This document provides guidance on using MLA (Modern Language Association) style for citations and formatting. It discusses why MLA is important, how to avoid plagiarism, and the different components of MLA including in-text citations, works cited pages, paraphrasing, and quoting. Key resources for learning MLA are identified such as the MLA Handbook and library databases. Examples are given of how to format citations for different source types like books, websites, and interviews.

1. Using MLA
Effectively Using MLA
Can Be a Challenge.
Karen S Wright

2. Two of the many reasons to
use MLA:
•Gives you credibility as a
student and author.
•Protects you from
plagiarism.

3. •Using MLA prevents plagiarism.
•Plagiarism is a serious offense.
•You could fail the assignment,
the class, or even be removed
from school.

4. •MLA Handbook for Writers, 7th
ed.
•Library
•MLA Guidelines 2011

5. •Works Cited
•Parenthetical
Citations

6. The works cited page helps you to be like
an open book to your readers. It is—
•An alphabetical complete list of sources
used in your paper.
•Gives readers important information as to
where you found your source.
•Makes your research more credible.

7. Bierce, Ambrose. “Academy.” The Devil’s Dictionary. The Collected
Works Of Ambrose Bierce. Vol. 7. New York: Neale, 1911. N.
pag. The Ambrose Bierce Project. Web. 24 Jan. 2011. <http://
www.ambrosebierce.org/>
Bordo, Susan. “The Moral Content of Nabokov‟s Lolita.” Aesthetic
Subjects. Ed. Pamela R. Matthews and David McWhirter.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. 125-52. Print.
Eaves, Morris, Robert Essick, and Joseph Viscomi, eds. The William
Blake Archive. Lib. Of Cong., 28 Sept. 2007. Web. 20 Nov.
2007.
<http://www.blakearchive.org/blake/>
Lansbury, Angela. Interview. Off-Camera: Conversations with the
Makers Of Prime-Time Television. By Richard Levison and
William Link. New York: Plume-NAL, 1986. 72-86. Print.

8. Include in the Works Cited
When you put a works cited
together, include
•Author’s last name, first name
•Title of work
•Publication information
•URL
•If it is a print publication, the
word print needs to be at the end.

9. Summarizing facts and/or ideas from a source
means—
•Using a large passage from a source and
putting the information in your own words.
Paraphrasing facts and/ or ideas from a source
means—
•Using a large passage from a source but
changing the phrasing into your own words.

10. Using parenthetical citations in the text of
your paper:
If there is no author use an abbreviated
version of the title and page number (if
there is one).
Women were also treated with
electroshock therapy to maintain
muscle tone, which was due to the
lack of mobility of the patients (“Rest
Cure” A10).

11. Using parenthetical citations in the text of your paper for long
quotes is different than for short quotes:
In “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the narrator is diagnosed with female
hysteria by her husband:
he does not believe I am sick! And what can one do? If a
physician of high standing, and one's own husband,
assures friends and relatives that there is nothing the
matter with one but temporary nervous depression—a
slight
hysterical tendency—what is one to do?...Personally, I
disagree with their ideas...excitement and change, would
do me some good. (Gilman 380)
The narrator's comments symbolizes women's early struggle with
subordinate existence.
Using Long Quotes in the Text

12. Using MLA might
be a challenge,
but it is worth
the effort to do
it right.