Transcript MLA Citation Style

MLA Citation Style
Avoid Plagiarism by knowing what information you
need in order to give proper credit for ideas.
If your source is a book you need:
 The author’s name
 Title of the book
 Where it was published (city)
 Who published it
 When it was published
 Medium of publication
 So, when you have all that information, it will look like this (pay
attention to punctuation):
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin,
1987. Print.
 Every line after the first line should be indented
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If your book has more than one author:
 Everything is the same, EXCEPT:
 You list the authors in the same order you find them in the book.
 The first author is listed last name first, after that they are listed first
then last.
 If the book only has two authors it will look like this:
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer
Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.
• If the book has three or more authors it will look like this:
Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media:Theory and Applications
for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan, UT: Utah State UP,
2004. Print.
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If your source is a Journal Article you
need:
 Author’s name
 Title of article
 Title of journal
 Volume and issue
 Year published
 Page numbers of article
 Medium of publication
 So it will look like:
Duvall, John N. “The Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated
Mediation.” Arizona Quarterly. 50.3 (1994) : 127-53. Print.
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If your source is a Newspaper or
Magazine Article:
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Author’s Name
Title of Article
Title of Magazine or Newspaper
Date Published (Day, Month,Year)
Section it is found in (for newspapers)
Medium of publication
 For a magazine it looks like:
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Paniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.” Time 20 Nov. 2000:
70-71. Print
• For a newspaper it looks like:
Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured
Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01. Print.
An Article in a Reference Book
(encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc)
 Author’s name (this is the author of the article, not the encyclopedia)
 Title of article (or entry)
 Name of Encyclopedia
 Edition Name
 Year published
 Medium of publication
 It looks like:
Smith, John. “Ideology.” The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed.
1997. Print.
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Web Site
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You no longer need to the actual web
address (examples: www.pbs.org or
www.deltaschools.com) in your
citation, but YOU should still write it
on your source card, so you can
easily re-access that information if
you need to.
Author/Editor/Creator
Name of web site
Version number
Name of sponsoring organization or publisher
Date of creation or update
Medium of publication
Date of access
 It looks like:
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U,
2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.
Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10
May 2006.
(n.p. = no publisher/sponsor; n.d. = no date of creation or update)
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Article from an Online Database
Cite it like you would a print source, but add the title of the database
italicized, the medium of publication, and the date of access.
 Author’s name
 Title of article
 Title of journal
 Volume and issue
 Year published
 Page numbers of article
 Medium of publication
 It looks like:
Duvall, John N. “The Marketplace of Images: Televisions of Unmediated
Mediation.” Arizona Quarterly. 50.3 (1994): 127-53. NetTrekker. Web. 1 Feb.
2011.
Hitchens, Christopher. "The Man Who Made Us Whole." Newsweek 153.3 (2009):
56. Middle Search Plus. EBSCO. Web. 3 June 2011.
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An Image
(Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph)
• Artist's name
• The work of art italicized
• The date of creation
• The institution and city where the work is housed
• Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in italics
• The medium of publication
• The date of access.
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid.
Museo National del Prado. Web. 22 May 2006.
Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive.
Web. 22 May 2006.
If the work is cited on the web only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the
work, the medium of the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If
the work is posted via a username, use that username for the author.
brandychloe. "Great Horned Owl Family." Photograph. Webshots. American Greetings,
22 May 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.
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Some important things to remember:
 Punctuation, capital letters, underlining, the order
information is listed, MUST ALL BE EXACTLY LIKE THE
EXAMPLES.
 Even putting a comma in the wrong place can technically
make it plagiarism.
 BE CAREFUL!!!!
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Works Cited rules
 At the end of your paper, you will have a page that lists all of your
sources. This is called a Works Cited page.
 There are rules to follow when actually typing your Works Cited:
 Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New
Roman, Arial or Cambria).
 Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics
type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another.
 The font size should be 12 pt. Leave only one space after periods or other
punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).
 Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin.
MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the
Space Bar five times.
 Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only
when absolutely necessary, providing emphasis.
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Works Cited rules continued:
 There are no numbers for the entries, just put them in
alphabetical order.
 The first word is used for alphabetizing, whether that is a
last name, or a title.
 You ignore A, AN, THE for alphabetizing
 This entire page is double spaced
 The first word of each source begins at the left margin.
 If a source’s citation takes more than one line, all the
other lines are indented 1/2 inch. (hit tab)
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Annotated Bibliographies
 For the National History Day competition students will actually have to
complete an Annotated Bibliography instead of a Works Cited page
 The annotations for each source must explain how the source was used and how
it helped you understand your topic.
 You should also use the annotation to explain why you categorized a particular
source as primary or secondary.
 Sources of visual materials and oral interviews, if used, must also be included.
List only those sources that you used to develop your entry.
 An annotation normally should be only 1-3 sentences long.
Source (example): Bates, Daisy. The Long Shadow of Little Rock. 1st ed. New York:
David McKay Co. Inc., 1962.
Annotation (example): Daisy Bates was the president of the Arkansas NAACP and
the one who met and listened to the students each day. This first-hand account
was very important to my paper because it made me more aware of the feelings
of the people involved.
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Annotated Bibliography:
complete National History Day process paper
An excellent NHD process paper with annotated bibliography
Annotated Bibliography
Primary Sources
“Declaration of Independence.” National Archives. 30/1/11. <http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_zoom_1.html>
I took the picture of the Declaration of Independence from here.
Juengling, Frederick, and Alfred Kappes. “Convention at Philadelphia, 1787.” 1881. TeachingAmericanHistory.org. 9 March 2011.
<http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/convention/juengling_kappes/>
From this website, I took a picture of the convention.
Madison, James. “Madison Debates – May 14, May 25”. 2008.Yale Law School. 16/9/10.
<http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_514525.asp>.
This website provided me a typed copy of Madison’s notes on May 14th and May 25th during the convention. From here, I learned that the delegates spent
their first day sorting out a president and secretary for the convention.
Madison, James. “Madison Debates – May 28”. 2008.Yale Law School. 16/9/10.
<http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_528.asp>.
This is a transcript of Madison’s note on the 28th of May. The delegates spent this day sorting out rules and procedures of the convention.
Secondary Sources
Davidson, West, and James Stoff. The American Nation. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2005.
Here, I learned of the ideas behind the Constitution, like the Roman republic and Greek democracy. There are also details of the Articles.
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Doing the research
• Start by narrowing your topic and creating a thesis
• What is your personal interest in this topic?
• What is the significance of the topic (locally, state-wide,
nationally and internationally)?
• What is the impact of your topic (culturally, economically,
politically, and socially)?
• Evaluate research information for accuracy
• If you have a ton of great information, it does NO good
unless you know where you got it.
• You will have source cards and regular note cards. MAKE
SURE to document all your resource information on your
source cards!
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Source Cards
 Source cards are just a note card where you write all the
citation information for a source that you are going to use.
 Then you assign that source a symbol, and write it in the
upper right corner.
 Now any information you get from that source will be
written on cards with the same symbol.
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(Example Source Card)
Hitchens, Christopher. "The Man Who Made Us Whole."
Newsweek 153.3 (2009): 56. Middle Search Plus.
EBSCO. Web. 3 June 2011.
 Now I will put a star in the corner of every note card that I
write information from this source on.
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(Example Note Card)
The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is hiding
in the basements of buildings in downtown
Delta. (pg 2)
(Example Note Card)
The Delta Police say there is no way Bin
Laden is here - they would know about it.
(pg. 64)
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 I know that the idea
that Bin Laden is in
Delta came from
the star source on
page two.
 I know that the
Delta Police saying
no way came from a
different source on
page sixty-four.
Citing the source in your paper:
 Anytime you use information that did not come out of your
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head, you need to cite it.
In MLA, we use what is called PARENTHETICAL
CITATION.
At the end of sentence containing someone else’s idea, put
parenthesis with the authors name-comma-pg # all inside the
end punctuation.
(Lynch, 2).
If you don’t have an author, just put in enough of the title to
make it clear which source you are talking about.
Parenthetical Citation Examples:
 EXAMPLES below:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a
"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow
of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the
creative process (263).
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Another example:
The war on terror is going on in the wrong
country. We need to bring our soldiers back
home to Colorado. Even the CIA admits that
Osama Bin Laden is probably hiding in
basements here in Delta (Lynch, 2). So our
soldiers could fight the war and still see their
families if they were home.
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Notice how
all the ideas
in the
paragraph
are my own,
except for the
one that is
cited. This is
what you
need to do.
Good luck researching! 
A few reminders:
 Narrow your topic and develop a thesis statement.
 Answer the questions: where, when, what, who, why and how
 Make sure all of your sources are accurate.
 Document all of your sources and the information needed for
your Works Cited.
 Stay organized using the note card method! Follow the
Research Checklist to earn the grade you want.
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