The Writing Process
6 Cite Your Sources
Many of your writing assignments, not just in your English class but in other classes as well, require research. Your teachers will expect you to acknowledge your research sources and will provide instruction in how to do this, using a recognized academic citation method.
It is essential that you acknowledge your sources thoroughly and accurately. If you do not, you may face an accusation of plagiarism. Plagiarism is the failure—deliberately, unknowingly, or carelessly—to signal to your readers that the content of any part of your written work—direct quotes, paraphrases, or summaries—comes from a research source, including an essay purchased online. Plagiarism is a serious form of academic misconduct, usually punished at the minimum by a failing grade.
There are a variety of reputable and widely used citation methods, the method chosen usually dependent upon the academic discipline within which the writer is working. The Modern Language Association of scholars in literature and language designed the MLA method for citing sources. History and philosophy may also use the MLA method. The American Psychological Association developed the APA method for citing sources, widely used in the social sciences, including education. The University of Chicago publishes The Chicago Manual of Style, which provides another citation system widely used in academia.
This chapter provides instruction in the use of the MLA method. It then provides links to instructions in the use of the APA and CMS methods.
The MLA Method
If you are required to use the MLA citation method, you must cite all of your sources twice: first in MLA shorthand in parentheses within the text, and second at the end of the paper in a list called works cited. The in-text parenthetical citation is brief, typically an author’s last name and a page number only.
The works cited list contains the complete bibliographical information for each source, which is all the information readers who want to access the source would require. It is organized alphabetically, by author’s last name, so the parenthetical citation directs readers efficiently to the corresponding entry in the works cited list.
Rules for In-Text Parenthetical Citation
To indicate a direct quote from a secondary source, place quotation marks around the words you are quoting and then put the author’s last name and the page number from the secondary source in which the information can be found. Short direct quotes are integrated into the text of the essay and placed between quotation marks, “so a short direct quote properly acknowledged would look like this” (Author 34). Note the quotation marks around our imagined quote from a secondary source and note that there is not a comma between the author’s last name (“Author,” in our example) and the page number.
If the author’s name is already mentioned in the text, only the page number is placed in parentheses: As Author notes, “only the page number is requ