Transcript MLA Style - McCullough Junior High School

MLA Style for Research Papers
(and any other papers you write in
which you use outside sources for
information)
What is MLA Style?
MLA style specifies guidelines for
formatting manuscripts and using the
English language in writing. It is a
standard way of writing, documenting and
citing the sources you use when writing a
paper.
There have been some
recent changes to MLA style,
so pay attention!
Citing a Book
The basic format for citing a book:
Author’s last name, first name. Title of Book. City of
Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Type of
publication.
Example – Book with One Author:
Carré, John. The Tailor of Panama. New York: Alfred A.
Knopf, 1996. Print.
*Punctuation is very important! Follow the guidelines exactly!
Book with more than one author
First author name is written last name first; subsequent
author names are written first name, last name.
Example:
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon
Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.
Book with more than three authors
If there are more than three authors, you may list only
the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the
abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others"; no period
after "et") in place of the other authors' names, or you
may list all the authors in the order in which their names
appear on the title page.
Example:
Smith, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and
Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition.
Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004. Print.
Book with no author
List and alphabetize by the title of the book.
Example:
Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset,
1993. Print.
Citing a Book – Other Special
Circumstances
A Subsequent Edition
Cite the book as you normally would, but add the
number of the edition after the title.
Crowley, Sharon and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for
Contemporary Students. 3rd ed. New York:
Pearson/Longman, 2004. Print.
A Work Prepared by an Editor
Cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor
after the title.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Margaret Smith. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Article in a Reference Book or
Encyclopedia
For entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other
reference works, cite the piece as you would any other
work in a collection but do not include the publisher
information. Also, if the reference book is organized
alphabetically, as most are, don't list the volume or the
page number of the article or item.
Example:
"Ideology." The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd ed.
1997. Print.
Magazine Article
Cite by listing the article's author, putting the title of the
article in quotations marks, and italicizing the periodical
title. Follow with the date and remember to abbreviate
the month.
Basic format:
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month
Year: pages.
Examples:
Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20
Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print.
Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good
Housekeeping Mar. 2006: 143-8. Print.
Newspaper Article
Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine
article, but note the different pagination in a newspaper.
If there is more than one edition available for that date
(as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify
the edition following the date (e.g., 17 May 1987, late
ed.).
Examples:
• Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's
Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007:
LZ01. Print.
• Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." New York Times 21
May 2007 late ed.: A1. Print.
Journals/Scholarly Publications
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume.Issue
(Year): pages. Type of publication.
Examples:
Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of
the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa
Studies in Women's Literature 15.1 (1996): 41-50. Print.
Aldrich, Frederick A. and Margueritte L. Marks. “Wyman
Reed Green, American Biologist.” Bios 23.1 (1952): 2635. Print.
Online Sources
Some General Information
Here are some common features you should try and find
before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Always
include as much information as is available/applicable:
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Author and/or editor names
Name of the database, or title of project, book, article
Any version numbers available
Date of version, revision, or posting
Publisher information
Date you accessed the material
Citing an Entire Website
Basic format:
Name of Site. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of
institution/organization affiliated with the site (sometimes
found in copyright statements). Date you accessed the
site. Type of publication (in this case, Web).
Example:
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The
Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue University.
23 April 2006. Web.
A Page from a Website
For an individual page on a Web site, list the author if
known, followed by the information covered above for
entire Web sites.
"How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow.com. 10 May 2006.
Web.
Online Periodical
(magazine/newspaper)
Online periodicals include both the name of the website
in italics and the website publisher. Note that some sites
will have different names than their print formats, such
as ones that include a domain name like .com or .org. If
no publisher is listed, use N.p. to denote no publisher
name given. Follow with date of publication, Web as
medium of publication, and date of access.
Lubell, Sam. “Of the Sea and Air and Sky.” New York
Times. New York Times, 26 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Dec.
2008.
Cohen, Elizabeth. “Five Ways to Avoid Germs While
Traveling.” CNN.com. CNN, 27 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov.
2008.
Scholarly Journal from an Online
Database
Cite online journal articles from an online database
as you would a print one. Provide the database
name in italics. Library information is no longer
required. List the medium of publication as Web
and end with the date of access.
Berger, James D. and Helmut J. Schmidt.
“Regulation of Macronuclear DNA Content in
Paramecium Tetraurelia.” The Journal of Cell
Biology 76.1 (1978): 116-126. JSTOR. Web. 20
Nov. 2008.
Online Only Publication
For articles that appear in an online-only format
or in databases that do not provide a page
number, use the abbreviation n. pag. for no
pagination. End the citation with the medium of
publication, Web, and the date of access.
Example:
Kessl, Fabian, and Nadia Kutsche. “Rationalities,
Practices, and Resistance in Post-Welfarism. A
Comment on Kevin Stenson.” Social Work &
Society 6.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 10 Oct. 2008.
How to set up your paper
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General Guidelines
Type your paper on a computer and print it out on
standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper,
Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible
font like Times Roman. The font size should be 12 pt.
Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation
marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).
Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides.
Indent the first line of a paragraph one half-inch (five
spaces or press tab once) from the left margin.
Use italics for titles – underlining is no longer accepted
(except in rough draft)
Formatting Your Paper
• Do not make a title page for your paper unless
specifically requested.
• In the upper right corner of the first page, put a proper
heading.
• Double space and center the title. Don't underline your
title or put it in quotation marks; do not use all capital
letters for the title.
• Use quotation marks and italics when referring to other
works in your title, just as you would in your text.
• Double space between the title and the first line of the
text.
• Use inverted indentation in your Works Cited page.
Sample MLA Works Cited Page
Works Cited
Aldrich, Frederick A. and Margueritte L. Marks. “Wyman Reed Green,
American Biologist.” Bios 23.1 (1952): 26-35. Print.
Berger, James D. and Helmut J. Schmidt. “Regulation of
Macronuclear DNA Content in Paramecium Tetraurelia.” The
Journal of Cell Biology 76.1 (1978): 116-126. JSTOR. Web.
20 Nov. 2008.
Carré, John. The Tailor of Panama. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.
Print.
Cohen, Elizabeth. “Five Ways to Avoid Germs While Traveling.”
CNN.com. CNN, 27 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2008.
Kline, Daniel T., ed. Geoffrey Chaucer Online: The Electronic
Canterbury Tales. U of Alaska Anchorage, 30 Jul. 2007.
Web. 2 Dec. 2008.
Lubell, Sam. “Of the Sea and Air and Sky.” New York Times. New
York Times, 26 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2008.
In-Text Citations
In MLA style, referring to the works of others in
your text is done by using what's known as
parenthetical citation. Immediately following a
quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a
source's ideas, you place the author's name
followed by a space and the relevant page
number(s).
Example:
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using
animals" (Burke 3).
Citation and Works Cited Link
Your in-text citation will correspond with an entry in your
Works Cited page, which, for the Burke citation above,
will look something like this:
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on
Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P,
1966.
When can I skip the in-text citation?
You do not need to give sources for
familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or
common knowledge.
An example of common knowledge:
George Washington was the first president
of the United States.
For More Information on MLA Style
Purdue OWL. "MLA Formatting and Style
Guide." The Online Writing Lab at Purdue.
10 May 2008. Purdue University Writing
Lab. 12 May 2008.