Using MLA Format OWLOnline Writing Lab at Purdue And……… Rules of Thumb.

Using MLA FormatUsing MLA Format

OWL—Online Writing Lab at PurdueAnd………

Rules of Thumb

Why Use MLA Format?Why Use MLA Format?

Allows readers to cross-reference your sources easily

Provides consistent format within a discipline (and its logic fits discipline)

Gives you credibility as a writer

Protects you from plagiarism

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Cross-Referencing Your SourcesCross-Referencing Your Sources

Preparing a works cited enables readers to find your original source material.

If they become really interested in some of your sources and want to use them for their own research, they’ll be able to find them.

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Establishing CredibilityEstablishing Credibility

Using MLA style shows that you are trustworthy as a writer. It requires careful attention to detail, which gives you ethos.

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Where Do I Find MLA Format?Where Do I Find MLA Format?

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed.

Rules of Thumb, pp. 140-149 (works cited) pp.136-140 (in-text citation)

www.mla.orgOWL website: owl.english.purdue.edu

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Works Cited PageWorks Cited Page

Lists every source you use in your essay

Gives enough information to allow readers to find your sources

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BookBook

Author (last name, first name). Title. City: Publisher, date. Print.

Byatt, A. S. Babel Tower. New York: Random House, 1996. Print.

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor, 1994. 21-27. Print

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Article in a journal Article in a journal

Ryan, Katy. "Revolutionary Suicide in Toni Morrison's Fiction." African American Review 34 (2000): 389-412. Proquest. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.

Wood, Michael. "Broken Dates: Fiction and the Century." Kenyon Review 22.3 (2000): 50-64. Academic Search Complete. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.

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Magazine (general soruce)Magazine (general soruce)

Miller, Hanna. “Education Gone Awry.” Newsweek 30 Nov. 2007: 30+. Proquest. Web. 10 Oct. 2009.

Blackburn, James. “Bullying on the Playground.” Psychology Today Apr. 2006. Academic Search Complete. Web 10 Oct. 2009.

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Handling Quotes in Your TextHandling Quotes in Your Text

Author’s last name and page number(s) of quote must appear somewhere:

Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” (263).

Handling Parenthetical CitationsHandling Parenthetical Citations

Sometimes more information is necessaryMore than one author with the same last

name(W. Wordsworth 23); (D. Wordsworth 224)

More than one work by the same author(Joyce, Portrait 121); (Joyce, Ulysses 556)

Citing indirect sources (Johnson qtd. in Boswell 250)

If the source has no known author, then use an abbreviated version of the title:Full Title: “California Cigarette Tax Deters Smokers”Citation: (“California” 14)

If the source is only one page in length or is a web page with no apparent pagination:Source: Dave Poland’s “Hot Button” web columnCitation: (Poland) and if you use Poland’s name in sentence, no citation at all.

Handling Long QuotationsHandling Long Quotations

David becomes identified and defined by James Steerforth, a young man with whom David is acquainted from his days at Salem House. Before meeting Steerforth, David accepts Steerforth’s name as an authoritative power:

There was an old door in this playground, on which the boys had a custom of carving their names. . . . In my dread of the end of the vacation and their coming back, I could not read a boy’s name, without inquiring in what tone and with what emphasis he would read, “Take care of him. He bites.” There was one boy—a certain J. Steerforth—who cut his name very deep and very often, who I conceived, would read it in a rather strong voice, and afterwards pull my hair. (Dickens 68)

For Steerforth, naming becomes an act of possession, as well as exploitation. Steerforth names David for his fresh look and innocence, but also uses the name Daisy to exploit David's romantic tendencies (Dyson 122).