Why and How: MLA citations in
research and report writing
Ask yourself and answer these questions
–
What is a citation?
Why is a citation needed?
When do you need a citation?
CITATION VOCABULARY -what you need to know. What is a(n)
• Article: a piece of nonfiction writing in a newspaper, magazine, or
reference book
• Author: person responsible for the writing of the book or article
• Bibliography: a list of writings with copyright and place of publication (such
as the writings of a single author or the works referred to in preparing a
document etc.)
• Citation: a reference to a book or author when you are using other people's
works (Author, title, publisher, etc.)
• Copyright: represents ownership of ideas. Date of ownership is written as a
year in a publication.
• Encyclopedia: A good place to find general background information on a
person, place or thing.
• Plagiarism: inappropriate use of other people's work. If you copy it and say it
is yours you are plagiarizing. This is illegal and results in a zero grade.
• Place/city of Publication: the city where an item is published
• Publisher: a company that prints materials
• Title: the name of a written, printed, or filmed production. Like the title of a
book
• Works Cited: last page requires author, publisher, copyright date and title
The purpose of this presentation is to introduce
you to the Citation Machine which will be your
best friend throughout high-school and college
writing. It is an electronic – online “Machine”
that allows you to type your citation information
into a form…then WALLA, like magic the
machine creates your correct citation for you.
Then, you simply cut and paste your citation
data from the CMNET webpage onto a word
document where corrections, if needed may be
made.
In a couple of
slides you will be
directed to go to a
different Web site
on the IMC
homepage.
This website is a
really cool place to
complete your
citations for any
project that
requires a
Bibliography,
sources used or a
Citation page
CITATION MACHINE allows you to choose the citation
style needed such as; MLA, APA, Chicago, etc. For AP
and English II – it is MLA 7th
The Citation Machine is an interactive web tool
designed to assist students, teachers, and
independent researchers in their effort to
respect other people's intellectual properties.
To use Citation Machine, you simply... Choose
the citation format you need and then the type
of resource you wish to cite.
Again, we will use the MLA
7th FORMAT
c
WHEN YOU OPEN THE MLA FORMAT
OPTIONS WILL BE GIVEN FOR THE TYPE OF
SOURCE USED: BOOK, ENCYCLOPEDIA,
MAGAZINE, ETC. YOU WILL SELECT THE TYPE
YOU NEED. BOOK FOR A BOOK, ETC.
Next: Complete the Web form that
appears with information you have taken
from your source (fill in the blanks).
Author’s last name, title, etc. When
finished with the information Click Make
Citations. The machine will then generate
standard bibliographic and in-text citations
for you.
A blank form will appear…just fill in the needed information
(like I did above) and submit! Use your real info!
Click 8
The new page that appears will have the proper citation format for you to copy and paste onto a
word document! The citation info from above will look like this when pasted on your document.
PERFECT MLA form!
Schmirler, Leah. North IMC Rocks!. Great Falls: North Middle School, 2008.
LAST EXPLANATION SLIDE BEFORE YOUR
FINAL SLIDE DIRECTION: Make sure you
have your citation information
before you go to the …….
EXAMPLE: Let’s say the following is a paragraph within your
research paper.
Carl Sagan was perhaps one of the most influential scientific minds
that the world has ever experienced. When he learned that stars
were actually extremely distant suns, his world was changed and the
magnitude of the universe opened up to him. Another strong
motivator into science came with his reading of a popular science
fiction book of the time, The Burroughs
Tales. The stories were not extremely sound scientifically, but still
presented ideals of adventure and the unknown. The idea that life
could exist elsewhere in the universe fascinated Sagan and remained
with him for the rest of his life (Eicher)
Notice that the word EICHER is in parenthesis. This is to point the
reader to the appropriate source from which the information was
derived. So, if the reader wants to read the WHOLE QUOTE or ALL
THE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CITE, then he or she simple goes
to the WORKS CITED PAGE (CLICK HERE)
Works Cited
Adler, Jerry. “Unbeliever’s Quest.” Newsweek 31 Mar 1997:64-66.Print.
Broad, William J. “Even in Death, Carl Sagan’s Influence is Still Cosmic.”New York Times
New York Times, 1 Dec 1998. Web. 20 Mar 2008.
“Carl Sagan –Pale Blue Dot.” 2 Apr 2007.YouTube. Web. 7 Mar 2009.
Chyba, Christopher. Telephone interview. 22 Mar. 2009.
Drake, Frank. Personal interview. 5 Mar 2009.
*Eicher,Dave. "CARL SAGAN, 1934-1996.”Astronomy 25.3 (1997): 28. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 3 Mar 2009. ( CLICK HERE )
Harrison, Jane. “Incidental music.“ The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed. Alison Latham.
Oxford Music Online. Web. 14 Dec. 2009
Now that we have looked to see the source of the information(and we know
that the writer paraphrased it from the original source) we want to see EXACTLY
what the author said in the source. So, we can look up that source and know
for ourselves how the researcher interpreted and relayed the given information.
In this case, the article is from a magazine and a digital copy must be purchased
to read the article or a copy of the single article may be requested from the
author. (Click here)
Therefore, I – the reader- know that the information came from this magazine.
And, at this point, if I want to read the whole article, I will take necessary steps
to get a copy.
SO – HOW DO I DO THIS?????? !!!!! ???????
FIRST… find your source
• Let’s say we are writing an informational
research paper about stiff-tailed ducks.
• We write our intro and begin our paper. In our
first paragraph, we reference the following
web page (notice it is an ORG)
http://carolinabirds.org/HTML/WLD_Duck_StiffTail.htm
Here’s what we found on the webpage while researching: on
http://carolinabirds.org/HTML/WLD_Duck_StiffTail.htm
BIRDS of THE WORLD
WATERFOWL of The World
The order Anseriformes contains about 150 living species of birds in three families: the
Anhimidae (the screamers), Anseranatidae (the Magpie Goose), and the Anatidae, which
includes over 140 species of waterfowl, among them the ducks, geese, and swans. All species
in the order are web-footed for efficient swimming and have a large wide bill with a
specialized tongue that allows water to be sucked in the front of the bill. An array of plates
traps food particles as the water is expelled out the sides of the bill. Not all species feed this
way, some graze on plants and some also catch fish. [abstracted from Wikipedia]
Stiff-Tailed Ducks
Order Anseriformes Family Anatidae
The stiff-tailed ducks have stiff tail feathers, which are erected when the bird is at rest. All
have relatively large swollen bills. These are freshwater diving ducks. Their legs are set far
back, making them awkward on land, so they rarely leave the water. Their unusual displays
involve drumming noises from inflatable throat-sacs, head throwing, and erecting short
crests. Plumage sequences are complicated, and aging difficult. [abstracted from Wikipedia]
Genus Biziura - 1 species
So we write the following and add
the source
this is called an in text citation:
Stiff-tailed ducks have stiff, erect tail feathers, that remain erect while the
bird rests. Additionally, all stiff-tailed ducks have relatively large swollen
bills. Interestingly, these ducks are a freshwater diving ducks who, with
their legs set far back on their body (which makes them very awkward
when on land), rarely leave the water ( CITATION NEEDED).
HOW DID WE PRODUCE THIS CITE?
We went to www.citationmachine.net and choose MLA 7th then
Web Document
NEXT- we entered the appropriate information from the web page into the
citationmachine.net formatter….
After we enter the information
we have – click ‘make citation’
What did we get?
• Notice the first entry has a ‘lot’ of information
and the first line is further let than the rest…
this is the WORKS-CITED citation.
• Notice that the second entry is only the name
‘Daniels’ in parenthesis… this is the IN TEXT
Citation.
What do we do with it?
• First, go back to the paragraph we WROTE:
Stiff-tailed ducks have stiff, erect tail feathers, that remain erect while the
bird rests. Additionally, all stiff-tailed ducks have relatively large swollen
bills. Interestingly, these ducks are a freshwater diving ducks who, with
their legs set far back on their body (which makes them very awkward
when on land), rarely leave the water ( CITATION NEEDED).
HERE, we add the IN TEXT citation in the location we marked for a citation
…..very awkward when on land), rarely leave the water (Daniels).
PLEASE KNOW THIS – IF you fail to provide the appropriate in text cites, you
will receive a ZERO because it will be considered plagiarism even IF you
have a works cited page. You MUST GIVE CREDIT to original Authors!
How do we add the
Works Cited Page?
• The last Page(s) of your research paper is the
‘Works Cited’ page. This is the ALPHABETICAL
list (like we saw on the previous slide (*) that
tells the reader EXACTLY where the researcher
obtained their facts.
• To format the Works Cited page, type and
center the words, ‘Works Cited’ at the of the
page (with 1” margins)
THEN…
Copy the information from the TOP BOX on the
Citation machine page and add it to the work
cited page – NOTE it is IMPORTANT to keep
the HANGING INDENT on the first line!:
Daniels, Dick. "Waterfowl of The World ." Carolina
Birds. BIRDS of THE WORLD - An Online Bird Book.
Web. 4 Apr 2013. <http://carolinabirds.org/
HTML/WLD_Duck_StiffTail.htm>.
YOUR works cited page will look like this…..
Works Cited
Crowder, Boyd . "My Duck Dynasty." Crowder Family Duck Farms. Crowder
Duck Dynasty, 04 Apr 2013. Web. 4 Apr 2013.
<www.boydcrowderducks.org>.
Daniels, Dick. "Waterfowl of The World ." Carolina Birds. BIRDS of THE WORLD
- An Online Bird Book. Web. 4 Apr 2013. <http://carolinabirds.org/
HTML/WLD_Duck_StiffTail.htm>.
Givens, Arlow. "Ducks of Harlan County." Kentucky Water Fowl. Rayland
Givens Marshall Publications, 04 Apr 2013. Web. 4 Apr 2013.
NOTICE 2 things about the works Cited page:
1
The references are in ALPHABETICAL ORDER, and
2
They are all in double spaced paragraphs with NO Line spaces between each cite.
CAUTION: When you copy and paste from CM.net, the font may change, you must select ‘all’
font and change it all to NORMAL and the same size and style.
So, how do I complete my research
paper to get 100% of the MLA
Formatting points?
The BEST example of an MLA paper with explanations is found
here
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/library/mla.pdf
And it is copied and included below for review and reference
NOTICE EACH PAGE HAS A HEADER with the Last Name and Page #
So, your final RESEARCH paper
should look like this example
meaning that it should:
•Be Double spaced
•Be in a 10 OR 12 font only
•Times new roman or arial font
only
•Have in-text citations (slide 21)
•Have a works cited page with
hanging indents (slide 24)
•Have each page numbered
correctly (example)
•All pages must have a 1” margin
•The font on all pages must be
the same!