MLA-style Citation

In scholarly writing, it is important to acknowledge, or cite, sources of information. One method to do this has been developed by the Modern Language Association, or MLA. MLA style has evolved over the years, and is now simpler than it used to be.

Any paper using information from other sources will include a mixture of quotations and paraphrasing. Whenever you use another author's exact words, you must put them in quotation marks. If you are not quoting their exact words, you need to be very careful not to paraphrase too closely.

A recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education discusses accusations of improper citation, paraphrasing, and plagiarism against popular historian Steven Ambrose. Ambrose is accused of including passages from several other authors' works, without quotation marks, that are unacceptably close to direct quotes. For example, the article notes the following passage:

According to the Chronicle article, "Mr. Ambrose listed the other author's book in his bibliography but did not credit the author for writing key phrases that appeared in his text" (Flores and Hebel A16).

In a related article, Elliott J. Gorn writes

Ambrose has not exactly hidden his reliance on others' work. His footnotes generally cite the authors from whom he borrows, going so far as to praise their books. Still, a single footnote for several paragraphs of closely cribbed work is thin attribution by historians' standards, and not using quotation marks around others' words is a cardinal sin. [. . .] Not only does his practice violate universally accepted canons of historical scholarship, but most professors would routinely fail any student who so casually adopted it." (Gorn B10)

How could Ambrose have avoided this embarrassing (and costly) mistake?

1. Ambrose could have quoted Childers's words exactly, and specified in his foot- or endnote where the quotation came from (safest, probably best)
2. Ambrose could have paraphrased the passage without using any of Childers's unique phrasing, but still should have acknowledged, via foot- or endnote, Childers as the source of information

Here are a couple of possibilities:

direct quotation	paraphrasing
As Thomas Childers describes it, the planes climbed "Up, up, up, groping through the clouds for what seemed like an eternity. [. . .] No amount of practice could have prepared them for what they encountered. B-24s, glittering like mica, were popping out of the clouds all over the sky."	When they emerged from the clouds after a seemingly endless climb, the pilot and crew were totally unprepared for the sight of B-24s erupting all around them.
A scholarly book might use a footnote to indicate the source, but a popular history such as Ambrose writes would be more likely to have endnotes, where a reader could find details for the source of this quotation.	Notice that, stripped of Childers's memorable phrasing, this passage actually doesn't contain much information!

When to quote, when to paraphrase:

Students should paraphrase much more often than they quote. A major goal of research assignments is to ensure that students can read, understand, and summarize written material. In practice, of course, students like to use quotes because it means they don't have to write as much!

A good rule of thumb is to quote only when the source author's words are truly unique or well expressed. For example, you would not directly quote a statement like "Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, in a log cabin." For one, this kind of information is not unique to one source---it is a fact, available from numerous sources. Plus, there is nothing particular noteworthy about the way it is stated, and thus is not worth quoting exactly.

When you paraphrase, you are summarizing and condensing. Here's a passage from an article, with a several sample summaries:

The parenthetical citations included in the right-hand samples tell the reader that this information comes from someone named Gorn. The reader can then consult the Works Cited page and get the full information about Gorn's article.

Bearing in mind that you should summarize, condense, and paraphrase more often than you quote, there are still times when quoting is appropriate. How does one learn to quote more effectively? Click here for some guidelines.

There are several places on the Internet that show examples of how to format a citation. Here are a few:

MLA-style Citations for ProQuest articles

used for citing articles found online through ProQuest

Microsoft Word Template for an MLA-style Works Cited Page

you need to have MS Word on your computer to open this

MLA Formatting, Using Templates, and Customizing Toolbars

This is a step-by-step guide to setting up Microsoft Word formatting for an MLA-style paper. Works with Word 97 and up.

MLA Workshop Handout

in PDF format; Adobe Acrobat Reader required

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format

from the Online Writing Center at Purdue University

For authoritative information on MLA style, please consult MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., available at 808.027 GIBALDI 2003. There is also a copy at the Reference Desk.