PLAGIARISM & MLA FORMAT MOST ENGLISH COURSES AND SOME HUMANITIES COURSES WILL REQUIRE YOU TO FOLLOW MLA FORMAT HEN DOCUMENTING YOUR RESOURCES. MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION

PLAGIARISM According to Reading for Writers, “Plagiarism is the willful or accidental stealing of someone else’s writing” (McCuen-Metherell and Winkler 444). Hacker and Sommers write that “three acts are considered plagiarism: (1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words” (446).

Poster from UCLA Library. The UCLA Library offers an entire website explaining intellectual property, plagiarism, and documenting sources. See this website: /bruinsuccess/03/01.cfm

WHY CITE? The UCLA Library lists the following reasons for giving proper credit to your sources: 1. Helps you avoid plagiarizing. 2. Allows the reader to find your research sources. 3. Provides evidence and adds credibility to your work 4. Giving credit to your sources and proper documentation is standard practice for scholars and students engaged in written academic conversations

IN-TEXT CITATIONS  Use quotation marks around borrowed language—phrases or sentences.  Introduce a quote or incorporate phrases into your own writing. Both require quotation marks and a parenthetical citation.  Avoid dumped quotations.  Put summaries and paraphrases in your own words. You will still need to give credit to the source.

MORE ABOUT FORMAT  Use the ellipsis mark … to indicate that you have omitted words. What remains must be grammatically complete.  Use brackets [ ] to insert your own words into quoted material. You can insert words to clarify a confusing reference or to keep a sentence grammatically correct in your context.

LONG QUOTATIONS  If a quotation runs more than 4 lines of prose (or 3 lines of poetry), set off the quotation by indenting it one inch from the left margin.  Long quotations should be introduced by an informative sentence, usually followed by a colon: Quotation marks are unnecessary because the indented format tells readers that the passage is take word-for-word from the source.  The parenthetical citation goes outside the final mark of punctuation.

MLA WORKS CITED PAGE  The list of sources you have cited in your paper will be listed on the Works Cited page. Keep the following in mind when preparing this page:  Alphabetize the list. Alphabetize the list by the last names of the authors or creators. No author-alphabetize by the first word of the title, other than A, An, or The.  Indent. Do not indent the first line of each works cited entry, but indent any additional lines one-half inch.  MLA no longer requires the URL of an online source. Provide it if your instructor requires it or if the source is difficult to find without it.

WORKS CITED Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Writer’s Reference. 8 th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, Print. McCuen-Metherell, Jo Ray and Anthony C. Winkler. Readings for Writers. 15 th ed. Boston: Cengage, Print. UCLA Library. “Oops I plagiarized!” Wed. 25. Oct Retrieved from