HIST 214: Sandin, J. (Fall 2024): Citing your sources in MLA
Citing in MLA style
After you gather information from outside resources to add to your own ideas about a topic, you will quote, paraphrase, or summarize those sources within the body of your paper.
Citing allows you to share with your readers where you got your information so that they can verify what you've written or follow up on an interesting idea, and it protects you from any charges of plagiarism.
There are two parts to an MLA citation:
- The in-text citation lets your reader know, briefly, where the source information in your paper came from. Usually, this includes the author(s) and page number.
- The separate Works Cited page lets your reader know, in detail, where that same information came from.
How to create in-text and works-cited citations in MLA
Watch this short video (3 mins, 38 seconds) to learn how to create both in-text and works-cited citations that adhere to the MLA Style (8th edition).
Purdue OWL guides for MLA style
Purdue OWL Guides: MLA 9th Ed.
- The Purdue OWL: MLA Style Citation GuideThis resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
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