Citations

APA, Chicago/Turabian, CSE, MLA citation style guides

What the heck is MLA style?

"MLA" stands for "Modern Language Association." According to the Modern Language Association, "MLA style is a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. For over half a century, it has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used throughout the world by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses." In high schools and colleges, it is used most often in English and other humanities courses.

For more information about MLA style, visit the MLA Style website.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)

 

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) site is a fairly comprehensive resource for the Modern Language Association's (MLA) style and formatting rules.
Use the left side bar on OWL's page to navigate to the style or other help that you need.

UPDATED TO 9th ed.

MLA Style

MLA Style Introduction

 
MLA Overview and Workshop  
MLA Formatting and Style Guide      MLA Sample Paper
     General Format      MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources
     MLA Formatting and Style Guide      MLA Additional Resources
     MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics      MLA Abbreviations
     MLA Formatting Quotations      MLA Sample Works Cited Page
     MLA Endnotes and Footnotes      MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples
     MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format      MLA PowerPoint Presentation
     MLA Works Cited Page: Books      MLA FAQs
     MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals      MLA Classroom Poster
     MLA Works Cited: Electronic Resources      MLA 8th Edition Changes

Academic Search Complete (along with Business Source Complete, CINAHL, PsycInfo, and other EBSCO databases) will create a citation for you! Look for the "Cite" button to view citations in all the major citation formats.

NOT updated to APA 8th OR MLA 9th editions (as of Nov. 4, 2021).

Citing your sources is an important step in the research and writing process. Choose one of the following to get started:

Documentation style depends on your area of study. For instance, the American Psychological Association (APA) citation style is often used in the social sciences, whereas the Modern Language Association (MLA) style is used in the humanities. Check with your professor to be sure you are using the right style for your papers.

Here's a short overview of citations:

Helpful MLA Online Guides

Parenthetical Citations - A Brief Description

For citing in-text quotations, the basic format is the author's last name and page number within parentheses, for example: Beethoven was considered "unnaturally gifted" in this matter (Sipe 65).

If you reference the author's name within your sentence, you only need to put the page number within parentheses, for example: Sipe argues that theoretical arguments must be "balanced by a historical perspective" (24).

Aside from citing parenthetically, you should also include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper.

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