MLA Citation Basics: Books

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MLA Citation Basics Books

• Prepared by Pamela Hanford

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Why Use MLA Format? It

• Allows readers to cross-reference your sources
  easily
• Provides consistent format within a discipline
• Gives you credibility as a writer
• Protects you from plagiarism

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Why is using a consistent format important?

• Using a consistent format helps your reader
  understand your writing and the sources its built
  upon.
• It also helps you keep track of your sources as
  you construct your writing.

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Bibliography or Works Cited?

• A bibliography is a list of material which you
  are researching for a project.  A works cited is
  the list of works you have actually quoted in
  your paper.
• Your bibliography or works cited list should
  begin on a separate page from the text of the
  essay. 

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What am I doing in this assignment?

• For your library assignment and report, you are
  creating a Bibliography.
• This is a list of material you are consulting,
  but have not cited in a paper.

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Formatting Basics

• The title of this assignment should be
  "Bibliography" (with no quotation marks or
  underlining), centered at the top of the page.
• You should follow the same rules for margins as
  you did throughout the paper. 

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Formatting Basics, continued

• Entries of the works you have consulted should be
  placed in alphabetical order by author (last name
  first). 
• If no author is listed, alphabetize by the first
  word of the title (book or article). 
• If the first word is The," alphabetize by the
  second word in the title. 

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Formatting Basics, continued

• Double space all entries, with no extra spaces
  between entries. 
• The first line of each entry is flush with the
  left margin. 
• Subsequent lines of each entry are indented 1/2
  inch. 

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Formatting Basics, continued

• When the subsequent lines of each entry are
  indented by ½ inch, this is known as a hanging
  indent.
• When formatted this way, the reader (or
  instructor) can easily scan the left margin and
  find the appropriate entry by author.

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Book with one author -- this is the format

• Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication 
  Publisher, Year of Publication.
• Note the hanging indent, and the position of
  each piece of information. EVERY entry should
  follow this format. Now, here is an example.

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Book with one author -- this is an example

• Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism Four
  Essays. Princeton Princeton UP, 1957.
• See how the information above fits the format in
  the previous slide. Notice that because of the
  hanging indent, the authors name is easy to
  distinguish from other information.

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• Don't use a Hard return and a tab to format! 
• We work at teaching you the proper tools for
  formatting to avoid frustrations and nervous
  breakdowns later in your college career. 
• Therefore, learning to format properly is part of
  your assignment.

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Format your citations with a hanging indent.

• You do this in MSWord by highlighting your entire
  "Works Cited" page,
• selecting "Format," "Paragraph," "Indentation,
  Special" (select "hanging"),
• By (enter ".5")  

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• This is also a good time to format for double
  spacing,
• then your formatting is retained and correct, no
  matter what changes you make to the text
• To do this, highlight your entire document,
  select Format, Paragraph, Spacing, Line
  Spacing, and Double.

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What if you dont want to bother with all of this
formatting?

• Trust me, your instructor will know. Even though
  some students believe they can format just as
  well by hitting an enter and using the tab,
  your instructor will KNOW and cannot give you
  full credit for your assignments.
• Please do her the courtesy of learning quickly,
  and learning well, how to do what she is required
  to teach you to do.

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• Thank you for taking the time to review this
  presentation. You can come back to it any time
  you need a review.
• Taking note of what we are asking you to learn
  here will make your journey through this course
  much easier.
• We would like you to benefit from your journey!