MLA Overview

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MLA Overview

• Owens Community College

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Title Page - MLA
MLA does NOT require a separate title page!

• Instead, on the first page of the essay include
• A running header with your last name and page
• Your name, professors name, course, and date
• Assignment title centered over the essay

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MLA Works Cited Page

• The Works Cited page
• Comes at the end of the document lists every
  source (in a particular format) that was
  consulted for the essay
• Is meant to provide enough information so that
  anyone who wanted to find the that source could
  track it down
• Basic information for every source, by order of
  significance, includes but is not limited to
• The author
• Title of the work you used
• Publisher location and company
• Year of publication
• Format (Print or Web)
• Specifics will vary by source type! You must
  consult your handbook (or other resources) for
  help citing various sources correctly.

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Example for a bookMLA Works Cited Examples

• Single author
• Gleick, James. Chaos Making a New Science. New
  York Penguin Books, 1987. Print.
• Authors last name, first name. Title. Publisher
  location Publisher, year published. Format.
• Book with multiple authors
• Gleick, James and Debra Smith. Chaos Making a
  New Science. New York Penguin Books, 1987.
  Print.
• Cite up to 3 authors (only use the last name,
  first name format for the first author), then the
  publisher info, date, page numbers, and format.
• For a book with 4 or more authors, cite the first
  author as usual and follow it with et al.
  (which means and others) to indicate the rest of
  the authors

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MLA Works Cited Examples

• No author?
• GlobalWarming.org. Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007.
  Web. 24 May 2009.
• Cite it as usual, but start with the title since
  there is no author
• Particular essay or story from a collection
• McCovey, Chester. "The Front Porch." The
  Composition of Everyday Life. Ed. John Mauk and
  John Metz. Boston Wadsworth, 2010. 105-107.
  Print.
• Cite the author(s) of the specific source first,
  then the story/essay title, then credit the book
  in which you found it, the editor(s) of the book,
  then the usual information for a book.

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MLA Works Cited Examples

• Electronic source
• Vargas, Paul. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili."
  eHow.com. Web. 10 May 2009 lthttp//www.ehow.com/m
  ake-vegetarian-chili.htmlgt.
• Cite like other sources, but also include Web as
  the format followed by the date you accessed the
  info
• Including the web address is optional

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MLA Work Cited Page Database

• Citing a library database differs from other
  online sources because the database is not
  publicly accessible (i.e., someone is paying for
  the service).
• Therefore, you have to also cite
• The database
• The company that owns the database
• The location from which you accessed it

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Work Cited Page Database

• For instance, if you used Academic Search Premier
  from the Owens Library to find Pat Shipmans
  article The Woof at the Door published in
  American Scientist, the correct citation would
  look like this
• Shipman, Pat "The Woof at the Door." American
  Scientist 97.4 (2009) 286-289. Academic Search
  Premier. EBSCO. Owens Community Coll. Lib. Web.
  12 Oct. 2009.

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Correct Formatting for Titles

• Examples
• The New York Times
• The Atlantic Monthly
• The Composition of Everyday Life
• What Is Education?
• Cruelty, Civility, and Other Weighty Matters

• Italicize titles of long works like books,
  newspapers, magazines, and journals. a
• Use quotation marks for short stories, poems,
  essays, or articles. a

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Works Cited Layout

• Center Works Cited at the top of the page in
  normal font

• Double space
• Alphabetize the list of sources
• Use a hanging indent
• Do not number or bullet entries

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Parenthetical Citation Examples

• For quoted or paraphrased material use
• (authors last name and page )
• Example The advisory board made no mention of
  the report, (Gonzalez 12).
• Tip If you mention the author as you introduce
  the quote, his or her name may be omitted in the
  parenthetical citation.
• Example According to Dr. Gonzalez, The advisory
  board made no mention of the report (12).

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Parenthetical Citation Examples

• To give credit for a summary of someone elses
  ideas use
• (authors last name) OR a reference to the author
  in the writing
• Example Men often use speech to establish social
  position while women talk in order to express
  emotion (Tannen). OR-
• Tannen asserts that men often use speech to
  establish social position while women talk in
  order to express emotion.

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Always Remember

• When using an exact quote, any exact quotes MUST
  be in quotation marks.
• When paraphrasing, you must rephrase the material
  in your own words to avoid plagiarism.
• When you re-word something, quotation marks are
  not necessary, but a citation is still necessary.
• Even when using ideas you got from someone elses
  work, you must credit them!

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When should I cite? If in doubt, ask
Is it my idea?
Yes
NO
Do not cite
Is it common knowledge?
NO
Cite it!
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or else
Another suspected plagiarist is hauled away.
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Useful Websites Sources

• Interactive MLA Tutorial
• Commercial citation tools such as
• Landmark Tool at http//www.citationmachine.net/
• Put all the info in it spits out your citation
• The catch is, you still need to know where to get
  the info and when to use citations.
• Knight Citation
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)