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Instruction: Exercises for FYS and Other Courses: Citation: MLA Style

MLA Citation Style

Online Guides:

 

Note about Purdue OWL web site: This guide is recommended. But the feature to "Cite your source automatically..." (citation machine) is an advertisement for an online service not recommended by our library.

In the Library:

Citation: 2 Parts

IN-TEXT CITATION: WITHIN YOUR PAPER

As you write, you will create citations in the text of your paper, to let the reader know when you are using someone else's thoughts. MLA uses parenthetical citations (see the image below)

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES CITED: AT THE END

At the end of your paper, you'll provide a complete list of all of the sources you used to write it. Include everything you used, whether you specifically quoted or cited it in the text of your paper or not.

In MLA style, this is called "Works Cited," while other styles call it "Bibliography" or "References."

In-Text Citation and Works Cited in MLA

When to Cite

CITE THE INFORMATION IF:

  • You use or describe specific information you have taken from a source
    (while he was Andrea del Verrocio's pupil, Leonardo da Vinci studied in a collaborative environment, sometimes even working with Verrocio himself (Shneiderman, 112).)
     
  • You refer to a theory or idea from a source
    (Shneiderman believes that collaborative learning increases positive outcomes(224).
     
  • You  include any image (picture, table, graph) from a source.

YOU DON'T NEED TO CITE IF:

  • The information you use is common knowledge
    (There are two main types of elephants, Asian and African).
     
  • The information you use can be easily found and verified by most people
    (Abraham Lincoln was 56 years old when he was assassinated) 

Still not sure? Check out this page on how to avoid plagiarism.