a handout from the

Writing Center.

First, let’s review the use of sources in any paper.

Different ways of saying the same thing:

Giving credit to your sources.

Documenting your sources.

Citing your sources. Using in-text

citations.

What are “outside sources” for a research paper? Traditional

sources include: Books

Entire books Chapters Works within an

anthology Articles

Professional journals, magazines, newspapers

…but today there are many other types of sources as well,

such as: Web pages Online journals Personal interviews Videotaped

interviews Movies E-mail

correspondence, etc.

There are two types of sources: primary and secondary.

Primary: the work itself. (For a literature paper, for example, the actual novel, short story, or poem.)

Secondary: Things written or said ABOUT the primary source. (For example, literary critiques about the novel, short story, or poem.)

For example, if you were writing an analysis of Emily

Dickinson’s poetry:PRIMARY SOURCES— Letters, diaries, working drafts.SECONDARY SOURCES—Reviews and analyses of Dickinson’s work in literary journals.

Suggestion: Whenever you have access to a primary source, use it! First-hand

information is always stronger than second- or third-hand.

Rule of thumb for deciding what to document:

Borrowed language Borrowed ideas Borrowed information

When you use the information, words or ideas of someone else, be sure to tell your readers where the material came from.

If you would like to learn about how to use borrowed material

correctly—quoting, paraphrasing, and

summarizing—view our workshop on Using Outside

Sources Correctly.

Where do you put the information about your sources in an MLA research paper? Two

places: In in-text citations—that is, right

in the body of your paperAND

On a page at the end of your paper.

What kind of information you put in your in-text citations and how you

organize the information at the end of your paper

depend on the documentation style you

are using.

Each system has its own very specific rules. You don’t have to memorize them—you can

use a style book or a handout from the Writing Center—but make sure you follow them

carefully.

Your professor and other professionals will notice!

Modern Language Association (MLA)

Used by writers in the humanities, which include literature, philosophy, religion, languages, the classics, and the visual and performing arts.

This is what an MLA in-text citation looks like. The required information about the source is highlighted in yellow so you can spot it in our examples:

Hobson argues that middle schoolers are actually “alien invaders from another planet” (18).

One authority argues that middle schoolers are actually “alien invaders from another planet” (Hobson 18).

Notice that you can use the information about your

source to mark the beginning and end of the

material you borrowed. Do this whenever possible!

More examples:

Harold Hobson maintains that middle schoolers are alien life forms (18).

One authority believes that middle schoolers are alien life forms that originated elsewhere in the galaxy (Hobson 18).

Some rules for writing in-text citations:

Always make sure the author’s last name and the page number are inserted in your text.

You don’t need a comma between items, or a “p.” for “page” before the page number.

Your Works Cited (page)

It comes at the end of your paper. It is a list of all of the sources you

used in your paper. It does not include sources that you

may have read for background information, but did not actually use.

Your in-text citations tell the reader to look at your Works Cited page, under the name of your source, in order to find publishing

information.

Readers look at the Works Cited page(s) when they want to know

how they, too, can find the source you used—or how you

found the source.

Some advice…Pay close attention to:

What type of information goes on this page

What the order of this information is for an MLA citation.—ORDER MATTERS! (So does punctuation.)

Be sure to copy this information right away—when you are actually using the source—so you’ll have it when you write the Works Cited page(s).

Advice, continued… The title of this page is Works

Cited. Do not call it Works Cited Page. Do not put quotation marks around it.

Alphabetize the citations on this page according to the authors’ last names.

Start each entry at the left margin and indent for subsequent lines.

Double space.

If you are used to using APA style, you may want to note the differences between APA and MLA when you work on

your References.

Main differences between MLA and APA. When using MLA:

Use complete first names of sources rather than initials on your Works Cited page.

Use quotation marks around the name of a short work (an essay, a review, a newspaper article, etc.).

DO italicize books and journal titles, as in APA, but do NOT italicize volume numbers.

APA differences, continued…

In MLA, capitalize the major words in the titles of magazines, newspapers, and journals.

Also capitalize major words in the titles of books or articles.

2009 changes to MLA

The 2009 MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, Third Edition, notes some changes in MLA:

2009 MLA changes, contd.

Published works are now italicized, not underlined.

URLs are no longer required, unless it’s difficult to find the source otherwise.

Continuous pagination is not an issue. Volume and issue numbers are necessary, but if pages are not paginated, just write n. pag.

2009 MLA changes, contd.

Markers are now used to indicate publication medium: Print, Web, Performance, DVD, or TV, for example. Although the date of retrieval follows the marker for Web sources, most markers go at the end of the entries.

2009 MLA changes, contd.

You no longer need to include library information when you cite a journal article from an online database.

Berger, James D. and Helmut J. Schmidt. “Regulation of Macronuclear DNA Content in Paramecium Tetraurelia.” The Journal of Cell Biology 76.1 (1978): JSTOR. Web. 20 Nov. 2008.

2009 MLA changes, contd.

New abbreviations. * n.p. is used when no publisher name appears on a web site.* n.d. stands for “no date.”* n. pag. stands for “no pagination.”

The format for a book citation shows you the “skeleton” of all MLA

citations…

Here is the basic format for a book with one author:

Rose, Joel. The Blackest Bird: A Novel of History and Murder. New York: Edinburgh, UK: Canongate Books, 2008. Print.

Last name, first name. Title of Work. Place of publication: Publisher, Date. Medium.

--Order of information--Punctuation rules

--Capitalization rulesFor other citations, it’s just a

matter of adding to this skeleton.

For example…

If you are using something from a collection or anthology:

Warnick, Barbara. “Judgment, Probability, and Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” Teaching Argument in the Composition Course. Ed. Timothy Barnett. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 42-58. Print.

Author’s last name, first name. “Title of shorter work.” Title of anthology. Editor. Place where published: publishing company, date. Page numbers. Medium.

Any good handbook will have models for every type of MLA citation. The Writing

Center also has a useful MLA handout.

Manuscript format rules for an MLA paper:

Standard type style, e.g. New Times Roman or Courier. (We recommend 12 pt.)

One-inch margin on all sides. Do not justify right margin.

Double-space everything. Indent each paragraph five spaces.

Format, continued: In the upper right corner of each page,

type your last name, then skip a space, then write the page number.

Number all the pages, from the body of the essay and including the Works Cited page(s).

MLA does not require a title page.

Example of a first page:

Driver 1

Joseph DriverProfessor HarcourtEnglish 100023 July 2009

Downloading Music Off the Internet

Outlines

MLA essays may require an outline. To be on the safe side, always ask your instructor.

Take time to look at a handout or a handbook on

MLA. Looking at model papers is particularly

helpful.

Remember: If you plan ahead, you can bring a

finished draft to the Writing Center and ask for help in

checking the documentation.