Citing and Quoting
Sources in MLA
Academic Composition I
05/12/14
Discussion Questions
 With your table team, discuss the questions on your
handout.
Three Styles of Citation
 Different styles for different academic disciplines
(1) MLA – Modern Language Association
 Used in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy)
 Most popular in American high school and college.
Example:
The penalty for the crime can be as much
as $100,000 in fines (Beck 30).
Three Styles of Citations
(2) APA – American Psychological Association
 Used in social sciences (psychology, sociology,
education)
Example:
According to a recent article (Fishman, 1995), six thousand
children…
(3) Chicago Style
 Used by book authors.
Why Cite Sources?
 Any information you put in an essay that did not come
from your brain MUST be cited.
 If you don’t, it is considered…
…and you can get in a lot of trouble.
Modern Language
Association (MLA)
 Uses “Parenthetical Citations”
 (Wordsworth 263)
 What do you put in Parenthetical Citations?
Depends on
1. the source medium (print, web, DVD, etc.)
2. the source’s entry on the Works Cited page

The first piece of information on the Works Cited page
goes in the parenthesis
Quiz
1. What are the three citation styles? Which one are you
using for your essay?
 APA, Chicago Style, MLA
2. What kind of citations does MLA use?
 Parenthetical Citations
3. What does the information in your citation depend on?
1. The source medium
2. The source entry on the Works Cited page
In-text citations:
Known Author
 What do the two sentences have in common?
 Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by
“spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).
 Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).
 You need two things in a print source citation:
1. Author’s name
2. Page number information comes from
Citing Non-Print of
Internet Sources
 For written sources you need page numbers.
 Electronic sources use the first item that appears in the
Work Cited entry for this citation.
Park, Madison. "Top 20 most polluted cities in the
world.” CNN. Cable News Network, 8 May 2014.
Web. 12 May 2014. http://edition.cnn.com/
2014/05/08/%20world/asia/india-pollutionwho/
Quiz
1. What two pieces of information go in a parenthetical
citation?
1. If you don’t have an author name, what do you use?
Quiz
3. Make a parenthetical citation for this entry. Page
number is 214
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New
York: Penguin, 1987. Print.
(Gleick 214)
4. Make a parenthetical citation for this entry.
“Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet.” New York
Times. New York Times, 22 May 2007. Web. 25
May 2009
(Executive)
Picking Sources
Print vs. Internet
 Print sources –
Examples
 Newspapers, journals, books
 extensive publication process
 peer reviewed
 fact checkers
Picking Sources
Print vs. Internet
 Internet Sources
 Anyone with a computer can publish information.
 Don’t have editors, fact checkers, etc.
Picking Sources
 Think about:





Author and affiliation
Sources
Bias and special interests
Author qualifications
Publication Information
Quiz
1. When you pick a source, what are two things you
should consider?
2. Why do you need to be careful with internet sources?
Works Cited vs. Bibliography
 What’s are they?
 Come at the end of the essay, on a separate page.
 Bibliography
 Includes all of your sources
 EVERYTHING you looked at for your research, even if it’s
not cited.
 Works Cited
 Only includes sources cited in your paper.
How to Write a Source
 You can look it up and type it by hand, or….
 Citation Machine
 http://www.citationmachine.net/