MLA: Quotation, Punctuation, and Citation
Why Use MLA Format?
• Use MLA Format for In-text citations. In
your academic papers, you need
quotations and parenthetical references to
acknowledge words, ideas, and facts you
have taken from outside sources.
Titles:
• Books: Titles of books and novels are
always either underlined or italicized.
Capitalize all main words in the title, words
such as “the,” “on,” etc. are not usually
capitalized unless they occur at the
beginning of the title.
– Exp. The House on Mango Street or
The House on Mango Street
• Chapters: Titles of chapters are always in
quotation marks.
– Exp. “Four Skinny Trees”
Quotations
• Using quotations effectively:
– 1. Use quotations as evidence, as
support, or as further explanation of
what you have written. Quotations are
not substitutes for stating your point in
your own words.
– 2. Use quotations sparingly. Too many
quotations strung together with very little
of your own writing makes a paper look
like a scrapbook of pasted-together
Punctuation of Quotations
– 1. When you introduce a quotation, use
a comma or colon (colons usually are
reserved for longer quotations) before or
after expressions such as: he said, she
asked, Sam wrote, or any other time
that you would normally use a comma.
• Exp. “These quotation lessons are
confusing,” he said.
• Exp. She asked, “Do we really have to
learn this?”
Punctuation of Quotations
• End Punctuation:
– 1. Put periods before the closing
quotation marks if there is no
parenthetical citation. If there is a
parenthetical citation, the period will go
after the citation, not the final quotation
mark.
• Exp. “Mr. Jeffy,” she said, “I do not
like this MLA stuff.”
• Exp. In the novel The House on
Mango Street, written by Sandra
Cisneros, Esperanza says that “those
Quotation Marks
• Use single quotation marks to enclose a
quotation within a quotation.
– Exp. “ ‘Dream Within a Dream’ is my
favorite poem,” he said.
Parenthetical Citation
• Parenthetical means using parenthesis.
A parenthetical citation includes either
the author quoted and the page number,
or just the page number if the author’s
name is stated in the sentence.
– Example sentence with author’s
name included in the sentence:
In Cisneros’ novel The House on
Mango Street Esperanza says: “They
will not know that I have gone away to
come back” (110).
Or:
Punctuation and Parenthetical Citation
• 1. Place closing quotation marks
immediately after the final word quoted.
The parenthetical reference (author and
page number) goes outside the quotation
marks, and there should be a single typed
space between the closing quotation mark
and the parentheses.
• 2. The end of the quotation is not the end
of your sentence—the parenthetical
citation is—so final punctuation should
come only after the parentheses.
Punctuation and Parenthetical Citation
• End punctuation exceptions for Question
Marks and Exclamation Points:
– 1. If the quoted passage ends in a
question mark or an exclamation point,
include the question mark or
exclamation point inside the closing
quotation mark and still place a
closing punctuation mark after the
parentheses at the end of your
sentence.
• Incorrect Example: Esperanza asks,
Works Cited Page
– A Works Cited list comes at the end of
your paper, and includes a list of the
sources from which you have quoted,
summarized, or paraphrased.
– In a Works Cited list at the end of the
paper, give full publication information,
*alphabetized by author.
Example Works Cited
• This is an example Works Cited page for
one book by one author (See Writers Inc.
for other forms on Works Cited
documentation):
Author’s last name, First name. Book
Title. City: Publisher, date.
Works Cited for The House on Mango
Street
Quoting Poetry within a Paper Using MLA
Documentation
• The rules for poetry differ from the rules
for quoting prose in two key ways:
– 1. Poetry requires writers to keep line
breaks intact (together).
– 2. Poetry requires writers to cite line
numbers not page numbers.
Quoting Poetry Within a Paper Using MLA
Documentation
• 1. When you quote a single line of poetry,
write it like other short quotations. Two
lines of poetry can be run in as part of your
text with a slash (/) inserted to indicate the
end of the first line. Leave a space before
and a space after the slash.
– Exp. In his poem, “The Road Not
Taken,” Robert Frost writes, “I took the
one less traveled by, / And that has
made all the difference” (19-20).
Quoting Poetry Within a Paper Using MLA
Documentation
• 2. To cite poetry, use parenthetical citation
similar to that of prose
– If the author’s name is stated in the
sentence, cite only the line numbers in
the parenthetical citation with the final
punctuation following after.
– If the author’s name is not stated in the
sentence, cite the authors last name
and the line numbers of the poem in the
parenthetical citation with the final
punctuation following after.
MLA Makes us Happy!!!!!!!!!
Practice:
1. Using The House on Mango Street,
create a sentence using an introduction
(direct address), a quotation, and proper
MLA Citation using the author’s name in
the introduction to the quotation.
2. Using The House on Mango Street,
create a sentence using an introduction
(direct address), a quotation, and proper
MLA Citation without using the author’s
Practice
• Which of the following sentences is
correctly written for a direct quotation that
includes a parenthetical citation?
– A. Esperanza says “But I think diseases
have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy
finger anyone, just anyone” (Cisneros
59).
– B. Esperanza says, “But I think diseases
have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy
finger anyone, just anyone.” (Cisneros
Practice
• Which of the following sentences is
correctly written for a direct quotation that
does not include a parenthetical citation?
– A. She said, “I am over here”.
– B. She said, “I am over here.”
– C. She said “I am over here.”
Practice
• Which of the following sentences is
correctly written for a direct quotation that
does not include a parenthetical citation?
– A. “I am over here,” she said.
– B. “I am over here”, she said.
– C.”I am over here” she said.