FRESHMAN COMPOSITION, RHETORIC, GRAMMAR II

&

INTRO. TO LITERARY RESEARCH & WRITING

INSTRUCTOR: James Maxfield

Home Contact Instructor Instructor Bio Contents Search

MLA Format
 

bullet

English 0990, 1010, 1020 James Maxfield, Instructor

Introduction—MLA (Modern Language Association)

Format for Essays, Scholarly Articles, and Research & Term Papers

Note: (Page Numbers are only for Eng. 1010 & 1020 students and refer to pages or chapters in your class textbook, Handbook for Writers (Simon & Schuster).) See also pp. 874-76 in Longman book.

Read and refer to Chapter 35 (pp. 561-617) in your Handbook. It is also suggested that you purchase a copy of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition, edited by Joseph Gibaldi.

The following formats are the minimum needed for In-Text and Works Cited citations for your term paper in English 0990 and 1010, and the 1020 research paper:

After a quoted passage, place the author’s last name and page number inside parenthesis and before the period:

Example: . . . . and the boy says that "gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity" (Joyce 79).

If you refer to the same source twice consecutively in the same paragraph, you may omit the author’s name in the second instance and just put the page number, e.g. (79).

Remember to use an In-Text citation even when you are paraphrasing (Maxfield 2).

General Citation Reminders for your Works Cited page: (see pp. 569-576)

List your sources in alphabetical order.

Put the author’s last name first to begin the citation. (for article, see p. 582-83)

Place a period after the author’s first name, then list the title of the "Story," "article," "poem," or book and complete the citation.

If there is an article, poem, or short story, list that first, then list the title of the book. (see pp. 578-79).

For an anthology book, list the book under the Editor’s name as the author. (See pp. 578-79).

Then list the publisher’s information as noted for books or articles or stories. (see variations)

For lecture notes, consult your Handbook. (p. 584)

To cite a film watched in class, see format for visual media citations in Handbook. (p. 584)

To cite sources obtained from the Internet. (See p. 588-91)

Consult Handbook for other situations not listed here.

See sample research paper and Works Cited on pp. 597-617. Your book shows a title page. This is optional. But your research or term paper abstract should be on a separate page and be formatted the same as the first page of your paper. (See Handbook for page layouts)

MLA format allows for either underlining or italicizing your resource titles. But be consistent.

If you used a resource, but did not need to cite it in Works Cited, you may list it at the end under Works Consulted and complete each citation per MLA format.

 

Send mail to james.maxfield@tri-c.edu with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2005 Cuyahoga Community College
Last modified: 04/30/06