Formatting and Citing Guide for MLA Essays

Fall 2016
What is MLA?
Formatting
 Smith 1

Judy Smith
Sample First Page
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!

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 Referencing
Borrowed
Medieval Europe was a place both of raids,
Material In-text
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).
Works Cited Page
 Smith 15
Sample Works
Works Cited Cited Page
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.
 Relationship: In-text Citation and Works Cited
Smith 15
Smith 7
Works Cited
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two
worlds: the world of the everyday . . . And the world
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.
of romance. Although the two lovers are part of the
world of romance, their language of love nevertheless
Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000. Project
becomes fully responsive to the tang of actuality
(Zender 138, 141).
Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
OR
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855. The Walt

Whitman Archive. Edited by Ed Folsom and Kenneth M.

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two
worlds: the world of the everyday, associated with
Price, www.whitmanarchive.org.
the adults in the play, and the world of romance,
associated with the two lovers (Zender 138). Romeo
Zender, Karl F. Loving Shakespeares Lovers: Character
and Juliets language of love nevertheless becomes
fully responsive to the tang of actuality (141).
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 ,
Template for
8 Publication date , 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 Citation template

Citation:
Copeland, Edward. Money. The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen,
edited by Copland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997,
Visual: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/ 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-artist-
and-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.