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- Sythe Gold
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MLA Citations
Why did I write this guide?
I got mad at a ripper who ripped part of his guide and rewrote the rest so I decided to make this to help people use Google to get information and then cite it so they are not plagiarizing.
What is MLA?
MLA stands for The Modern Language Association. It basically outlines many things, such as how to cite sources correctly, and how to correctly make a works cited page / bibliography.
What is a Works Cited Page?
A works cited page is a document that you list sources that you used in making your paper. There is a specific way on how you must put the sources down, so that it is easy for someone to look them up later if they want to see your sources.
What is a Bibliography?
It’s basically the same as the works cited, except that instead of listing only the sources that you used in your paper, or essay you list all the sources that you looked at. You may not have used them in writing your paper, but you list them anyways to make a bibliography.
How do I make my works cited page / bibliography?
First you must get the information that you need. If your source is a book, you will need to know things such as the authors name, the publisher, the city it was published in, the year it was published, and the edition and volume if they apply.
For a website, many times you can only get some of the information. You want to get as much as you can. First you need the URL, the name of the website, the name of the page you were on, the author if you can, the date it was published if you can, and the date you went on the site.
There are many more sources that you can use, but I am not going to list them all. You just want to get as much information as you can.
The next step is to make the page. Instead of doing this yourself and messing up, you should the following site. It is VERY good, never makes mistakes and it helps you make a page very quickly. You can even download a word version of the page, which is perfect.
The website is: www.easybib.com.
Now that you have your works cited page you must use inline citations.
For a website, many times you can only get some of the information. You want to get as much as you can. First you need the URL, the name of the website, the name of the page you were on, the author if you can, the date it was published if you can, and the date you went on the site.
There are many more sources that you can use, but I am not going to list them all. You just want to get as much information as you can.
The next step is to make the page. Instead of doing this yourself and messing up, you should the following site. It is VERY good, never makes mistakes and it helps you make a page very quickly. You can even download a word version of the page, which is perfect.
The website is: www.easybib.com.
Now that you have your works cited page you must use inline citations.
What is an inline citation and how do I use it?
If you want to quote another person work word for word you must cite it. If the quote is less than 4 typed lines (Check it in word with size 12 times new roman), then you need to put quotation marks around the entire citation. If it is longer than 4 typed lines you must indent every line of the quotation once but you do not need quotation marks. (If you writing a guide, but a line break to help other tell you are quoting someone) Then, before any punctuation such as a period at the end of a sentence, you must put a citation.
The citation is enclosed in parenthesis, with the authors name first (Unless you specify before in the paper that you are citing this author), and then a comma and a space followed by the page number that you found the quote on. If you are citing a website, I just guess about the page number, which I do not think is entirely correct but my teachers taught me it that way.
Now, if you read a source and take ANY IDEAS, FACTS, OR ANYTHING else that the author writes, and then write it in your own words in your paper you MUST also cite it or it is plagiarism. The rewriting of others work is called paraphrasing. You must not copy their sentence in any way, rearrange it and call it your own, and you may not use most of the same words and change just a few. You must take their ideas and knowledge and write your own sentence about it. That is what paraphrasing is. After you do that, you must also cite it just as you did with the quotations, but you do not need the quotation marks.
For people to find your sources from your citations, they look at the works cited / bibliography page for the author that you put in the citation and use the information you provided to find the source. That is why you need citations and a works cited page / bibliography.
The citation is enclosed in parenthesis, with the authors name first (Unless you specify before in the paper that you are citing this author), and then a comma and a space followed by the page number that you found the quote on. If you are citing a website, I just guess about the page number, which I do not think is entirely correct but my teachers taught me it that way.
Now, if you read a source and take ANY IDEAS, FACTS, OR ANYTHING else that the author writes, and then write it in your own words in your paper you MUST also cite it or it is plagiarism. The rewriting of others work is called paraphrasing. You must not copy their sentence in any way, rearrange it and call it your own, and you may not use most of the same words and change just a few. You must take their ideas and knowledge and write your own sentence about it. That is what paraphrasing is. After you do that, you must also cite it just as you did with the quotations, but you do not need the quotation marks.
For people to find your sources from your citations, they look at the works cited / bibliography page for the author that you put in the citation and use the information you provided to find the source. That is why you need citations and a works cited page / bibliography.
Other Info
If you’re writing a guide, just make a new section and throw in your works cited page, or your bibliography. When you do this, no one can complain you ripped a guide, as long as you did not quote the entire thing.
MLA is very specific. If you do not understand something, I suggest either buying the MLA guide book, which is VERY helpful in school or searching Google. There are many stupid rules, so if you think you are doing it wrong, you most likely are.
I hope you liked my guide. All of this info came from my head, as they drilled it into my head at school. I just checked online to make sure I was saying the right stuff, and I was so I did not cite anything. If you’re just checking if you are right, you do not need to quote, except if you are wrong.
MLA is very specific. If you do not understand something, I suggest either buying the MLA guide book, which is VERY helpful in school or searching Google. There are many stupid rules, so if you think you are doing it wrong, you most likely are.
I hope you liked my guide. All of this info came from my head, as they drilled it into my head at school. I just checked online to make sure I was saying the right stuff, and I was so I did not cite anything. If you’re just checking if you are right, you do not need to quote, except if you are wrong.
