SMARTHINKING Writer's Handbook

Chapter 3, Lesson 14: Section 1

Documentation: MLA Style

Introduction

You'll probably be asked to use the Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting style when you're writing papers for English courses or courses in the Humanities. If you are not sure whether you should use this format, check with your instructor.

MLA style guidelines cover two basic areas: document format and citation format. In this lesson, we'll discuss both. Document format specifies issues such as margins, spacing, and formatting of page numbers. Citation format covers how to give credit to your sources any time that you summarize, paraphrase, or quote information that came from someone other than you.

The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th edition) is available widely for purchase. It is very likely that your campus bookstore has copies for sale. Both this book and the bigger MLA Style Handbook are also available in most libraries' reference sections. Ask your reference librarian to help you find them. If you are taking a composition class or even a literature class, your textbook may have a section on MLA format as well.

Every style guide has its own particular rules and guidelines. In this lesson, we will review specific rules for use of MLA documentation. For help with APA documentation, see Documentation: APA Style.

Formatting your paper using MLA Style

First Page Format

Unless your instructor has specifically asked for one, don't use a title page. Instead, at the top left of your first page type the following:

Each of these should appear on its own line, and the lines should be double-spaced. On the next line (double-spaced), center your title. Do not place your own title in italics or quotation marks. If your title contains the names of other works, use appropriate punctuation (italics, quotation marks, etc.) for the other work(s).

Headers and Page Numbers

Every page except the first page of your paper should have a header at the top right corner, one-half inch from the top edge of the paper. This header should contain your last name followed by a space and then the page number.

Spacing and Indentations

Your paper should be double-spaced throughout. Do not use the "Enter" key to double-space! It will make a mess of things when you add or change something in the paper. The paper should have one-inch margins on all sides. You'll need two tab settings, one for paragraph indentation and another (deeper) one for indented quotations.

Format of Source Titles

When you include a title of a short work like a newspaper or magazine article, an article on a website, a chapter in a book, a poem from a collection of poetry, an episode of a television show, or a song off a CD either in your text or on your works cited page, you should encase it in quotation marks.

When you include a title of a longer work like an entire newspaper or magazine, a whole website, a book, a complete collection of poetry, a television show, a CD, or a film either in your text or on your works cited page, you should underline or italicize it. It doesn't matter which of these two formats you use as long as you choose one and use it consistently throughout your paper.

Here are a couple of examples that might help you to visualize the correct way to format different types of sources titles: A startling headline on the front page of USA Today declared "Strategy That Is Making Iraq Safer Was Snubbed for Years."

Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing contains a fascinating article written by Harvey Mansfield called "The Manliness of Men."

"And Maggie Makes Three," a particularly compelling episode of Fox's hit sitcom The Simpsons, demonstrates the strength of Homer's commitment to his family.

My favorite song on Wilco's new CD entitled Sky Blue Sky is "Either Way."

Format of the Works Cited Page

When you have finished your paper, create a new page. In Microsoft Word, a new page can be created by pressing the "Ctrl" key and the "Enter" key simultaneously. At the top of a separate page at the end of your paper, type the centered words Works Cited. Do not underline, italicize, or place quotation marks around these words.

Create a hanging indent format. The hanging indent format will indent all but the first line of each of the entries on your Works Cited page. Using this format makes it easier for a reader to scan the page in order to find the author (or title) s/he's looking for.

Like the rest of the paper, the Works Cited section should be double-spaced throughout, and it should have the header and continue with the page number(s).

Citation Format

To identify a source properly, it must be identified in two places:

• within your paper, just at the spot where you refer to or quote that source. This is called a "citation"
• at the end of the paper on a separate page or pages, in a bibliography. This is called the "Works Cited" page in MLA lingo

Using Sources in the Text

The in-text citation gives your reader the essential clues he/she needs to locate more complete information about the source in your Works Cited page. There are several ways to get the essential clues in the text of your paper without interrupting the point you are making too much. MLA format prefers that you introduce your source with a signal phrase to help accomplish this.

Signal Phrase

The signal phrase indicates that something borrowed from a source is about to be used. This phrase prepares your reader for a reference to material from a source, and it serves as a brief introduction to that source. Here's an example:

Hairston, Ruszkiewicz, and Friend encourage readers not to think of their work as "a collection of dusty rules" (3).

This idea was found in a book written by three people; therefore, their names are used to signal that the information that follows is an idea they created and that, in this case, a direct piece of their text is being placed in the sentence.

The signal phrase should make your reader aware of the source's author or authors (if no author is available, refer to the title). When you are mentioning an author for the first time in the essay, give the first as well as last name. Subsequent in-text citations should use only the last name.

Parenthetical Citation

In addition to using a signal phrase to introduce your source, you must usually include a parenthetical citation at the end of the quotation or paraphrase of that source. If your signal phrase has already identified the author or title of the work you are referring to, you can include only the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence. MLA style does not use "p." or "pp." before the page number(s).

Sometimes, using a signal phrase simply doesn't work well. In such cases, it's okay to place the author's name before the page number in the parenthetical citation. Here's an example:

Sometimes, teachers will shy away from teaching literature toward a goal of aesthetic reading because it is nearly impossible to measure accurately a student's personal responses to literature (Cline 96).

Notice that there is no punctuation between the author's name and the page number in MLA format. Notice also that the period comes after the citation.

Here are some special cases to note:

• if no author is available for a work: Use a shortened version of the work's title in the parenthetical reference. An article with the lengthy title, "Education is Top Priority in the Senate this Year" could be shortened to "Education is Top Priority" in the in-text citations
• if the work has one to three authors: List the authors in the order in which they appear on the work's title page, for example, (Stegner, Keats, and Bailey 145) or (Carver and Allen 112)
• if a work has more than three authors: List only the first author, followed by the italicized term "et al." Here is an example: (Carver et al. 371). Don't forget to place a period after "al," since it is an abbreviation of a Latin word

The example of a parenthetical citation given above refers to a paraphrase of Cline's work. But suppose you want to use a quotation instead of a paraphrase? The format varies depending on the length and type of quotation you are using.

Format for short quotations

Quotations fewer than four lines long are usually incorporated into your own sentences and paragraphs without the need for separate formatting.

The main character in Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden says: "We lived simple lives. We lived good lives. We lived in dignity" (28).

In addition to using a colon or a comma to separate the quotation from your writing, you can often incorporate a short quotation directly into your own sentence.

The main character in Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised You a Rose Garden believes that she and her friends "lived simple lives" (28).

Notice that the period goes after the closing parenthetical mark while the closing quotation marks go before the parentheses.

When you incorporate a quotation into your own text this way, be sure that the signal phrase and the quotation make a complete and coherent sentence.

Format for long quotations

Quotations that are longer than four lines of text should be block-quoted. That means they should be indented two tabs from the left margin. Here's an example:

Notice that:

• the parenthetical citation goes after the final period of a blocked quotation
• no quotation marks are used around a blocked quotation

Quotations from poetry and song lyrics

When you are quoting poetry, it's important to identify where each line ends. If you are including a short quotation within your sentence, use a slash (/) to indicate where a line breaks:

In his misery, King Lear exclaims, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is/ To have a thankless child" (King Lear III.iii. 23-24).

Notice that in addition to using the slash to show the line break, the first word of the new line is capitalized because it is traditionally capitalized in poetry.

If you want to quote more than four lines of a poem or song lyrics, block-quote the lines and cite them as you would for prose with one exception: retain the original line endings in the blocked quotation.

Formatting the Works Cited Page

The list of works cited includes all works actually referred to within the essay only. Here are some basic rules.

The list of works cited:

• appears on a separate page at the end of the essay
• lists each work actually cited in the paper in alphabetical order by author's last name
• gives author(s), title, and publication information for each work
• is titled Works Cited
• uses a "hanging indent" for each entry
• abbreviates "University" and "Press" to U and P

What you put in a citation is determined by what type of source you're citing. For example, you would include different information for a personal web page citation than you would for a novel written by one author. We'll include some examples here, but we can't include an example of every possible citation type. A good MLA style guide should give you examples of a wider range of citation types (see the introduction for more information about where to find such a guide).

Note: Sometimes you may need to combine formats for two or more separate types of sources in order to identify a source properly. Suppose, for instance, that you were citing an advertisement that appears on a professional website. You'd need to combine the formats for advertisements and professional websites to create the appropriate format for this entry.

Citation examples -- books

Citation examples -- articles

Citation examples -- electronic source

Citation examples -- miscellaneous

The sample citation formats given above should help you get an idea of what information MLA documentation requires and how it should be presented. But this is by no means a complete list of formats. There is an infinite variety of source types! Consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or the MLA Style Handbook (both in your school library) for information not included here.

Summary and illustrations

Remember that most citations occur in two places: in the text of the paper at the spot where you've inserted the borrowed information and on your Works Cited page, in a list of those sources to which you have referred.

In the text of your paper

At this spot, MLA usually requires a parenthetical citation. This will often include the last name of the author(s) followed by a page number. Of course, there are variations. If the author's name has been given in the paper, you don't need to repeat it in the parenthetical citation. And then again, not all sources give authors and page numbers. In those cases, you simply give enough information in the signal phrase so that the reader can locate the source's entry on the Works Cited page.

An example might make all of this a bit clearer, so let's take a look at what a typical paragraph from a paper using MLA documentation might look like.

At the end of your paper, on a separate page, you'll need to include a list of sources to which you have referred in your paper. Here's what our Works Cited page for the sample paragraph above would look like:

When using MLA style, remember to do the following:

• identify your sources using signal phrases and parenthetical citations
• include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper that gives full bibliographical information for every work that has been cited in your paper
• double-space everything: your text, the text of quotations, and the entries on the Works Cited page
• use page numbers (but not p.) in parenthetical citations rather than dates