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MLA Style Guide

Format for Citing Sources in a Research Paper in Literatary Criticism

The Works Cited section appears at the end of your paper and lists all the research materials you have used. Notice that the first line of each source is indented 1 cm; the second and following lines are flush with the left-hand margin.

Left-hand margin

First-line indent

Works Cited

BOOK BY ONE AUTHOR

BOOK BY TWO OR THREE AUTHORS

BOOK BY THREE OR MORE AUTHORS

AN EDITED BOOK

BOOK BY A CORPORATE AUTHOR

REFERENCE BOOK ARTICLE (encyclopedia)

WEEKLY MAGAZINE ARTICLE

MONTHLY MAGAZINE ARTICLE

JOURNAL ARTICLE

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE

COMPUTER SOFTWARE

ONLINE INFORMATION SERVICE*

E-MAIL, ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION LISTS, MOOS*

WEB SITE*

FTP DOWNLOAD*

*NOTE: Electronic reference formats are recommended as "best practice." The formats suggested follow the basic format of the MLA Style Sheet and are endorsed by the Alliance for Computers and Writing. Analogous to traditional references, the purpose of an electronic citation is to provide enough information that the reader can locate your electronic sources and verify their authenticity. The basic components are: Author's Last Name, Author’s First Name. "Title of Work." Title of Complete Work. [protocol and address] [path] (date of message, e-journal publication or document, last update of web page, copyright date or date of your access. Be sure you specify which date(s) you are listing).

Intext/Parenthetical References - MLA Style

Below are several examples of how sources are documented in the text of the research paper. It is important to document in the text, sources of quotations, ideas or the paraphrasing of parts of an author's work. This documentation is usually known as "intext or parenthetical references". In the MLA format the intext references are keyed to the Works Cited at the end of the paper where they appear in complete bibliographical form. Refer to the examples of "works cited" above.

Functions of parenthetical references within a paper:

1. Parenthetical references signal places in your paper where you have paraphrased, summarized, or quoted material from another source. (Failing to do so constitutes plagiarism, a serious violation that can have serious consequences: a failing grade, for example.)
2. They say exactly where that material is located in the source.
3. They give information enabling a reader to find the source in the list of references that appears at the end of your paper. (This list is called Works Cited in MLA documentation style.)

Some Examples:

A typical example of an intext reference consists of the author's last name and a page number. Note that the parenthetical references appear before end punctuation.

If the author's name or the title of the work is stated in the text, do not include it in the parenthetical reference.

Quotations run in with the text. Parenthetical references appear after the quotation but before the terminal punctuation.

Question marks or other punctuation which are not part of the quotation go after the parenthetical reference.

However, if the question mark or other punctuation is part of the quote, it remains inside the quotation marks.

For detailed instructions and additional information about the MLA Style, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 3rd ed. New York: MLA, 1988, The Holt Handbook, 3rd ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1992 or the Simon and Schuster Handbook for Writers, 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1990.

Adapted from various web-based style guides following MLA style recommendations.

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