MLA “In-Text” Citations How to Incorporate Your Research

Purdue University Writing Lab Why Use MLA Format? Allows readers to cross- reference your sources easily Provides consistent format within a discipline Gives you credibility as a writer Protects yourself from plagiarism

Purdue University Writing Lab Why Use MLA Format? The correct citation of your sources is serious business! If you plagiarize, even inadvertently, you may flunk your class or be expelled. Plagiarism in your professional career can result in being sued, fired, and publicly embarrassed.

Purdue University Writing Lab MLA Style: Two Parts Works Cited Page Parenthetical Citations

Purdue University Writing Lab Works Cited Page A list of every source that you make reference to in your essay Provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any sources cited in your essay. Each source cited in the essay must appear on the works cited page, and vice versa--cross- referencing!

Purdue University Writing Lab A Sample Works Cited Page Works Cited Dickens, Charles. Bleak House New York: Penguin, David Copperfield New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, Miller, J. Hillis. Charles Dickens: The World and His Novels. Bloomington: U of Indiana P, Zwerdling, Alex. “Esther Summerson Rehabilitated.” PMLA 88 (May 1973):

Purdue University Writing Lab Most citations should contain the following basic information: Author’s name Title of work Publication information Works Cited

Purdue University Writing Lab When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations? When quoting any words that are not your own – Quoting means to repeat another source word for word, using quotation marks

Purdue University Writing Lab When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations? When summarizing facts and ideas from a source – Summarizing means to take ideas from a large passage of another source and condense them, using your own words When paraphrasing a source – Paraphrasing means to use the ideas from another source but change the phrasing into your own words

Purdue University Writing Lab When Do You Cite? Don’t fall into the trap of plagiarism! If the idea or information you are using did not originate in your own mind...

Purdue University Writing Lab Handling Quotes in Your Text Author’s last name and page number(s) of quote must appear in the text 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).

Transitions to Incorporate Quotations or Paraphrases There is nothing more boring than reading the phrase “Jones (author) says…” over and over again. Try to vary your language by including different transition statements in your paper.

Transitions Jones notes in the November 1971 issue of Psychology Today that “…. Try other words like: demonstrates, reports, suggests, observes, asserts, emphasizes, declares, argues that, holds, maintains, suggests, etc.

MLA “In-Text” Citations If you use the author’s name in the sentence (signal phrase), you only need to include the page number where the quote/information can be found. EX: Jones reports in the December 2001 issue of Newsweek that “the September 11 th terrorist attacks will prove detrimental to the economy of the United States” (43). Notice that the quotation mark is located before the parentheses and the period is located AFTER!

MLA “In-Text” Citations If you do not use the author’s name in the sentence, you must provide the information at the end of the phrase. EX: The September 11 th terrorist attacks ultimately changed the country forever and “proved to be detrimental to the economy of the United States” (Jones 43).

Incorrect Examples of MLA One can see that a change inside of Edna has occurred because “another time…she would, through habit, have yielded to his desire; not with any sense of submission or obedience” (36). After this first act of rebellion, Edna “begins to feel like one who has awakened gradually out of a dream” (37).

Incorrect Examples of MLA She is “walking through the green meadow again; idly, aimlessly, unthinking and unguided” which further exemplifies her recurring feelings of being lost. (Chopin, 19). Edna is in a state of “exultation…as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul” (pg. 70).

Incorrect Examples of MLA The first images to appear in the novel is that of a “green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door.” He reckoned “the way to become rich is to make money, not save it” (Chopin 103) and enjoyed flaunting the money he had earned through his work.