MLA Format / Citing Songs and Poems

MLA

Composing Your Essay

​& Citing Poems or Songs

MLA

• MLA stands for Modern Language Association.

• Why do we need MLA?

• Help curious readers retrace your research steps.

• Help you build credibility and be more likely to win your argument.

• Give credit to the people who’ve done the work you want to talk about.

• Allow you to avoid a charge of plagiarism.

MLA Formatting

• All MLA essays must be:

• Double-spaced

• Times New Roman

• Font Size 12

• 1" Margins

Multiple Choice

Is it okay to use a different font to make your essay look fancy?

• Yes, of course!

• No, absolutely not.

Heading

• Your Name

• Teacher's Name

• Class Name

• Date (Day Month, Year)

Header

• Upper, right-hand corner

• Your Last Name

• Page Number

• Insert page number, then add your last name!

Multiple Choice

The header (top right corner) should include the title of the essay and the page number.

• True

• False

In-Text Citations for Poems and Songs

• Also called parenthetical citations

• Show where you got your information from

• (Author's or Singer's Last Name Line#)

• **Notice there is no comma!**

• Full reference will be on Works Cited page

If the author's name is mentioned in the sentence, you don't need the name in the in-text citation.

Multiple Select

Check all the in-text citations that are correct.

• (Frost, 244)

• (Smith 13)

• (Dean 548)

• (Davis pg. 32)

• (harris 19)

Adding Words

If you add words to a quotation, you must use square brackets to indicate which words are yours!

Omitting Words

If you omit words in a quotation, you must use an ellipsis (...) to indicate where words were taken out.

This is especially useful the longer quotes we pulled from "The Most Dangerous Game."

Multiple Choice

When taking out words in a quote, you should use an ellipsis (...) to indicate.

• True

• False

Works Cited Page

• Last page of your essay

• Entries are alphabetized by author's last name

• ​You won't have to use all these categories for every citation. The title of the container for a song is the album title.

Multiple Choice

What is the correct in-text citation for the following source:

Miranda, Lin Manuel. "Alexander Hamilton." Hamilton: An American Musical. Directed by Thomas Kail, The Public Theater, 21 Apr. 2016, Richard Rodgers Theatre, New York, NY.

• (Miranda, lines 1-2)

• ("Alexander Hamilton", lines 1-2)

• (Miranda 1-2)

• (Lin Manuel Miranda 1-2)

​Example of a song citation

​

Spotify

Taylor, James. “Fire and Rain.” Sweet Baby James, Warner Brothers Records, 1970. Spotify,  open.spotify.com/track/0OPES3Tw5r86O6fudK8gxi.

Online Album

Beyoncé. “Pray You Catch Me.” Lemonade, Parkwood Entertainment, 2016, www.beyonce.com/album/lemonade-visual-album/.

CD

Nirvana. "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Nevermind, Geffen, 1991.