Purdue the Owl MLA

MLA Workshop

Modern Language Association

How to document effectively so you can:

Safeguard against plagiarism

Share resources accurately

​MLA does not speak Links or URLs.

You must have the information discussed on the previous slide.

When you organize your citation pay particular attention to capitalization, commas, periods etc.

It is very specific and you will be marked down if you have any careless errors.

This page also provides a link to Purdue Owl which is very helpful!!!

​4.1.9 page 5

​4.1.9 page 6 How to Cite a Book

​4.1.9 Page 7 How to Cite a Magazine Article

MLA Guidelines

(Modern Language Association)

Times New Roman
Size 12 even for titles,headings nothing is enlarged
Double spacing for EVERYTHING no extra spaces anywhere
1” margins
½” indentation of paragraphs
No bold, no underlining, no extra spaces between paragraphs or after title or heading
No cover page for projects MLA uses a heading Student Name

Teacher Name

Course

Date

Date is formatted thus: 18 November 2021
Page numbers on every page….. Upper right hand of page

In-text citations (sometimes referred to as parenthetical citations or parentheticals)
Used to acknowledge a quote, or a fact, or statistical information or just knowledge not

commonly known (even if paraphrased or put in your own words)

The requirements are very precise…. One must be very careful…. Do not be careless

Types of sources: Electronic–online

Print– hard copy–books, magazines (periodicals), brochures, pamphlets, etc.

Non print—radio, tv, interview, film

Looks like this: 43% of Americans admit to preferring apple pie over cherry
pie (Jones 16).

If you mention the source in your writing you don’t use the name in the citation.
According to Jones 43% of Americans admit to preferring apple pie over
cherry pie (16).

If your source has no page numbers: The Maryland Blue Crab can live up to three
years (“Blue Crab Information Sheet”).

If you mention the source in your writing and there is no page number, the parenthetical is not
necessary.
According to the “Blue Crab Information Sheet” the Maryland Blue Crab can
live up to three years.

Works Cited

If a source is cited in an in-text citation, it must be on the Works Cited page. If a source is on
your Works Cited page, it must be cited in the paper. The two must justify.

Works Cited is equally sensitive to details. Do not be careless.

Must be alphabetized by first item appearing in citation.

Whatever comes first in the citation (depends on the information available….Author’s last name
always comes first…. .if not available then whatever comes next is what is first.) is what goes in
the in-text citation.

No websites…. Run the URL through an app like Easybib.com or CitationMachine or the one
that is in the Perdue Owl documents. They will format the information from your web address
into the MLA appropriate citation. Then copy and paste onto your Works Cited page.

Double spaced…. EVERYTHING is double spaced. No extra lines between sources, no extra
lines between title and first source. EVERYTHING is double spaced.

First line of each citation starts at the margin. Second and any following lines indent one tab. .

Notice that electronic information must have the draw date. That means the date you accessed it
online.

Web address comes at the end and sometimes it won’t format or indent properly. Don’t stress if
that happens. I will not deduct points for a stubborn web address.

Sample Works Cited to follow….. Please note that I copied and pasted this from Perdue Owl.
I wrote this in Google Drive on my personal account….. Google Drive formats the page to have
extra space between sources…. THIS IS WRONG… DON’T DO THAT!

Note… I just copied and pasted this into a Word Document…. And amazingly….. the spacing
below appears to be right!!!!! Hooray!

Works Cited

Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." The New York Times, 22 May 2007,

www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/science/earth/22ander.html?_r=0. Accessed 29 May 2019.

Ebert, Roger. Review of An Inconvenient Truth, directed by Davis Guggenheim. Ebert Digital LLC,

1 June 2006, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/an-inconvenient-truth-2006. Accessed 15 June 2019.

Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-Organized Extinction: Toward a Co-Evolutionary Economics of

Sustainability." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology, vol. 14,

no. 1, 2007, pp. 27-36.

Harris, Rob, and Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” The New York Times, 17 May

2007, www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/1194817109438/clinton-on-climate-change.html.

Accessed 29 July 2016.

An Inconvenient Truth. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, Paramount, 2006.

When you write your Works Cited page…. Watch it as you go back and make edits in your

paper…. The Works Cited page will float up and down…. Before submission you need to make

sure it is on its own page and starts at the top.

Punctuation of Titles

Italics

Quotation Marks

Basically bigger works

Basically smaller works that fit

inside the bigger works

Books

Chapters, Short Stories, Poems, Essays

Magazines

Article titles

Plays
Movies
Music Albums

Songs

TV Shows, Series

Episode Titles

When typing, use italics for the larger works…. When handwriting, underlining subs for italics.
NEVER BOTH.