How to Use MLA

Format
 MLA Documentation

You must become familiar with avoiding plagiarism by employing the

following:
• Paraphrases: provided in your own words; the same length as the
original source
• Summaries: provided in your own words; approximately
1/ 3 the size of the original source.
• Direct quotations: word-for-word citation from a source

Our next challenge is to accurately document these sources employing

two methods:
• Parenthetical citations
• A works cited entry
 Parenthetical Citations

Definition A parenthetical citation

indicates the author’s
surname and page number
of the document.

Note However, there will be

special cases covered in
this lesson.
 Works Cited Page

Definition A works cited page is an

alphabetized list of entries
from which quoted material
is drawn. Each entry
corresponds directly to the
parenthetical citations in a
paper.
 It’s as easy as 1-2-3
The first step is to introduce the subject of the
quotation with a signal phrase.  Remember to discuss
written or artistic works in the present tense.
Note: The three dots, or
ellipsis, means that I have
not quoted the entire
sentence.

Marilyn Sachs in her article “Male/Female

Communication Styles” states, “. . . we spend 70
percent of our awake time communicating, and 30
percent of our communication is talking.”
 Step 2
 Second, make sure that you include parenthetical
citations when required. For example, if the
former quote had been from a text that included
page numbers, we would have put those page Note: Page 78; period
numbers in parenthesis: goes OUTSIDE closing
parenthesis.

Marilyn Sachs in her article “Male/Female

Communication Styles” states, “. . . we spend 70
percent of our awake time communicating, and 30
percent of our communication is talking” (78).
 Step 3
 Finally, discuss the quotation and the subject in
some depth and by offering insight:

Marilyn Sachs in her article “Male/Female

Communication Styles” states, “. . . we spend 70
percent of our awake time communicating, and
30 percent of our communication is talking” (78).
Obviously then, good communication between
the sexes needs to be established if people are
to gain better understanding of one another.
 Transitions
 If you intend to use signal phrases, try
these verbs (besides “says” or “states”):
argues asserts notes
points out declaresrecognizes
affirms insists acknowledges
determines establishes

AND THERE ARE MANY MORE!

 Weaving

 But wait, using signal phrases IS NOT

the only way to integrate quotations. We
can “weave” a quotation:
We many take communication for
granted, but fail to realize that “we spend
70 percent of our awake time
communicating, and 30 percent of our
communication is talking” (Sachs 78).
 Note

 In the last slide, we kept the “w” in the quoted

“we” lowercase because it is part of the
sentence that goes before it.

 Additionally, we use both the name and the

page number in parenthesis, as the author
was not introduced in a signal phrase. Think
about it, if you had just used the page number,
the reader would not know who you were
quoting.
 One last possibility . . . Full
Sentence Introductions
 Introducing a quotation with a full
sentence preceding it:
Many people take communication for
granted because they are unaware of
just how much of out time we spending
simply talking to each other: “We spend
70 percent of our awake time
communicating, and 30 percent of our
communication is talking” (Sachs 78).
 Practice I
You are citing only one work by the author. Provide the
author’s name with a signal phrase:

Author: Ron McFarland

Quote: Over the decades Hemingway's life, legend,

and writing have also inspired responses from poets
whose work offers a curious mix of contributions to the
myth as well as an informal sub-genre of criticism.

Source: “Hemingway and the Poets,” which appeared

in The Hemingway Review, volume 20 (Spring 2001),
pp. 33-45. This quote is from page 39.
 Practice 2
Do not use the name of the author for this magazine
article in your lead-in sentence:

Author: Mike Harrold

Quote: Scientists disagree about the importance of

various causes and potential impacts of the warming
trend.

Source: Entry on “Global Warming” in Nature Magazine,

April 2001. This quote is from page 42.
 Answers
1. Ron McFarland states, “Over the decades Hemingway's
life, legend, and writing have also inspired responses
from poets whose work offers a curious mix of
contributions to the myth as well as an informal sub-
genre of criticism” (39).

2. Though our environment may be suffering from the

consequences of the Greenhouse Effect, “scientists
disagree about the importance of various causes and
potential impacts of the warming trend” (Harrold 42).
 Complicated Examples
So far we have learned about the most basic
forms of citing our research and creating
parenthetical citations. The practice exercises,
too, involved citing the author’s name and the
page number from which the quotation was
taken. But as you advance your research
methods, more complicated citation styles will
become necessary. In the next slides we will
examine some of the more common ones.
 Two or Three Authors

Rule For two to three authors, use all of the

authors’ surnames in a phrase or in
parentheses.

Example
Gortner, Hebrun, and Nicolson maintain
that "opinion leaders“ influence other
people in an organization because they
are respected, not because they hold
high positions (175).
 Organization As Author

Rule For an organization as an author, provide

the full name of a corporate author or a
shortened form of it in a phrase or in
parentheses.

Example Any study of social welfare involves a close

analysis of "the impacts, the benefits, and the
costs" of its policies (Social Research
Corporation iii).
 Unknown Author

Rule If the author is not known or is

unnamed, use the full title, if it is brief, in
your text—or a shortened version of the
title in parentheses.

Example One analysis notes that “Hype is an

artificially engendered atmosphere of
hysteria" ("Today’s Marketplace” 51).
 Indirect Source

Rule When citing a quotation within the work you

intend to quote, use the abbreviation “qtd. in:” to
indicate that you are quoting from someone
else’s report of a conversation, interview, letter,
etc.

As Arthur Miller said, "When somebody is

Example
destroyed everybody finally contributes to it,
but in Willy’s case, the end product would be
virtually the same“ (qtd. in Martin and Meyer
375).
 Multivolume Work

Rule In a parenthetical citation, note the volume

number first and then the page number(s), with
a colon and one space between them.

Example “Modernist writers prized experimentation and

gradually even sought to blur the line between
poetry and prose,” according to Forster (3:150).
 Easybib Tutorial
Using one of the practice examples in this
slideshow, I have created a tutorial to show how
to enter information at Easybib.com to generate
a Works Cited page entry.

Tutorial