Research Skills
“You have no say in MLA”
Why Cite?
● To give credit where credit is due
● To avoid plagiarism
● To establish your credibility as an author
● To give readers access to the sources you cite
● To provide a consistent format within a discipline
MLA Format
Times New Roman, 12 pt. Font
Double-spaced
1” margins
MLA heading on 1st page only
Top right header
○ Last name, space, page # (Jones 2)
● Centered title
○ Creative, but DO NOT bold, underline, enlarge, or use a
different font or quotation marks
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MLA Heading
Consists of...
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Name
Teacher
Course
Due Date (European style)
Also be sure to…
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Align left
Double space
MLA Sample 1st
Page
Presenting Information
There are 3 different ways to present outside information or facts
in your paper:
● Direct quote
● Summary
● Paraphrase
Direct Quotes
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Writing any series of words, word for word, that are not your own
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Any part of a text can be directly quoted, not just something that is spoken
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Direct quotes demand IMMEDIATE parenthetical citation (either after the quote
itself or at the end of the sentence).
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Direct quotes can never stand alone.
Quotation Parts
● Signal phrase - Using your own words to set up the quotation
○ Speaker’s tag (comma)
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According to Stephanie Bower, “Kids like to read” (Phillips 8)
○ Complete thought (colon)
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He knew he was ground when the cop knocked on the front door: “The
tapping was a commanding rap signaling the death of fun” (Jones 18).
○ Incomplete thought (no punctuation)
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Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings” (Wordsworth 263).
● Quotation
● Parenthetical Citation
Block Quotes
General Notes:
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A quote that takes up 4 or more typed
lines of YOUR ESSAY (not sentences).
Use a complete thought as a signal
phrase.
Double indent the entire quote (1 inch
= Double tab or 10 spaces)
DO NOT use quotation marks.
Continue to use double-spacing.
The end mark goes after the quotation.
Have the parenthetical citation after
the end mark.
Example:
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Golding has Ralph
and the other boys realize the horror of their actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him.
He gave himself up to them now for the first
time on the island; great shuddering spasms
of grief that seemed to wrench his whole
body. His voice rose under the black smoke
before the burning wreckage of the island;
and infected by that emotion, the other little
boys began to shake and sob too. (186)
Ellipses
General Notes:
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Indicates that the original passage has
material that has been omitted.
Ellipses are not necessary at the beginning or
ending of a quotation as you can choose to
begin or end a quote anywhere that makes
grammatical sense.
Use 3 dots when you get rid of a word or a
few words.
Use 4 dots when you get rid of a sentence or
more.
Surround your ellipses with brackets.
Example:
During English class, I learned that
“Shakespeare was born in 1564 [. . . ]
and died in 1616” (Jones 46).
Brackets
General Notes:
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Use brackets when inserting
material into sentence that is not
an original part of the sentence
itself.
Add brackets in sentences where
you need to clarify information.
Examples:
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While reading the newspaper, “he
[unexpectedly] died of shock”
(Kade 83).
While reading the newspaper, “he
[Brian] experienced a minor
stroke” (Miller 72).
Quote Within a Quote
To indicate that you are quoting a
person or a fact that your source
quoted, use “qtd. in” and then cite your
source.
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Female abductees commonly report on being
particularly upset when taken to nurseries to
see these children: “They scared me because
they looked so odd” (qtd. in Jacobs 116).
You can also take care of this issue by
adding the quoted source in your signal
phrase.
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Female abductees commonly report on being
particularly upset when taken to nurseries to
see these children. Barbara Archers, for
example, claims, “They scared me because
they looked so odd” (Jacobs 116).
Summarizing
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Taking ideas from a large passage of another source and condensing them by using your
own words.
Use parenthetical citation.
Original text: Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat
across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that
flowered once for Dutch sailors' eyes--a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby's house, had
once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the
presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with
something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby's wonder when he
first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy's dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that
he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the
dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night. Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It
eluded us then, but that's no matter--to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning----So we beat on, boats
against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past (Fitzgerald 148).
Summary: Gatsby’s failure to win Daisy mirrors American society and the inability of people to achieve the
American Dream (Fitzgerald 148).
Paraphrasing
Using the ideas from another source but changing the phrasing into your own words.
Helpful hints:
● Keep the source out of sight as you paraphrase; this way you will not be tempted
to use any of the sentence patterns or phrases of the original source
● Do not substitute synonyms for some or most of the words in an author’s passage.
This practice will result in plagiarism.
● Use your own sentence structure as well as your own words. Your writing will be
regarded as plagiarized if it resembles the original too closely in sentence
structure as well as in wording.
● Check your text against the original to avoid inadvertent plagiarism.
● Use parenthetical citation.
Paraphrasing Example
Original
Paraphrase
Wheaton North High School is ranked 39th
out of 670 schools within Illinois. Students
have the opportunity to take AP coursework
and exams. The AP participation rate at
Wheaton North High School is 41 percent
(Illinois Board of Education).
Wheaton North High School, home of the
Falcons, is one of the best high schools in
the state of Illinois (Illinois Board of
Education). This honor is greatly attributed
to its successful AP program in which onethird of the student body participates due to
the wide variety of classes offered (Illinois
Board of Education).
Works Cited
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Center the words “Works Cited” at the top of a new page. DO NOT use quotes,
italics, etc.
Pagination continues from the paper itself (the header).
Arrange sources alphabetically by whatever comes 1st in the source.
DO NOT number or bullet your sources.
If the entry goes into more than 1 line, indent (tab one time) all additional lines.
Start the next source citation at the margin.
Still use 1” margins.
Still double space, and do not have additional spaces between entries.
Sample MLA Works Cited
Additional Sources
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Purdue Writing Center
Modern Language Association
Noodle Tools
Easybib.com