52 April 17

1. MLA Format:
The Important Things to
Know

2. When you write a paper for a
college course, the professor
will usually tell you to use a
specific format. MLA is one of
those formats.

3. MLA stands for:
Modern
Language
Association
MLA format is usually used for
English papers. All your papers in
English 1A must be in MLA format.

4. Another common format is APA,
which stands for:
American
Psychological
Association
When you write papers for
psychology, sociology or
anthropology courses, you will
probably be required to use APA
format.

5. MLA and APA are two
different ways to do the same
thing:

6. When you report on research,
you must explain where you
got your information, so that

7. your reader can check to see if
you are right.

8. On the last page of your paper,
you list all your sources of
information. In APA format, this
page is titled “References.”
In MLA format, this is called your
“Works Cited” page.

9. Click on “Sample Paper in MLA
Format.” Scroll down to the last
page to look at the example of a
“Works Cited” page.

10. Then, in the body of
your paper, you
provide in-text
citations.

11. Scroll up to look at the
paper about cell
phones.

12. The in-text citations show
the reader where to look for
the source on your “Works
Cited” list.

13. The important thing is to
make it easy for your reader
to find the source on the
“Works Cited” list.

14. For this reason, your in-text
citation must begin with the
same words that begin your
entry on the “Works Cited”
list.

15. Now we will look at some basic
models for the entries on your
“Works Cited” list.

16. Here is the model for a
book:

17. Last Name, First Name.
Title of Book. Publisher,
Publication Date.

18. You will find this
information inside
the title page.

19. Turn over the title page and
find the copyright
information on the other
side.
The copyright information
for a book is always on the
back side of the title page.

20. Now let’s use the MLA model
to prepare the entry for a
“Works Cited” page:

21. Levitin, Daniel J. A Field Guide to
Lies: Critical Thinking in the
Information Age. Viking,
2017.

22. Here is the model for an article
or essay from a collection. You
would use this model to cite a
reading from our text,
Sourcework:

23. Carr, Nicholas. "Does the
Internet Make You
Dumber?" Sourcework:
Academic Writing from
Sources, edited by Nancy
E. Dollahite and Jule Haun,
Heinle/Cengage Learning,
2012, pp. 196-198.

24. If the author of an article is
not given, begin with the
title instead:

25. Sourcework: Academic
Writing from Sources,
edited by Nancy E.
Dollahite and Jule Haun,
Heinle/Cengage
Learning, 2012, pp..

26. Tips to remember:
*Copy the punctuation exactly.
*If information is missing, leave
it out and go on to the next
thing.

27. Notice that:
*All dates are in MLA format.
*If you don’t know the author, you
omit it and go to the title.

28. In-text citations

29. Look at the body of the paper about
cell phones.
When the writer quotes or
paraphrases another writer, you see
words or numbers in parentheses.
These are the in-text citations.

30. You must provide the last
name of the author and the
page number.

31. If you have already
mentioned the author’s
name, you only need the
page number in
parentheses.

32. The purpose of the in-text
citation is to let your reader
find the source quickly on
the “Works Cited” page.

33. Therefore, your in-text
citation must give the
same words that begin the
entry in the “Works Cited.”

34. If the author’s name is not
given, cite the title instead.

35. When do you need to cite?
*any direct quotation

36. *Any idea that you got from another
author, even if you paraphrase it in
your own words.
*Any figures or statistics.

37. If you paraphrase
another author,
provide a citation!

38. If you use another author’s
exact words,
use quotation marks and
provide a citation!