MLA Citations

Why do you need to know about this? Improper citations can lead to plagiarism and will be considered plagiarism in your continuing education. In college, no one will take the time to instruct you on how to use in-text citations. They will make you buy a Bedford Handbook and say, “Figure it out.”

Bottom Line You must give credit to the thinker or speaker of information you use. This needs to occur within the exact borrowed sentence, not at the end of that whole paragraph. Credit is always the creator (author, organization, title) and location (page number, paragraph number). Without both pieces, you have an incomplete citation

If you know the author… As demonstrated through college academics, “[o]ne hundred percent of all Berkley High School students go on to be wildly successful” (Ferrara 73). Name of author, one space, page number, no comma Period comes after the parentheses

If you know the author… In-text Example: Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3). Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3). Corresponding Works Cited Entry: Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, Print.

If you know the author… In-text Example: Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263). Corresponding Works Cited Entry: Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford U.P., Print.

If you know the authors… The authors state, "Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment rights" (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76). For multiple authors: –List authors –separate by comma –use “and,” provide page number with no comma

If you don’t know the author… Your in-text citation should use a shortened version of the title of the article and the page number OR the name of the organization and the page number. There is one space between the title (or organization) and the page number. The period goes after the parentheses.

If you don’t know the author… In-text Example: We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has “more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change...” (“Impact of Global Warming” 6). Corresponding Works Cited Entry: “The Impact of Global Warming in North America.” GLOBAL WARMING: Early Signs Web. 23 Mar

Websites If you are using a website where there is no known author, make sure you cite using the first thing that appears in the works cited list which should be either the organization or title of article. If you don’t have a page number (because it’s a website), there are multiple ways to indicate where the information came from: (Global Issues, sec. 1). (Global Issues, par. 3). (Global Issues, Introduction).

Signal Phrase – ALWAYS use If you are quoting someone, we need to know why we should listen to him/her. Tell us his/her credentials and background so we know he/she is a credible voice. After graduation from Harvard Medical School, Edward Dean spent ten years living in Haiti working as a general physician. Dean believes that the key to improving health care is improving the education system. Dean states, “You can’t import doctors for a number of different reasons…” (Parkins 64).

Signal Phrase Asne Seierstad, author of The Bookseller of Kabul, spent three years living with the Khan family in Kabul. Regarding the treatment of women, Seierstad observed… “

Signal Phrase A signal phrase is also use to explain how data has been collected in a study. “Dr. Otto Schaefer spent 30 years working in the wilderness of the Canadian Far North. He lived with a group of Inuits who, within a single generation, changed their Dr. Schaefer reported that once starch and refined sugars were introduced into the Inuit diet…”

Signal Phrase If your research is longer than one sentence and is all from the same source, introduce the source by credentials before you start. Then finish with the page number parenthetical citation.

Works Cited (format) Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin, Print. Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, Print. Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin's, Print. Alphabetical order No numbers or bullet points Indent everything beyond first line All double spaced, no return between lines