Avoid Plagiarizing: You must cite any direct quotation, summary, or paraphrase of any idea or fact from your research. Citing sources is giving credit to the original author and publication where you found the information. Not citing sources is plagiarism and you may be subject to academic discipline.
Lend Authority to Your Paper: By referencing the work of scholars, professionals, and individuals with lived experiences around a topic, you demonstrate that your own research is based on solid, reliable information and that you are capable of critical thinking by being able to synthesize that research into your own.
Provide a Path: By citing sources, you provide the information that readers of your essay or presentation need in order to locate the same sources that you did.
Acknowledge Other's Work: Part of your research is built upon the research of other people. In the scholarship tradition in the United States, it is considered respectful and fair to give them credit for their hard work (just as you might hope someone would give you credit if they were quoting your own work!)
Include as much of the following as possible:
Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location. Date Accessed.
| Part of the Formula | Examples and Explanation |
|---|---|
| Author. | • one author: Last Name, rest of name as presented in the source. (example: Williams, Fred Laurence.) • two authors: reverse name of first author followed by a comma, then second author’s first name and then last name. (example: Cordell, Barbara, and Jane Buckle.) • more than two authors: reverse the name of the first author, follow with a comma and et al. (example: Browne, Charlene, et al.) |
| Title of Source. | • Put name of source in italics. • HOWEVER, if citing an article or only part of the source, instead put that title in quotation marks with no italics: “Article Name.” |
|
Title of Container, |
• When the source is part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container (example: a whole book is a container for a book chapter) • Put the title of the container in italics (if you have cited an article or part of the whole source container) |
| Contributors, | Example: edited by, |
| Version, | Example: 7th ed., |
| Number, | Any numbered sequence. Example: vol. 3, no. 7 |
| Publisher, | (however, no publisher is required for articles) |
| Publication date, | date as given on source but following this date style: 28 Jan. 2020, |
| Location. |
• Example of website: www.cnn.com (do not include http:// in the URL) |
MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is used in Literature, Arts, and Humanities disciplines. Always consult your assignment or ask your instructor for the correct citation style to use
