A Refined List of MLA Citation:

Building Your In Text Citation & Works Cited

 

SOURCE TYPE

WORKS CITED TEMPLATE

WORKS CITED EXAMPLE

IN TEXT

EXAMPLE

Book with 1 Author

Last Name, First Name. Title.  Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication.

Gell-Mann, Murray. The Quark and the Jaguar: Adventures in the Simple and the Complex. New York: Freeman, 1994.

(Gell-Mann  23)

Book with 2 Authors

Last Name, First Name and First Name Last Name. Title.  Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication.

Laplanche, Jean, and Jean-Bertrand Pontalis. Vocabulaire de la Psychanalyse. Paris: PUF, 1973.

(Laplanche and Pontalis  45)

Website

Last Name, First Name.  Title. Date Published. Name of Organization.  Date Accessed.

< http://www.site.edu >.

Latner, Richard B. Crisis at Fort Sumter. 1996. Tulane University. 14 Feb. 1998. <http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/CrisisMain.html>.

If author known:

(Latner  pars. 4) 

 

If author unknown:

(“Crisis” pars. 4)

Online Journal

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name (Year): Number of Paragraphs. Date Accessed.

<http://www.website.org>

Tung, Frank and Steven W. Bowen. "Targeted Inhibition of Hepatitis B Virus Gene Expression: A Gene Therapy Approach." Frontiers in Bioscience 3 (1998): 18 pars. 14 Feb. 1998. <http://www.bioscience.org/1998/ v3/a/tung/a11-15.htm>

(Tung and Bowen  pars. 7)

 

 

pars. = the paragraph where your information came from.

Journal

Last Name, First Name.  “Article Title.”  Journal Title. Volume Number (Date of Publication): Pages Used.

Mason, Richard. “How Things Happen? Divine-Natural Law in Spinoza.” Studia Leibnitiana 28 (1996): 17–36.

(Mason  25)

 

 

Magazine Article

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Magazine Month & Year: Page Number.

Richardson, John. "For Love of Picasso." Vanity Fair Nov. 1997: 128-135.

(Richardson  128)

Newspaper Article

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title” Newspaper Title. Date, edition. Paper Section and Page.

 

Jones, John. “It's a Go for Amistad." New York Times 9 Dec. 1997, first ed.: F7.

Print Version:

(Jones  F7)

 

 

 

Pictures/  Images/ Diagrams

Last Name, First Name.  “Title”. Date of Creation. Source Name. Source Information

Leibowitz, Annie. “Patti Smith” (1983) Rolling Stone. Feb. 2003: 123

(Leibowitz )

Interview, Conducted by You

Person Interviewed. Description of Interaction. Date.

Mary Smith. Personal interview. 28 May 2002.

(Smith  5/28/2002)

Published or Recorded Interview

Interviewer Last Name, First Name.  Description of Interaction. Media Source.  Date.

Devlin, Keith.  Interview with Scott Simon. Weekend Edition - Saturday .  Natl. Public Radio. KUOW, Seattle.  18 May 2002.

(Devlin  5/18/2002)

Film or Video Recording

Title . Director. Medium. Distributor, Year of Release.

Lost In Translation.  Sofia Coppola.  Film. Miramax, 2003.

(“Lost”)

 

 

 

 

 

The Golden Rules of Citation 

 

Citation is the process of giving credit to the sources you used to write your paper.  Creating citations is like learning a new language.  There are different styles and types to use.  For the purpose of Hale’s 10th Grade Academy’s BIO TECH MAGAZINE, we use MLA FORMAT In-Text Citation and a complete Works Cited list at the end of your article.  Here are some guidelines on how to do an In-Text Citation and a Works Cited Page. 

 

Please keep in mind that in order to keep your reader interested, you need to make intelligent choices of either directly quoting a source or paraphrasing a source.  These are the two principal methods of acknowledging the material that you have researched. 

 

THE GOLDEN RULE: If you knew a piece of information before you started doing research, i.e. it is common knowledge, generally you do not need to cite it.  For example, you do not need to cite well-known facts, i.e. dates, which can be found in many encyclopedias.  All other information such as quotations, statistics, and ideas other than your own should always be cited in your papers.

            Example:  You do not need to cite the date of Pearl Harbor but you do need to cite what a Historian claims is significant about that date. 

 

General Formatting for In Text Citation:  Your citations are placed at the end of cited material prior to the period.

Example #1:     “There is an interesting relationship between the simple and the complex” (Gell-Mann  28).  

            Example #2:  Gell-Mann’s theory of a common relationship between quarks and jaguars allows for …. (Gell-Mann  28).

Note:  In example #2, note the use of a SIGNAL PHRASE to tell the reader where the idea came from.  By saying “Gell-Mann’s theory …” you will let the reader know that these are someone else’s ideas.  This is a great technique to use to keep the reader interested.

 

Getting more specific

·        If you are using two or more sources by the same author:

Please use the following method for your citation: 

(Author’s last name  “Article”  page number) ex: (Wade  “Stem Cells”  34) 

·        If you don’t know the authors name, cite the agency or group who wrote the document.

For example:  Harvard’s Committee on Bioethics states that ….    

·        Keep your citation consistent!!!!

 

In Regards to Works Cited List:

·        Make sure that it is Alphabetical by Last Name.  A-Z

·        If an article does not have a Authors name, insert it by the Title of the article.

·        Make sure to include all relevant punctuation.  You will lose credit if it is not adequate.