MLA format (n) the Modern Language Association’s standards for the formatting,
page layout, and use of citations in a research paper. MLA formatting is
widely used in high school and college for English papers.
plagiarism (n) using someone else’s words or ideas without giving proper credit
(or giving any credit at all). Whether intentional or accidental, plagiarism
is a serious offense.
working (n) a list of citations for all the sources that you plan to use while
bibliography writing a research paper. The citations in the working bibliography give
complete, in-depth information about each source used—include the
author, title, publisher, publishing date, and more.
works cited (n) a list, located at the end of a research paper, that lists all of the
page works that were cited within the paper. It is very similar to the working
bibliography, except that any sources that were not actually used in the
paper have been removed.
in-text (n) a brief citation—usually including only the author (or title) of the
citation source and the page number on which the information was found—
located within the text of a research paper. Each in-text citation refers
to a complete citation on the works cited page at the end of the paper.
In-text citations may consist of a signal phrase and/or a
parenthetical citation.
Example: signal phrase (“According to Kenneth Davis”)
identifies a source of information
According to Kenneth Davis, most recent studies show that people whose
parents are addicts are very likely to become addicts themselves (Smith 33).
summarize (v) to condense the content of a passage of writing. When you write a
summary of something, you re-create (in your own words) its main
idea. By definition, a summary is shorter than the original work.