MLA Citation - Quick Reference Guide

Formatting Entries on a Works Cited List

Dowling, John E. The Great Brain Debate: Nature or Nurture? Princeton University Press, 2011. 

"What You Need to Know about Rock Snot." Outdoor Canada, 12 Aug. 2012, 

www.outdoorcanada.ca/what-you-need-to-know-about-didymo

Formatting In-text Citations

When: Every time you use a piece of information or an image from a source, even when you put that information into your own words.

Where: At the end of the sentence where you stop taking information from a source or at the end of the paragraph if all the information in the paragraph came from the same source. For images, cite directly underneath the image.

How: Five easy steps:

1. Find the entry for the source on the Works Cited page.
2. Take the first information that the reader sees for that entry (usually the author’s last name or the "title of the article"). E.g. Dowling E.g. "What You Need to Know About Rock Snot"
3. Add the page number if there is one. If not, leave it off. E.g. Dowling 35
4. Put the whole citation between round brackets. E.g. (Dowling 35)

Checklist

• Use a new page.
• There is a header on every page :right corner - your last name + page number
• Title: Works Cited. Centre the title
• List sources in alphabetical order
• When using the title to alphabetize entries, ignore words like “A”, “An” or “The” if they are the first words in the title.
• Use hanging indentation: start the first line of each entry at the left margin. Indent by five spaces each subsequent line.
• Double-space the list.
• Use “quotation marks” for titles of articles.
• Include the URL for websites.
• Leave out http:// for web addresses.
• Include the date accessed for web articles from websites.

Works Cited - Examples of Other Common Sources

Citing Images From the Internet - Citation is not Enough

What is the difference? 

When you want to use an image created by someone else, you must check to make sure you have the right to use that image. If you do not, find another image. It is not enough just to cite the source.

How can you tell whether you have the right to use an image? 

In Google, when you do an image search, click on Tools then select Usage Rights. Select “Creative Commons Licenses”. Any images that appear are yours to use as long as you cite them. If you cannot find anything you like, drop by the LLC and ask for help.

How do you cite an image? 

Go to the site that uses the image (not just the browser results page). Collect as much of the following information about the image as you can: 

Creator’s name. “Title of image.” Website. Image copyright holder, publication date, URL. Accessed date. 

In-text citation: Put this directly under the image where you use it in your paper. 

Example - Image with no identifiable creator: “Mindful or Mind Full?” Mindfulness. Mindfulness Now, 27 May 2016, www.mindfulness.org/mindfulmindfull/. Accessed 12 Sept. 2016.

Quotation Marks and Block Quotation

When: Every time you use the same wording as your source for even just a few consecutive words.

How to use quotation marks: 

Put quotation marks around the words taken from your source even if you have borrowed only a few words. Put the in-text citation after the second quotation mark but before the period. 

• Example 1 - Putting information into your own words entirely (citation needed but no quotation marks): Swiss researchers have concluded that mindfulness based therapy can be of benefit both to patients suffering from clinical problems and to those who are suffering for less clearly defined reasons (Grossman 35).
• Example 2 - Quoting an entire sentence from your source (citation AND quotation marks needed): According to Max Bothwell, a researcher with Environment Canada, “Rock snot was first confirmed in Canada on Vancouver Island in 1988, but has likely been here long before that” (Bothwell 7).
• Example 3 - Using a few significant words from your source (citation AND quotation marks needed): In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch discourages physical confrontation, saying that it is best to fight with “your head(s) high and your fists down” (Lee 184).

How to use a block quotation: If you are quoting something that takes up four lines or more in your paper, start the quotation on a new line and indent the entire quotation on both sides of the page by 5 spaces. The block quotation should be single-spaced. Do not use quotation marks. Put the in-text citation at the end of the quotation. Note: the period is placed before the in-text citation in a long quotation.

Example: Half a century ago, in 1969, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau acknowledged Canada’s responsibility to protect the environment of the Arctic:

 Canada regards herself as responsible to all mankind for the peculiar ecological balance that now exists so precariously in the water, ice and land areas of the Arctic Archipelago. We do not doubt for a moment that the rest of the world would find us at fault, and hold us liable, should we fail to ensure adequate protection of that environment from pollution or artificial deterioration. (“The Right to a Healthy Environment: Revitalizing Canada’s Constitution”) 

With his use of the term “liable”, Trudeau was suggesting that Canada has an actual legal responsibility to all other countries to protect the Arctic from the effects of human activity.

September 2020 - Adapted from MLA Handbook Eighth Edition. The Modern Language Association of America, 2016.