Transcript MLA & APA Overview

MLA Overview
Created by
Kate Michaelson
Owens Community College
MLA Overview
MLA and APA are two common styles used for
formatting papers and properly citing sources.
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Modern Language Association (MLA)
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Style used most often in Literature, Arts, and
Humanities
Most importantly, used in this class!
American Psychological Association (APA)
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Style used most often in Psychology, Social Sciences,
and Education
Not used in this class, but may be required in others.
Title Page - APA
APA requires a separate title
page with:
 A running header of the
title and page #
 Title & Author’s name
centered
 Course and professor
 Date
 NOT necessary for MLA
unless your instructor
specifies otherwise
Title Page - MLA
MLA does
NOT require
a separate
title page!
Instead, on the first page of the essay include:
 A running header with your last name and page #
 Your name, professor’s name, course, and date
 Assignment title centered over the essay
MLA Works Cited Page
The Works Cited page:
 Comes at the end of the document & lists every source
(in a particular format) that was consulted for the essay
 Is meant to provide enough information so that anyone
who wanted to find the that source could track it down

Basic information for every source, by order of significance,
includes but is not limited to:
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The author
Title of the work you used
Publisher location and company
Year of publication
Format (Print or Web)
Specifics will vary by source type! You must consult your handbook (or
other resources) for help citing various sources correctly.
MLA Works Cited Examples
Single author:
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin
Books, 1987. Print.

Author’s last name, first name. Title. Publisher location: Publisher, year
published. Format.
Book with multiple authors:
Gleick, James and Debra Smith. Chaos: Making a New Science.
New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Print.
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Cite up to 3 authors (only use the last name, first name format for the first
author), then the publisher info, date, page numbers, and format.
For a book with 4 or more authors, cite the first author as usual and follow it
with “et al.” (which means and others) to indicate the rest of the authors
MLA Works Cited Examples
No author?
GlobalWarming.org. Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007. Web. 24
May 2009.
 Cite it as usual, but start with the title since there is no author
Particular essay or story from a collection:
McCovey, Chester. "The Front Porch." The Composition of
Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and John Metz. Boston:
Wadsworth, 2010. 105-107. Print.

Cite the author(s) of the specific source first, then the story/essay title,
then credit the book in which you found it, the editor(s) of the book, then
the usual information for a book.
MLA Works Cited Examples
Electronic source:
Vargas, Paul. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili."
eHow.com. Web. 10 May 2009
<http://www.ehow.com/make-vegetarianchili.html>.
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Cite like other sources, but also include Web as the
format followed by the date you accessed the info
Including the web address is optional
MLA Work Cited Page – Database
Citing a library database differs from other online
sources because the database is not publicly
accessible (i.e., someone is paying for the service).
 Therefore, you have to also cite:

 The
database
 The company that owns the database
 The location from which you accessed it
Work Cited Page – Database
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For instance, if you used Academic Search
Premier from the Owens Library to find Pat
Shipman’s article “The Woof at the Door”
published in American Scientist, the correct
citation would look like this:
Shipman, Pat "The Woof at the Door." American
Scientist 97.4 (2009): 286-289. Academic Search
Premier. EBSCO. Owens Community Coll. Lib. Web.
12 Oct. 2009.
Correct Formatting for Titles
Examples:
Italicize titles of long
 The New York Times
works like books,
newspapers, magazines,  The Atlantic Monthly
and journals. a
 The Composition of
Everyday Life
Use quotation marks for
short stories, poems,
essays, or articles. a
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“What Is Education?”
“Cruelty, Civility, and
Other Weighty Matters”
Works Cited Layout
Center “Works Cited” at the top of the page in normal font
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Double space
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Alphabetize the list
of sources
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Use a hanging
indent
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Do not number or
bullet entries
Parenthetical Citations - MLA
Parenthetical citations:
 Credit a source that you’ve quoted, paraphrased,
or summarized
 Use the minimal information needed to allow the
reader to find the source on the works cited page
 Whatever information you include in the
parenthetical citation should be the first piece of
information found in that works cited entry.
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Typically the author’s last name
If there is no author, use an abbreviated form of the title
Include relevant page numbers for quotes and paraphrases
Parenthetical Citation Examples
For quoted or paraphrased material use:
 (author’s last name and page #)
 Example:
“The advisory board made no
mention of the report,” (Gonzalez 12).

Tip: If you mention the author as you
introduce the quote, his or her name may be
omitted in the parenthetical citation.
 Example:
According to Dr. Gonzalez, “The
advisory board made no mention of the report”
(12).
Parenthetical Citation Examples
To give credit for a summary of someone else’s
ideas use:
 (author’s last name) OR a reference to the
author in the writing
 Example: Men often use speech to establish
social position while women talk in order to
express emotion (Tannen). –OR Tannen asserts that men often use speech to
establish social position while women talk
in order to express emotion.
A Note on How APA Differs
For APA citations use:
 Almost the same info as MLA, but also include the
date of publication
 (author’s last name, date of publication, page
number(s) when applicable)
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(Smith, 2009, p 133)
A web site with no author might be cited (Gardener’s
Guide, 2006).
As in MLA, you may omit the author’s last name in
parenthesis if he or she is mentioned in the
introduction of the quote.
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Example: According to Gonzalez, “The advisory board
made no mention of the report,” (2006, p 12).
Whether APA or MLA,
always remember:
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When using an exact quote, any exact quotes
MUST be in quotation marks.
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When paraphrasing, you must rephrase the
material in your own words to avoid plagiarism.
 When
you re-word something, quotation marks are
not necessary, but a citation is still necessary.
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Even when using ideas you got from someone
else’s work, you must credit them!
When should I cite? If in doubt, ask:
Is it my idea?
Yes
NO
Is it common knowledge?
NO
Cite it!
Do not cite
…or else…
Owens Campus Security hauls off
another suspected plagiarist.
Useful Websites & Sources

The Writing Center
 Located
in College Hall 156-D
 MLA Handout
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Interactive MLA Tutorial
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Commercial citation tools such as:
 Landmark
 Put
 The
Don’t forget
about us!
Tool at http://www.citationmachine.net/
all the info in & it spits out your citation
catch is, you still need to know where to get the info and
when to use citations.