ESL 924 Castello: Citing Sources (MLA)

Why Cite?

The point of citation is to give credit to the author of your sources and explain to your professor where you found the information to support the argument of your paper.

Plagiarism is the copying or close imitation of information from a published source.

Plagiarism is not allowed at Cañada College. If a student is caught plagiarizing, he or she could fail the class or even be expelled. To avoid plagiarism you must put quotation marks around information that is directly copied from a source. You must  cite all thoughts, ideas, arguments, research, quotations and obscure facts taken from your sources using a recognized citation format like MLA.

What's MLA? MLA stands for Modern Language Association.

It is a style for writing researching papers and formatting citations.

To avoid plagiarizing, you must cite all published quotations, ideas, arguments, research and obscure facts that you have used to write your paper.

There are two main parts to MLA citation:

1) The in-text citation

2) The works cited page at the end of your paper or project.

When you use sources outside of the library article databases, like articles or websites from the internet, the citation is not usually provided. (Remember: articles from library database include a citation already formatted for you).

This means you will need to form your own citation "from scratch" OR use a citation generator. 

Option 1: Use the MLA Quick Guide (your handout) to create a citation from the beginning

Options 2 & 3: Use the Purdue OWL website or a free citation generator like MyBib.

What's an In-Text Citation?

In your essay, in the text or body of your essay, you need to give very brief citations, call in-text citations, to your readers as they go. These will point your reader to more complete information on your Works Cited page.

In-Text Citations are Easy to Make!

• In-text citations include the last name(s) of the author(s) followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses.
  • For example: Many experts argue that "immigrants at our Southern border deserve fair treatment" (Silver-Sharp 8).
  •  
• If you don't know the author's name, use the first word or words of the title. Follow the same formatting that was used in the Works Cited list. For example, articles are in quotations and book titles are in italics.
  • For example (paraphrasing): Children should never be separated from their parents ("Immigrants" 22).
• When you quote from online sources with out page numbers (like web pages), cite the author's last name(s) only. No page number is necessary. For example:
  • Many experts argue that "immigrants at our Southern border deserve fair treatment" (Silver-Sharp).

 Note: The period goes outside the parenthesis, at the end of your in-text citation.