ENGL 103: Men, S. (Summer 2025): MLA citations

What Does Citing Mean?

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:

1. 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.
2. The separate Works Cited page lets your reader know, in detail, where that same information came from.

(click on image to enlarge)

Additional MLA Style Guides 

Visit Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL) MLA Style Guide for a sample paper and instructions for citing individual sources such as newspaper articles, scholarly journals and books.

OWL also provides general information about MLA style in an MLA Style Workshop.

Please use the link below to visit TCC's Citation Guide if you are interested in learning more about:

• Why citation is important
• What, when, where and how to cite
• Integrating your research into your writing
• Word tips for creating works cited lists

What Should I Cite?

• Quotes (the exact words or ideas of the author):

“I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats" (Alexie 6).

• Summaries or paraphrases of an author's words or ideas (using the authors ideas, but with your own language):

The narrator, Junior, doesn't draw for pure enjoyment. Looking at a future that is not certain or easy, his cartoons offer him a way to express himself, but more than that, they offer him a way to survive (Alexie 6).

• Data - statistics and other figures:

The Absolutely True Story of a Part-time Indian has been on the Top 10 Most Challenged Books list for the last four years (American Library Association).

• Images, diagrams, maps, etc.:

​Image source: Casy, Rob. Sherman Alexie. 2002.

MLA Style Handouts 

Here are some handouts (in both .docx and .pdf formats) featuring examples of citations for sources you might find through TCC's Library and the Web. This first handout is for the full works cited page. 

Works Cited

In-Text Citations

Citing Social Media