Formatting and Citing Guide for MLA Essays

Fall 2016

What is MLA?

Formatting

Smith 1
Judy Smith
Professor Moore

English 1301
16 November 2009
Technology Today

In todays society, technology has become an important part

of our everyday lives. It is an essential component in all we do. Cell
phones in particular have moved from the status of a luxury to a

necessity for communication with work and family. Not only can
we use cell phones to talk with friends and family, they also allow
us to check e-mail and access the internet on the go!

Sample First Page

Using Sources
Must represent outside sources fairly
Outside information must be cited
Direct quote
Paraphrase

Summary

Reference in text and on Works Cited page

References must match

Reader must be able to follow

All Borrowed Material Must Be Cited

Direct quotations from a source
Summaries of the sources information
Reduces the original text to 1/3 of original length
Expressed entirely in your own words and sentence structure

Paraphrases of the sources information

Used for short passages
Leaves out none of the original material
Expressed entirely in your own words and sentence structure

Using Direct Quotations

Use direct quotes when:
When language is especially vivid or expressive
When exact wording is needed for technical accuracy
When it is important to let the debaters of an issue explain
their position in their own words
When the words of an expert lend weight to an argument
When the language of a source is the topic of your
discussion

Smith 8
Medieval Europe was a place both of raids,
pillages, slavery, and extortion and of traveling
merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not cities,
and active markets in grain (Townsend 10).

Between 1968 and 1988, television coverage of

presidential elections changed dramatically (Hallin
5).

Referencing
Borrowed
Material In-text

Works Cited Page

Smith 15
Works Cited
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.
Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000.
Project Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary History,
1883-1924. Ohio State UP, 2008.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855. The Walt
Whitman Archive. Edited by Ed Folsom and Kenneth
M. Price. www.whitmanarchive.org.

Sample Works
Cited Page

Relationship: In-text Citation and Works Cited

Smith 15

Smith 7
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two
worlds: the world of the everyday . . . And the world
of romance. Although the two lovers are part of the
world of romance, their language of love nevertheless
becomes fully responsive to the tang of actuality
(Zender 138, 141).
OR
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two
worlds: the world of the everyday, associated with
the adults in the play, and the world of romance,
associated with the two lovers (Zender 138). Romeo
and Juliets language of love nevertheless becomes
fully responsive to the tang of actuality (141).

Works Cited
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.

Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000. Project

Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855. The Walt
Whitman Archive. Edited by Ed Folsom and Kenneth M.
Price, www.whitmanarchive.org.
Zender, Karl F. Loving Shakespeares Lovers: Character
Growth in Romeo and Juliet. Approaches to Teaching

Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Edited by Maurice

Hunt, MLA, 2000. pp. 137-43.

How Do I Cite
My Sources on
My Works
Cited Page?
Practice template:
https://style.mla.org/files/2016/
04/practice-template.pdf

Visual: https://style.mla.org/teaching-resources/

1 Author.
2 Title of source .
CONTAINER 1

3 Title of container ,
4 Other contributors ,
5 Version ,
6 Number ,
7 Publisher ,

8 Publication date ,

Template for
Citations

9 Location .
CONTAINER 2

3 Title of container ,
4 Other contributors ,
5 Version ,
6 Number ,
7 Publisher ,
8 Publication date ,
9 Location .
Visual: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/

Containers

Visual: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/

Citation template

Citation:
Copeland, Edward. Money. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen,
edited by Copland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997,
pp.131-48.

Sample Works Cited Entries

Journal:
Baron, Naomi S. Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital communication
Media. PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.

Online:
Deresiewicz, William. The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the Creative
Entrepreneur. The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014,
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artistand-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/.

Sample Works Cited Entries

Article with DOI:
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema. Postmodern Culture, vol.
10, no. 3, May 2000. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.

Any
Questions?

Works Cited
MLA Handbook. Eighth Edition. The Modern Language Association of
America, 2016.