Name:
Date:
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MLA Conventions
The paper must:
 be double spaced with one (1) inch margins all around
 be typed in Times New Roman font size 12
 have a proper heading on the first page and your last name and page number in the top
right corner (no title page is necessary)
 include a Works Cited page (also double spaced in alphabetical order)
 use internal, or parenthetical, in-text citations
Internal, or parenthetical, citations are used to show where you have borrowed information,
ideas, or quotes from another source. Any words that are lifted from another source must be
cited or it is considered stealing (and you will fail).
The citation should include the first part in the Works Cited citation [usually the author’s last
name] and the page number of the cited material. These two should be separated only by a space.
Examples:
Direct Quotation: When talking to Oedipus, Teiresias states, “you are the land’s pollution”
(Sophocles 390).
Paraphrase: After Teiresias tells Oedipus that he is the land’s pollution, Oedipus gets angry
(Sophocles 390-392).
________________________________________________________________________
Important!!—Do not leave “floating quotes.” Each direct quote you add to your paper, be it
from the play or from your outside source, needs to be integrated into the sentence.
Incorrect: The student body is an important factor in a great school. “The students make
all the difference in creating a great school atmosphere” (Jodon 136).
Correct: In her groundbreaking book Why MTHS is Awesome, Jodon notes that “the
students make all the difference in creating a great school atmosphere” (136).
Correct: Having a cooperative student body is an important part of hosting awesome
school events, as “the students make all the difference in creating a great school
atmosphere” (Jodon 136).
Punctuating Citations and Quotes:
In general, the punctuation for in-text citations should come after the parenthesis.

When talking to Oedipus, Teiresias states, “you are the land’s pollution” (Sophocles 390).
The exceptions come with question marks or exclamation points, which stay in the quotes:

When provoked by Oedipus, Teiresias calmly replies, “Shall I say more to tempt your anger
more?” (Sophocles 408) The blind man can see that one of Oedipus’ flaws is anger.
When you quote one or two lines from a poem, a song, or a verse play (like Oedipus the King),
run the lines into your own text and enclose them in quotation marks. If you use two lines,
separate them with a slash (/) surrounded by space.
Sophocles makes Oedipus’ character flaw of arrogance very clear in Scene II of the play when
Oedipus states to Teiresias, “Do you imagine you can always talk / like this, and live to laugh at
it hereafter?” (413-414)
When you quote more than four lines of text or three lines of a poem, you must format it as a
block quote, meaning that the entire quote starts on its own line, every line indented half an inch.
When Teiresias tries to tell Oedipus that he is the killer, he does so in very clear terms:
Yes? Then I warn you faithfully to keep
the letter of your proclamation and
from this day forth to speak no word of greeting
to these nor me; you are the land’s pollution (Sophocles 387-390).
Ellipses and Brackets
Sometimes you may need to alter the quote to suit your needs. Please do this carefully so as not
to change the meaning—look for quotes that naturally fit in with your paper.
Ellipsis points are used to show where information has been omitted:


"The boys ran to school, forgetting their lunches and books. Even though they were out
of breath, they made it on time."
"The boys ran to school. . . . Even though they were out of breath, they made it on time."
Do not use ellipses at the beginning or ending of quotations, unless it's important for the reader
to know that the quotation was truncated.
For example, you would NOT need an ellipsis in either of these situations:


"The Writing Center is located on the UNC campus . . ."
The Writing Center " . . . serves the entire UNC community."
Brackets are used sparingly to alter a word or phrase within a quote for clarity or flow. Often
they are used to fix pronoun or verb tense usage (example 1) or to add information with which
the reader may not be familiar (example 2).
Ex 1: Suppose you were quoting a woman who, when asked about her experiences immigrating
to the United States, commented "nobody understood me." You might write:
Esther Hansen felt that when she came to the United States "nobody understood [her]."
Ex 2: The President noted that "We completely revised our political strategies after the
strike [of 1934]."
Exercise A:
Examine each of the following pairs carefully. Indicate the passage that handles MLA in-text
citations correctly and briefly explain what is wrong with the citation in the other passage.
1) _____
a. In "Death and Justice," Edward Koch, former mayor of New York City argues
that "life is precious, and . . . the death penalty helps to affirm this fact (857)."
b. In "Death and Justice," Edward Koch, former mayor of New York City, argues
that "life is precious, and . . . the death penalty helps to affirm this fact" (857).
2) ______
a. “Arguing about whether nontraditional families deserve pity or tolerance is a little
like the medieval debate about left-handedness as a mark of the devil"
(Kingsolver 168).
b. Kingsolver points out that "arguing about whether nontraditional families deserve
pity or tolerance is a little like the medieval debate about left-handedness as a
mark of the devil" (168).
3) ______
a. "There is a Chinese word for the female, which is slave, " writes Maxine Hong
Kingston (191). "Break the women with their own tongues!" (191). She means
that since women had no other word to use to refer to themselves than one
meaning slave, they eventually lost any sense of dignity and independence they
might once have had.
b. "There is a Chinese word for the female, which is slave," writes Maxine Kingston.
"Break the women with their own tongues!" She means that since women had no
other word to use to refer to themselves than one meaning slave, they eventually
lost any sense of dignity and independence they might once have had (191).
Exercise B:
Using the information set below, write correct parenthetical citations for each example. Note:
remember where the punctuation goes!!
Information Set:
Donaldson, Sam. Bantering on Watergate. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.
Jennings, Peter. Pushing the Limits of Political Journalism. Washington: Greater Politics
Press, 1994.
Joyce, James. Ulysses. New York: Vantage International, 1934.
Xavier, Jason. Somewhere in the Political Realm. New York: Ballantine, 2002.
1) The character was most concerned that the General “spoke to us in German and then left
us behind” (
)
--from Donaldson's Bantering on Watergate, page 45
2) “I never thought of myself as proud,” says Jennings in his book Pushing the Limits of
Political Journalism (
)
--This source was located on page 107.
3) The quotes “enraged is how he felt after the episode” perfectly captures the feeling of
rage experienced by the candidates (
)
--From Jason Xavier's book Somewhere in the Political Realm, page 233.
4) This thought brings forth the Victorian tradition previously mentioned of the lovers’
coded floral communiqué. With this in mind, Bloom
read the letter again, murmuring here and there a word. Angry tulips with you
darling manflower punish your cactus if you don’t please poor forget-me-nots
how I long violets to dear roses when we soon anemone meet all naughty
nightstalk wife Martha’s perfume (
--From Joyce’s Ulysses, page 87
)