MLA Guidelines for Documenting Sources

When you write a paper, you must acknowledge all material quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from any work. Failing to cite a source, either deliberately or accidentally, is plagiarism: falsely presenting the words or ideas of another writer as your own. In general, you should cite sources whenever your paper includes little-known facts or someone else's opinions. The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6^th ed.) warns,

Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs.  Using another person's ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledging that person's work constitutes intellectual theft.  Passing off another person's ideas, information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud.  (Gibaldi 66)

Use either of the following to document information in your paper:

• Paraphrasing: A paraphrase is a restatement of information in the original source. Word choice, sentence structure, and style must be noticeably different from the original, or your use of the information will constitute plagiarism even when you cite the source.

• Quoting: Any quotations that you use in your paper must be included verbatim -- that is, without changes to either wording or punctuation (see example #7 on the next page for one exception). Enclose short quotations (four or fewer lines) in quotation marks. Long quotations (over four lines) should begin on a new line, and the entire quote should be double-spaced and indented one inch (or ten spaces) from the left margin. Quotation marks should not be added to long quotations.

• After either a paraphrase or a quotation, cite the source with internal documentation. It is not acceptable to simply place one citation at the end of a whole paragraph of borrowed information.

To cite sources internally using MLA format, place the author's last name and the page number within parentheses. If the author's name is already mentioned in your remarks prefacing the paraphrase or quotation, place only the page number in parentheses.

paraphrase:	Xxxxxxxxxxxx (Smith 25). Smith points out that xxxxxxxxxxxx (25).
short quote:	One critic argues, "xxxxxxxxxxxx" (Smith 25). Smith writes, "Xxxxxxxxxxxx" (25).
long quote:	Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx           xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx           xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. (Smith 25)

See the next page for specific examples. More examples can be found in the MLA Handbook and in writers' handbooks such as The Little, Brown Handbook.

All the works you have cited should be listed at the end of your paper. This list includes full bibliographic information for each source. See MLA format for Works Cited list and Sample MLA Works Cited page for more information.

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