You are on page 1of 5

MLA Citations

IN TEXT CITATION
In any research paper, you will have used information from other sources, and
it is essential to use in text citations to accredit other researchers.
Most of your Background and your Analysis/Discussion sections involve building upon
the research of others, placing your research project in the context of previous
findings in the field.
It is perfectly acceptable to cite the work of others and, in fact, it is essential
that you do so.
Occasionally, you will use direct quotes from another source, but most of the time
you will be paraphrasing the work. You will need to create a Works Cited or
reference list of all of the sources that you use, but you will also need to
indicate within the text where your information came from.
Referencing is an essential part of writing any research paper, so err on the side
of caution. Common knowledge does not need to be referenced, and you can assume
that any reader is fairly knowledgeable about the field.
For example, a psychologist will be aware of Pavlovian Conditioning, so you do not
need to reference that if it from your own head or knowledge gained from your
internship work. A biochemist will be aware of how ethanol is made.
Your audience for this paper is:
Read more: http://www.experiment-resources.com/in-text-citation.html#ixzz1Mo3ha4wq
___________________________________________________________________________________

In-Text Citations
In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what
is known a parenthetical citation. This method involves placing relevant source
information in parentheses after a quote or a paraphrase.
General Guidelines
The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends:
1. upon the source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and
2. upon the sources entry on the Works Cited (bibliography) page.
Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the
source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever
signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text, must be the
first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry
in the Works Cited List.
Examples of In-Text Citations:

Works Cited Page


At the end of your paper you should have a Works Cited page that will list
all of the sources you used in alphabetical order. Some things to remember
for the Works Cited page:

All sources should be in alphabetical order by the first letter of


the first word appearing in your source

Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your
research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name,
page number header as the rest of your paper.

Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or
put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the
top of the page.
Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations five spaces so that
you create a hanging indent.
List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to
a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page
numbers on your Works Cited page as 225-50. Note that MLA style uses a
hyphen in a span of pages.
This is a link to a sample works cited page:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/12/
For MLA Examples for all types of work:
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html
For a citation builder (this will make the citations for you):
http://www.easybib.com/

Paraphrasing (from: owl.english.purdue.edu)


A paraphrase is...
your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by
someone else, presented in a new form.
one legitimate way (when accompanied by accurate documentation) to
borrow from a source.
a more detailed restatement than a summary, which focuses concisely on a
single main idea.
Paraphrasing is a valuable skill because...
it is better than quoting information from an undistinguished passage.
it helps you control the temptation to quote too much.
the mental process required for successful paraphrasing helps you to grasp
the full meaning of the original.
6 Steps to Effective Paraphrasing
1.Reread the original passage until you understand its full meaning.
2.Set the original aside, and write your paraphrase separately.
3.Jot down a few words below your paraphrase to remind you later how you
envision using this material. At the top of the note card, write a key word or
phrase to indicate the subject of your paraphrase.
4.Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version
accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form.
5.Use quotation marks to identify any unique term or phraseology you have
borrowed exactly from the source.
6.Record the source (including the page) so that you can credit it easily if
you decide to incorporate the material into your paper.
Some examples to compare

The original passage:


Students frequently overuse direct quotation in taking
notes, and as a result they overuse quotations in the
final [research] paper. Probably only about 10% of
your final manuscript should appear as directly quoted
matter. Therefore, you should strive to limit the
amount of exact transcribing of source materials while
taking notes. Lester, James D. Writing Research
Papers. 2nd ed. (1976): 46-47.

A legitimate paraphrase:
In research papers students often quote excessively, failing to keep quoted
material down to a desirable level. Since the problem usually originates during
note taking, it is essential to minimize the material recorded verbatim (Lester 4647).
An acceptable summary:
Students should take just a few notes in direct quotation from sources to help
minimize the amount of quoted material in a research paper (Lester 46-47).
A plagiarized version:
Students often use too many direct quotations when they take notes, resulting in
too many of them in the final research paper. In fact, probably only about 10% of

the final copy should consist of directly quoted material. So it is important to limit
the amount of source material copied while taking notes.

You might also like