CITING USING THE

MLA Style

Prepared from the 6 th edition of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers

WHAT WILL THIS TUTORIAL COVER?

At the end of this tutorial you will:-

• Be aware of the importance of citing the sources you have used • Learn to cite according to the MLA style • Learn how to cite a variety of sources • Learn how to use the MLA manual

WHAT IS CITING ?

Citing is giving credit to, or acknowledging

all sources

your papers. of information or ideas used in

A QUOTE AN IDEA

Citing sources should: • Point to the source from which you got the information in your essay . • Direct your reader to the full documentation in the list of Works

Cited.

•

FACTS

WHY CITE ?

Citing or documenting information is responsible and ethical behaviour. Citing shows respect for other people’s ideas. If you don’t cite you are guilty of plagiarism . Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person’s intellectual efforts. It is a form of cheating.

The word “plagiarism” comes from the Greek root for “kidnap”.

WHY CITE?

(cont’d)

• Citing is a service to those reading your paper, since it accurately points them to the exact location of the information you have used for your paper. • Citing also meets the requirements of your Faculty and the University.

HOW TO CITE?

To cite, you must choose an acceptable citation style. There are many authorized styles e.g. APA, Chicago, ACS . Use the one required by your Lecturer or your Faculty. MLA * is one of the most widely used styles. It is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. Check the Library’s OPAC to find the Handbook

*Modern Language Association

CITING USING MLA

There are 2 aspects to citing with MLA: (i) In text citing

(citing within the text or body of your essay or paper) (ii) List of paper)

Works Cited

(at the end of your

AGREEMENT OF IN TEXT CITATIONS WITH LIST OF WORKS CITED

References cited in the text

must

the Works Cited. appear in Conversely each entry in the Works Cited

must

be cited in the text.

CITING SOURCES

IN THE TEXT

Basic information to be included:-

• Author’s surname and page e.g. (Tannen 178) OR • Title of work (if no author is named) and page e.g. (Love and War 21)

*NB Do not

–

include ‘p’ or ‘pp’ before page numbers.

NOTE WELL

CITING SOURCES IN THE TEXT (cont’d)

There is a direct relationship between what you put in the text and what you put in parentheses.

CITING SOURCES IN THE TEXT (cont’d) If you put the author’s name in the

text, do not repeat it in

parentheses. For example…

It may be true, as Robertson maintains, that “in the appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of primary importance…”(136).

If you do not

example… put the author’s name in

the text, you must include it with the page number in parentheses. For

CITING SOURCES IN THE TEXT (cont’d)

It may be true that “in the appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of primary importance….” (Robertson 136).

CITING SOURCES

IN THE TEXT

(cont’d) Citing works listed by title only…

International espionage was as prevalent as ever as in the 1990s (“Decade”).

* NB “Decade” is the shortened title for “The Decade of the Spy”. Put full details in list of Works Cited.

.

documentation in the list of Works Cited. In the text of your paper

Despite American birth, Powell was raised in Jamaican extended family of real and fictive relatives (Roth 33 ).

Works Cited

Roth, David. Sacred Honor: A Biography of Colin Powell. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1993.

THE LIST OF Works Cited

• Contains

all

the sources that you cited in your paper. • Comes at the end of your paper. • Lists all sources cited

in one alphabetical sequence

. • Includes information

from the source itself

title page of a book) not from a catalogue.

(e.g. the

WORKS CITED A BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR

Author’s name. Title of the book . Publication information.

Example:

Smith, M.G. Pluralism, Politics and Ideology in the Creole Caribbean. New York: Research Institute for the Study of Man, 1991.

N.B. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and subtitle, and the first letter of every word in the title except for a, an, the, and, to, …

(see MLA page 103 for full list)

WORKS CITED A BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR

Author’s name. Title of the book . Publication information.

Example:

Smith, M.G. Pluralism, Politics and Ideology in the Creole Caribbean. New York: Research Institute for the Study of Man, 1991.

N.B. Capitalize the first letter of the first word in the title and subtitle, and the first letter of every word in the title except for a, an, the, and, to, …

(see MLA page 103 for full list)

WORKS CITED

A WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY An anthology essays, poems, stories) by various authors, in a single volume. Author’s name (surname first). “Title of chapter/essay, etc.” Title of the book Editor (surname last). Publication information. Pages of chapter/essay, etc.

Example:

is a collection of works (e.g. chapters, More, Hannah. “The Black Slave Trade: A Poem.” British Women Poets of the Romantic Era.

Ed. Paula R. Feldman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. 472-82.

PAGE NUMBERS

NB.

MLA requires that you paginate as efficiently as possible. Therefore, if you are referring to an item that runs from pages

472-482

, use

472-82

. More, Hannah. “The Black Slave Trade: A Poem.” British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. Ed. Paula R. Feldman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. 472-82.

WORKS CITED

ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS

Periodicals

include journals, newspapers and magazines.

Author’s name. “Title of Article.”

article.

Source.

Source = Title of periodical, volume and issue numbers, pages of the If pages continue from one issue to the next, put the volume number only.

Example:

Chan, Anita, and Robert J. S. Ross. “Racing to the Bottom: International Trade Without a Social Cause.” Third World Quarterly 24 (2003): 1011-28.

*NB. For works with more than one author, invert only the 1 st name. author’s

WORKS CITED ARTICLES IN PERIODICALS

But, if a journal pages each issue separately, you must add the issue number to identify the source. Example:

Cooper, Carolyn. “Race and Cultural Politics of Self Representation: A View from the University of the West Indies.” Research in African Literatures 27.4 (1996): 97-105.

WORKS CITED

AN ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER Give the name as it appears on the masthead but omit any introductory article (i.e. Daily Express, not The Daily Express). Next, give the complete date [day, month and year]. Abbreviate all months except May, June and July. Include section letter (where relevant) and page numbers.

AN ARTICLE IN A NEWSPAPER (cont’d) EXAMPLES

Singh, Rickey. “New row over Aristide.” Trinidad Express 17 June 2005: 12.

Newspaper editorial (no author given):

“US-Libya Conflict.” Editorial. Guardian 9 Jan. 1998: 8.

Article in a section of the newspaper

Sept. 1996: A3.

(e.g. section A, page 3 ): Article not on consecutive pages (e.g. starting on pg. G1 and continuing on pg. G3):

Harris, Nicole. “Airports in the Throes of Change.” Washington Post 21 Apr. 2002: G1+. •

WORKS CITED

AN ARTICLE IN A REFERENCE BOOK For a

dictionary entry

quotation marks. or an

encyclopedia article

do not cite the editor of the reference work. If the author of the article is given, put the name first; if it is not given, put the title in

EXAMPLES:

“Piracy.” The New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 15th ed. 1998. Borjas, G. J. “Migration, Economics of.” International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences.

1st ed. 2001.

“Creole.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 10th ed. 1999.

WORKS CITED

AN INTERVIEW An interview may be published, recorded or broadcast.

Examples

Smith, John. Interview with Jane Clarke. Breakfast Club. 109.1 FM. Port of Spain, Trinidad. 26 Mar. 2005. Walcott, Derek. “ Derek Walcott interviewed by Dirk Sinnewe.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature 34. 2 (1999):1-8.

WORKS CITED

A PERSONAL INTERVIEW

To cite an interview you conducted:-

• • Give the

name

of the person interviewed The

type

of interview (e.g. Personal interview, Telephone interview) • The

date Examples:

Smith, John. Personal interview. 22 July 2005. Jones, Alice. Telephone interview. 10 Oct. 2004 .

WORKS CITED

ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS

Electronic publications are not as stable as their print counterparts. Therefore, these citations should provide more information than print citations.

Dates

A citation for an online should contain

2 dates

• •

the date it was published or last updated.

the date on which you accessed the document.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Web address or URL < http://www.jamaicansforjustice.org/constitution_of_jamaica.htm

>

ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS (cont’d) An article from the Internet Date updated Website

Shah, Anup. “Sustainable Development” 21 April 2003 Global Issues 20 Feb. 2005 Development.asp>.

URL of Article Date accessed

ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS (cont’d) EXAMPLES An article from a Library Subscription Database e.g. EbscoHost

“Cooling Trend in Antarctica.” Futurist May-June 2002:15. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. U of West Indies, Main Lib. 3 May 2005 .

An article in a scholarly online journal

Denning, Peter J. “ Business Designs for the New University.” Educom Review 31.6 (1996). 23 June 2004 .

Notice that the list is in one alphabetical sequence… A bersold C larke “ C ooling…”

REMEMBER…

o o o o o o o You have just been introduced to

sections

of the MLA style. For citing other types of resources and exceptions to the general rules check the MLA Handbook, Brief Holt Handbook or Keys for Writers. Visit MLA’s website for tips. Click on this link:

http://www.mla.org/style_faq

There are other styles available e.g. Chicago, APA, ACS (Check your faculty requirements) Use the style requested by your tutors. Be consistent.

You will not retain everything, so use the style Manual.

THE END

ADAPTED BY Sharida Hosein – The Main Library, UWI, St. Augustine With Permission from The Mona Information Literacy Unit, UWI Mona Jamaica

© December 2005