MLA FORMAT

Resources, Sample Page, and Citation Examples

Why Do We Cite Our Sources?

Give credit where credit is due
Provide breadcrumb trail of research
Allow audience to look further into your topic
Allow audience or fellow scholars to critique and/or improve your work
Provide validity to your final product
Practice proper formatting for college papers! Making these habits now is
better in the long run.
Hetler, Veronica. hassession8. Power Point presentation. Northside College
Preparatory High School, Chicago, IL. 4 October 2012.

How Do We Cite Our Sources?

MLA Resources
MLA Formatting Purdue OWL
General Formatting (link)
How to Cite an Electronic Sources-

look at ALL the different types of

electronic sources- articles on web
pages, images, whole websites, etc.(link)

MLA Reminders:
For this project , your citations may be web-sites, articles,

electronic images, or videos. Whatever helps you with the

project.

The Works Cited page is a list of ALL sources used.

MLA now requires all citations to include the medium or a

publication marker:

Print books, magazines, journals etc.

Web web-sites (to include images, video, or audio you found on
websites) Please include the URLs!
Television, DVD, MP3, etc. for audio/video sources in tangible or
ITunes form

Sample MLA Page

How To Cite Audio/Video Files

Determine the type of work to cite (e.g., audio recording

or video recording) and cite appropriately.

End the entry with the name of the digital format (e.g.,

MP3, MP4, WAV).

Artists Last Name, First Name. Song Title.
Publishing label, Date of publication/
recording. Format or website address.

Examples of Digital Audio/Video Citations

Beethoven, Ludwig van. Moonlight Sonata. Crownstar,
2006. MP3.
Jhayesteach. Why Study History? N.d. YouTube, 03 Aug.
2010. Web. 19 Sept. 2012. <http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v= vgmNkYUL_Cw>.

How To Cite Electronic Text Sources

Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not every Web
page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as much of the following information as possible
both for your citations and for your research notes:
Author and/or editor names (if available)
Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)
Title of the Website, project, or book in italics. (Remember that some Print publications have Web publications with
slightly different names. They may, for example, include the additional information or otherwise modified information,
like domain names [e.g. .com or .net].)
Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers.
Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
Take note of any page numbers (if available).
Medium of publication.
Date you accessed the material.
URL (if required, or for your own personal reference). IT IS REQUIRED FOR THIS PROJECT!

Sample Electronic Source Citations

Last Name, First Name. Page or Article Title. Web-Site
Name. Institution/Organization Affiliated with Site, date of
resource creation (if available or n.d.). Medium of
Publication. Date of Access. <Link>.
SAMPLE
Gorney, Cynthia. Girl Power in Brazil. National
Geographic. National Geographic Society, 2012. Web. 3
Oct 2012.
<http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/girlpower/gorney-text>.

MLA IN TEXT CITATIONS

How to do it.
In Text Citations The Basics for any source.
Electronic Sources
Begin your direct citation with a quotation mark
End it with a quotation mark too Hi No punctuation
must go inside the quotation mark, unless it is an
exclamation point (!) or a question mark (?).
Put the first name of the Web citation in the
parenthesis after the quotation. This name could be
the authors, the articles, or the films name. The
next item should be a shortened name of the
website.
Periods always go after the parenthesis.
Fake Sample:
Hi (Gutsell, jonescollegeprep.org).

SAMPLE MLA IN TEXT CITATION

Sample:
Regardless of partisanship, the current
electoral system is largely supported
across the country (Beck, BBC News).
If you use an two articles from the same
site, you must use the articles shortened
name in the parenthesis instead.
Regardless of partisanship, the current
electoral system is largely supported
across the country (Beck, Australia
Election).

SPECIAL NOTE: NEVER

CITE A QUOTATION IN
A QUOTATION FOR A
PAPER!

You need to
find the
original
source if
you want to
do that.
You could
misinterpret
or misread
the
information
otherwise!

WHAT ABOUT USING

YOUR OWN WORDS?

PUTTING THE DOCUMENT IN YOUR OWN

WORDS, WITH CITATIONS!
Original Quote:
Regardless of partisanship, the current electoral
system is largely supported across the country
(Beck, BBC News).
If you put the information in your own words, you
should still use in text citations if you know what source
you are directly referring to in the paper! You still do
not end the sentence with a period in that case.
Mandatory voting is still supported across Australia
despite political bickering (Beck, BBC News).

If you feel unsure as to when to add in text

citations after your own words, do it after every
paragraph to show where you received your
source. Do not end a paragraph with a citation. A
paragraph must have a transitioning sentence
linking it to the next paragraph.

SAMPLE IN TEXT CITATION & WITH

YOUR OWN WORDS STYLE
Voting in Australia is a mandatory system,
wherein an individual will be fined if he or
she does not vote. There have been debates
recently to end the system. Regardless of
partisanship, the current electoral system is
largely supported across the country (Beck,
BBC News). Nevertheless, both political
parties, the Liberals and Labors, would face
different results if the system were changed
(Beck, BBC News). However, this situation
could change to due recent events.

MLA WORKS CITIED PAGE

This page always goes

at the end of a paper,
and follows regular
MLA style!