English 1301 - 1302
MLA Style:
Citing
Research
What we will learn today
Our goal today is to learn how to:

Correctly format your essay

Create in text citations for sources

Develop a work cited page
What does MLA mean?
Modern Language Association
The style recommended by the association for preparing scholarly manuscripts and
student research papers concerns itself with the mechanics of writing, such as
punctuation, quotation, and documentation of sources. MLA style has been
widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for nearly
half a century.
MLA guidelines are also currently used by over 125 scholarly and literary
journals, newsletters, and magazines with circulations over one thousand; by
hundreds of smaller periodicals; and by many university and commercial
presses. MLA style is commonly followed not only in the United States but in
Canada and other countries as well; Japanese translations of the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers appeared in 1980, 1984, and 1988,
and a Chinese translation was published in 1990.
In a 1991 article on style manuals, Booklist cited MLA documentation style as
one of the "big three," along with the guidelines published by the American
Psychological Association and the University of Chicago Press.
What spacing does MLA require for a
paper?
Double spaced through out the paper
How are pages number in MLA?
In the top right on each page (first page is
optional) with the author’s last name followed
by the page number
Castro 1
How is the header set up for a paper
requiring MLA format?
Student’s name, instructor’s name, course title
and number, date – Flush left
Example:
Joe Student
T. Castro
English 1302
15 September 2007
Sample of first page in MLA style
Student 1
Joe Student
T. Castro
English 1302
15 September 2007
Paper Title
Ready go
What is a parenthetical citation?
An acknowledgement of the original source and
a reference to that source on the work citied
page.
Where should you place a
parenthetical citation?
Immediately after the quote or paraphrase
Sample parenthetical citation

Author’s name in the sentence
- Wordsworth stated that romantic poetry was marked by a
“spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Author’s name not in the sentence
- Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth
extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process
(263).
Sample parenthetical citations

No author:
- If the work you are making reference to has no author, use
and abbreviated version of the work’s title. For non-print
sources such as films, TV series, pictures or other media, or
electronic sources, include the name that begins the entry in
the work cited page.
- An anonymous Wordsworth critic once argued that his poems
were to emotional (“Wordsworth is a loser” 100).
Citing a Film or Video Recording
A film entry usually begins with the title,
underlined, and includes the director, the
distributor and the year of release. You may
include other data that seem pertinent-such
as names of the writer, performers, and
producer-between the title and the distributor.
Citing a Film or Video Recording
 Examples:
It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart,
Donna Reed, Lionel Barry, and Dennis Mitchell. RKO, 1964.
 To Cite a video cassette or DVD:
Alcohol Use and Its Medical Consequenses: A Comprehensive
Teaching Program for Biomedical Education. Prod. Project
Cork, Dartmouth Medical School. Slide Program. MilnerFenwick, 1982
Where should the MLA work cited page
be placed?
At the end of the essay on a separate page.
Example:
Castro 1
Work Cited
How should the MLA work cited page
be organized?
Alphabetically, by author’s last name
Axle, T
Brown, M
Smith, J.
(or by title if no author is known)
On the work cited page what do three
hyphens indicate?
A work by the same author as the one listed in
the above entry
Example:
King, Stephen. Black House. New York: Random, 2001.
--- From a Buick 8; A Novel, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
Sample of work cited page
Regular Book with Two Authors
Zwerdling, Alex, and Richard Voorhees. Orwell and the Left. New Haven: Yale
UP, 1974.
Regular Book with One Author. Publisher's Imprint
Klier, Barbara. Education Reflecting Our Society. Information Plus Reference
Ser. Detroit: Gale, 2000.
Book Online
Millay, Edna St. Vincent. Second April. New York: Mitchell Kennerley,
1921. Carnegie Mellon University Hillman Library. 12 May 1997
<http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/mmbt/www/women/millay/sabog.html>.
Samples continued
Poem, Short Story, or Play in a Collection or Anthology
Chekhov, Anton. The Cherry Orchard. Trans. Avraham Yarmolinsky. Norton
Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed. Maynard Mack. 4th ed. Vol. 2. New
York: Norton, 1979. 1192-1230.
Book from an Online Database
Harris, Jim. Getting Employees to Fall in Love with Your Company. New York:
AMACOM, 1996. NetLibrary. Richland Coll. Lib., Dallas. 25 Oct. 2001
<http://www.netlibrary.com>.
Where can you find help?

S.F Writer

Writing Center located in the library

On-line MLA resource
(http://www.northharriscollege.com/28273/)

Ask your instructor
What did you learn today?

Today you learned how to:
Correctly format your essay

Create in-text citations for sources

Develop the Work cited page