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Tips on Citing: MLA Citations

Correct Citing

Additional Resources

When to Cite

  • Anything that is printed, spoken or sung (except facts or common knowledge)
  • Unusual phrase borrowed from a speaker or writer
  • Photos, drawings, charts, graphs, etc.
  • Someone else's unpublished research findings

MLA Style

What is MLA style?

All fields of research agree on the need to document scholarly borrowings, but documentation conventions vary because of the different needs of scholarly disciplines. MLA style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature. Generally simpler and more concise than other styles, MLA style features brief parenthetical citations in the text keyed to an alphabetical list of works cited that appears at the end of the work.

Examples of MLA Citations

  • Book Citation

      Author's last name, Author's first name. Title of the Book. Location: Publisher, Year. Medium of publication.

  • Book Chapter

      Author. "Title of Chapter or Essay." Title of Book or Anthology. Name of editor of book cited. Publication information. Page numbers of cited essay.          Publication medium.

  • Basic Journal Article

      Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of the Article." Name of Publication volume.issue (Year): pages. Medium of publication.

Additional information required in citations of electronic journals:

After the page numbers, include the name of the database or website the piece comes from, and include the date the information was accessed after the medium of publication.

  • Website Citation

      Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of the Work." Title of Overall Website. Publisher of the website or N.p. if no publisher is indicated, date of          publication. Medium of publication. Day Month Year page was accessed

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Paraphrasing

6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing

  1. Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
  2. Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase on a note card.
  3. Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
  4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
  5. Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have borrowed exactly from the source.
  6. Record the source (including the page) on your note card so that you can credit it easily if you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.

Taken from the Purdue Online Writing Lab on Paraphrasing