WRITING CENTER "INFORMATION PICK-UP" (S.S.C.C.)
MLA CITATION (MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION)
• WHAT IS MLA CITATION?
• HOW IS THE TITLE PAGE DONE?
• EXAMPLE
• WHAT IS MLA CITATION?
Footnotes were superseded by the Modern Language Association of America's system of documentation in 1984. The so-called MLA method of documentation has two main features:
1) At the end of each passage which needs a documented source, the last name of the author and the relevant page number(s) need to be cited in parentheses, with no punctuation between the name and page number.
Example: (Mulderig 88 - 89)
2) At the end of the paper, in the "Works Cited" list, a complete bibliographic entry is provided for each of the in-text citations. This list is alphabetized according to the last names of the cited authors.
Example:
Mulderig, Gerald P. The Heath Guide to Writing the Research Paper.
Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1992/95.
Sebranek, Patrick and Verne Meyer and David Kemper. Writer's Inc.
Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1996.
TREATMENT OF TITLES IN THE WORKS CITED LIST:
* Titles of books, periodicals (newspapers, magazines, and journals) must be underlined and properly capitalized.
Titles of articles must be placed in quotation marks.
For other details, refer to the reference books (e.g. Writer's Inc., the McGraw-Hill Handbook for College Students, or others) available at the Writing Center.
• HOW IS THE TITLE PAGE DONE?
(1" margins)
Student Name (First and then Last)
Professor (First Name, Middle Initial, Last Name)
Course Name
Date (Month, Day, Year)
Title of the Paper (Centered, with the Main Words Capitalized, No Underlining or Quotation Use is Needed Here.)
Text begins. (Use 5 space indentations for each paragraph. Double space all of the text.)
TREATMENT OF LONG QUOTATIONS:
Long quotations more than 4 lines in length are set off from the text--indented 10 spaces from the left margin and typed without quotation marks. "Such a quotation is usually introduced with a colon unless it begins in the middle of a sentence that grammatically continues the sentence that introduces it," according to Mulderig. The parenthetical citation (in-text) follows two spaces after the end
punctuation, for easier readability.
The following then is an excerpt which demonstrates this point:
In the dead night, Frodo lay in a dream without light. Then he saw the young moon rising; under its thin light there loomed before him a black wall of rock, pierced by a dark arch like a great gate. It seemed to Frodo that he was lifted up, and passing over he saw that the rock-wall was a circle of hills, and that within it was a plain, and in the midst of the plain stood a pinnacle of stone, like a vast tower but not made by hands. On its top stood the figure of a man. The moon as it rose seemed to hang for a moment above his head and glistened in his white hair as the wind stirred it. Up from the dark plain below came the crying of fell voices, and the howling of many wolves. (Tolkien 177)
IF THE AUTHOR'S NAME HAS BEEN MENTIONED IN THE TEXT,...:
The in-text parenthetical citation following a quotation in which the original authorial source has been mentioned only needs to mention the page number where the information was found:
Lois Lowry's 1990 Newbery Award Medal Winner Number the Stars describes the sheer terror of the Nazi takeover of Denmark in 1943 and a young heroine's efforts to save her best friend Ellen Rosen, a Jew marked for death. Lowry masterfully leads into the subtle terror of an encounter, "Together the soldiers strolled through the (train) car, glancing at passengers, stopping here and there to ask a question. One of them had something stuck in his teeth; he probed with his tongue and distorted his own face. Annemarie watched with a kind of frightened fascination as the pair approached" (55).
• EXAMPLE
(1" margin from the top)
Works Cited
Lowry, Lois. Number the Stars. New York, New York: Dell Publishing,
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1989.
Mulderig, Gerald P. The Heath Guide to Writing the Research Paper.
Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995.
Murr, Andrew. "The High Cost of Defense." Newsweek. 21 Mar. 1994:
70.
Sebranek, Patrick and Verne Meyer and David Kemper. Writer's Inc.
Lexington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1996.
Tolkien, J. R. R. The Fellowship of the Ring. New York: Ballantine
Books, 1965.
Yeap, Soon Beng. "Ambassador Warns of Korean Dangers." Northwest
Asian Weekly. World Wide Web: http://nwlink.com/~scpnwan.
20 - 26 Apr. 1996. Cover.
Sources: Refer to the MLA-cited list above.
(Revised 1998)