Cite It
Give Credit Where It’s Due
It’s essential to credit the sources you use in your research. That’s why there are standardized style guides for in-text citations and lists of references. In this class, you will format your papers and cite your sources in the style of the Modern Language Association (MLA).
See these resources to learn how to use this style.
MLA Format
The MLA format, created by the Modern Language Association, is common in English and the humanities.
Find the handbook at the library or explore the linked websites to learn how to use this style.
Style Guides
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MLA Handbook, 8th Edition, by
Call Number: Ref. 808.027 M6998m8 (On Reserve)ISBN: 9781603292627Publication Date:The Modern Language Association, the authority on research and writing, takes a fresh look at documenting sources in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook.
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MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition, by
Call Number: Ref. 808.02 M72m7 (On Reserve)ISBN: 1603290249Publication Date:The seventh edition of the MLA Handbook is useful for understanding the new eighth edition produced in the spring of .
Links
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MLA Style Homepage
The authority on MLA style and the current edition of the MLA Handbook.
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MLA Formatting & Style Guide
Thorough, user-friendly description of MLA style from the OWL at Purdue.
Example MLA Citation
A sample in-text and bibliographic citation are presented here.
See the style guide for more complete and specific rules. You may also notice that all citations in this research guide are in MLA Style.
In-Text Citation
According to Pamboukian, Kipling’s short stories and novels exhibit a paradoxical mixture of magic and reality, which may be due, in part, to Kipling’s own ambivalence about the supernatural and enthusiasm for new gadgetry
(429).
Note the following:
All of the quoted text is in quotation marks.
The author’s last name is called out in the text.
The page number of the citation appears in parentheses after the closing quotation mark.
If the author’s name were not called out in the text, the name could have been placed in the parentheses next to the page number.
Bibliographic Entry
Pamboukian, Sylvia. Science, Magic and Fraud in the Short Stories of Rudyard Kipling. English Literature in Transition, –, vol. 47, no. 4, , pp. 429–445. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2487/
This is a citation of a journal article. Note the following:
The author’s name appears first, followed by the article title in quotation marks.
The title of the journal is italicized.
Following the title are volume, issue, date, and page numbers.
Following the journal information is the “container,” i.e., where the article is stored—in this case an EBSCOhost database.
Container names are italicized.
The final element is the “location,” where the article can be found.
Often, the location will be a “stable” or “permanent” web address copied from the database. In this example, however, the location is instead a DOI, which is a number permanently linked to a scholarly work.
Generally, a DOI is preferable to a URL.
Citation Websites
Quick Links
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Our research guide dedicated to the different citation styles and how to use them.
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A guide to annotated bibliographies from Cornell University.
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The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects.
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A teachers’ guide to primary sources from the Library of Congress. Explains using primary sources in the classroom.
Find Numbers and Identifiers
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Find the digital object identifier (DOI) for a journal article or book.
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Search book information and bookstore prices by international standard book number.
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Search for journals by title or international standard serial number. Find the ISSN for any journal.
Legal and Government Publications
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A guide to citing government documents, created by the libraries of Indiana University Bloomington.
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An authoritative guide to citing legal documents.
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An introductory guide to legal citation, based on The Bluebook, from Cornell University Law School.