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REL217: Islamic Traditions 2017: MLA Citation

What is citation?

WHAT IS A CITATION?

A citation provides the reader with information about your sources, to help the reader find them. Citations usually include such elements as:

  • title
  • author
  • who published it
  • when was it published

Image used with permission from Hannon Library at Loyola Marymount University http://libguides.lmu.edu/citations

Citation: 2 Types

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.

Some styles use footnotes, other styles use endnotes; MLA style uses parenthetical citations.

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.

Depending on the citation style you're using, this may be called "Bibliography," "References," or in MLA Style: "Works Cited."

Cite it Or....(Fun Video)

Great video from the University of Bergen in Norway (bonus: subtitles!)

MLA Style

ONLINE GUIDES

MLA Formatting and Style
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

MLA Style
from Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, by Diana Hacker (Bedford/St. Martin’s) .

Referencing Tool
Griffith University

GUIDES IN THE LIBRARY

 MLA Handbook cover

  MLA handbook for writers of research papers

-- this guide is on reserve: request at the 1st floor circulation desk (call no: LB2369 .G53 2009)  

When To Cite

CITE THE INFORMATION IF:

  • You use or describe specific information you have taken from a source
    (as 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.

Zotero

Zotero is online software to help you:

  • save citation information from your sources
  • organize your research
  • create in-text citations and bibliographies

Start using Zotero:

Citation Generators

Citation generators help you create citations for all types of sources.

IMPORTANT: When you use a citation generator, use our citation styles page to check whether the citation generator is using the latest version of your citation style.