Skip to Main Content

English 101: Citing Sources

Course Guide for Library Resources

Why cite your sources?

Citing sources is an essential part of the writing process for several reasons:

  • Avoid Plagiarism!
  • Give proper credit to other author(s) whose ideas/research influenced your own.
  • Give your readers an opportunity to check out some of the authors that made your work so interesting!
  • Show your reader where your information came from and its' accuracy.
  • Get better grades!

What should you cite?

  • Facts, statistics, figures and other information that you are using and are not common knowledge.
  • Directly quoting someone else's words or ideas that appear in another publication.
  • Sources that need to be cited typically include: books, book chapters, journal articles, websites, audiovisual materials, dissertations, theses etc. 
  • If you are unsure, it's always safer to cite your source!

     Related imageImage result for library book icon transparent background   Image result for library book icon transparent background

NCC Library MLA Handout

Access the NCC Library's MLA Handout here:  

MLA Citation

Welcome to MLA Style

MLA style was created by the Modern Language Association as a set of publication rules, including research papers, in the humanities and liberal arts.

There are two distinct parts to MLA style:

  • In-text citations: The author adds a brief citation within the actual body of the paper.
  • Works Cited page: The more comprehensive citation list at the end of the paper, where complete sourcing information is given to the corresponding in-text citation.

You are required to cite sources that you have quoted, paraphrased, or taken information or ideas from both with in-text citations, and with an entry on the Works Cited page.

MLA Citation Examples

MLA Style utilizes the Author-page format for in-text citations, for example:

Example Author-page format for print sources:

Research has shown that credit card usage has trended upwards during the spring and summer months among American males (Smith 101).

Smith conducted research that showed higher trends of credit card usage among American males during the spring and summer months (101).

Example in-text citation for electronic sources:

Follow the same format for citing electronic sources in-text, use the author if known:

The Las Vegas mass shooter was a chess prodigy in high school. (Palast)

If no author is known, use the title/partial URL of the website for the citation. Do not put the full URL of the website in the text:

The Las Vegas mass shooter was a chess prodigy in high school (nbcnews.com)

 

**Listed above are a few basic examples of common in-text MLA Citations, below are links to some MLA citation guides that will provide further assistance:

Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)-Using MLA format

 

 

 

 

 

 

Below are a few examples of entries for a Works Cited page in MLA style:

 

Example book (one author):

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Book.  Publisher, Publication Date.

McCarthy, Cormac.  Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West.  Vintage, 1992.

 

Example article from a print journal:

 Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article". Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, Pages.

Jones, Pat.  "Political Scandals".  Journal of American Politics, vol. 15, no. 1, 2019, pp. 75-95.

 

Example article from an online database:

Boyle, Michael J. “The War on Terror.” International Affairs, vol. 84, no. 2, 2008, pp. 191–209. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25144761.

**Formatting note: if your citation has more than one line, all subsequent lines need a hanging indent**.

 

For additional assistance and examples on an MLA Works Cited page,the library recommends:

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)-Using MLA Format