Using MLA Style

When you write a research paper, you must document your sources. If you do not, you are plagiarizing, which is a serious offense. The purpose of documenting sources is to inform your reader of the exact sources from which you have taken information. To prepare to document, you want to create a works cited page.

Format

• Begin your works cited list on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label works cited (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), which should be centered at the top of the page

• Make the first line of each entry in your list flush left with the margin and subsequent lines in each entry should be indented one-half inch

• Double space all entries, with no skipped spaces between entries

• Alphabetize the list of works cited by the first word in each entry 

Include the following elements in each citation:

Book by One Author
Chevannes, Barry. Rastafari: Roots and Ideology. New York: Syracuse

     University P, 1994.

Book by Two Authors
Blanchard, Ken, and Margret McBride. The One Minute Apology. New York:

     HarperCollins, 2003.

Book by More Than Three Authors
Breuilly, Elizabeth, et al. Religions of the World: The Illustrated Guide to

     Origins, Beliefs, Traditions, & Festivals. New York: Facts on File, Inc.,

     1997.

Book by a Corporate Author
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American

     Psychological Association. 5^th ed. Washington: APA, 2001.

Anthology or Collection
Baldick, Chris, ed. The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales. Oxford: Oxford University

     P, 1992.

One Selection from an Athology or Collection
Larsen, Nella. “Quicksand.” The Norton Anthology of African American

     Literature. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr., et al. New York: W. W. Norton &

     Company, 1997. 1065-1087.

Article in a Professional Journal
Saucier, Maggi G. “Midlife and Beyond: Issues for Aging Women.” Journal of

     Counseling & Development 82.4 (2004) : 420-425.

Article in a Magazine
Grossman, Lev. “Grow Up? Not So Fast.” Time 24 January 2005: 42-54.

Encyclopedia Article
Holzemer, William L. “Nursing Education.” Encyclopedia of Educational

      Reseach. 6^th ed. 1992.

Newspaper Article
Holden, Stephen. “Frank Sinatra Dies at 82: Matchless Stylist of Pop.” New

     York Times 16 May 1998, natl. ed., A1+.

Editorial
“Stepping Backward.” Editorial. Los Angeles Times 4 July 1989: B6.

Published Interview
Zeluto, Thomas. “Interview with Former Budget Director Zia Verges.” Findlay

     Magazine Oct. 2004: 3-7.

Unpublished Interview
Bradsher, Donald. Branch Librarian, Durham Public Libraries. E-mail interview.

     25 Jan. 2005.

A Film
Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. DVD. Universal Studios, 1993

Electronic Sources

On-line Book Available in Print or On-line
Slatkin, Laura M. The Power of Thetis: Allusion and Interpretation in the

     Iliad. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991. 2 Feb. 2005

     <http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu>.

On-line Scholarly Article
Raley, Michael J. “On the Same Basis as the Men: The Campaign to Reinstate

     Women as Messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention, 1885-1918.”

     Journal of Southern Religion 5 Nov. 2004. 2 Feb. 2005

     <http://jsr.fsu.edu/Volume7/Raley1.htm>

On-line Article in a Magazine
Wilde, Stuart. “Whose Beliefs Do You Hold?” InnerSelf 22 Sept. 2004. 3 Feb.

     2005 <http://innerself.com/Commentary/Whose_Beliefs.htm>

An Article in an On-line Encyclopedia, Dictionary, or Other On-line Reference Source
“Zora Neale Hurston.” Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 3^rd ed. 2005. Feb.

     2005. <http://go.grolier.com>

On-line Map
“Afghanistan.” Map. 2002. CNN. 18 June 2002

     <http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/afghan.zoom.html>

Academic Search Premier (electronic database)
Garrigues, Lisa. “Porch Talk: Reading Their Eyes Were Watching God.” English

     Journal Sept. 2003: 21-28. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOHost Databases.

     Piedmont Community College, Roxboro, NC. 4 Feb. 2005

     <http://www.nclive.org>

NetLibrary (electronic database)
Coltrain, Scott. Family Man: Fatherhood, Housework, and Gender Equity. New York: Oxford,

         1996. NetLibrary. OCLC. Piedmont Community Coll. 7 Feb. 2002

      <http://www.netlibrary.com>

Using MLA In-Text Documentation

MLA format follows the author-page method of citation. The author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your works cited list.

The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.

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). 

Work with no author; use an abbreviated version of the work's title. For non-print sources, such as films, TV series, pictures, or other media, or electronic sources, include the name that begins the entry in the works cited page.

An anonymous Wordsworth critic once argued that his poems were too emotional ("Wordsworth Is A Loser" 100).

If the material you quote runs to more than four typed lines, set the quotation apart rom the text by indenting it ten spaces or one inch on the left side and eliminate the quotation marks.

L. J. Ronsivalli offers this graphic analogy of how radiation can penetrate solid object:

One might wonder how an X-ray, a gamma ray, or a cosmic ray can penetrate something as solid as a brick wall or a piece of wood. We can’t see that within the atomic structures of the brick wall and the wood there are spaces for the radiation to enter. If we look at a cloud, we can see its shape, but because distance has made them too small, we can’t see the droplets of moisture out of which the cloud is made. (20-21)

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect quotation. An indirect quotation is a quotation that you found in another source that was quoting from the original. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source.

Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd.in Weisman 259).

To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks and incorporate it into your text. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text.

According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184).

Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or word by using ellipsis marks surrounded by brackets.

In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale [...] and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Sources:
OWL: Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html
Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers (1999)
Successful Writing at Work (2004)