Academic writing requires the author to support their arguments with reference to other published work or experimental results/findings. A reference system will perform three essential tasks:
Modern Language Association (MLA) style is commonly used in the humanities. Brief parenthetical references are placed in the text to enable readers to find a source in a list of Works Cited. This alphabetical list appears at the end of the work and includes the information necessary to retrieve each source.
About MLA Style
There are two parts to referencing: the citations within the text of your paper and the Works Cited list at the end of your paper.
The aim of the MLA style is to be brief and to provide only as much detail as is necessary to identify the work cited and the location of the information in that work. The flow of the text should not be interrupted.
Use only the surname of the author(s) followed by the page, chapter or section numbers if you need to be specific:
No distinction is made between books, journal articles, internet documents or other formats except for electronic documents that do not provide page numbers. In this case use the paragraph number, if available, with the abbreviation par.
The full details of the source are given in a Works Cited list at the end of the document.
References in the Works Cited list contain all of the information that someone needs to locate your source and are arranged alphabetically by author:
How do I use the MLA Referencing Style?
The MLA style involves two tasks:
In this guide we show how common reference types should look in your reference list along with an example. Immediately following this will be two samples of how that reference should appear as an in-text citation.
Here is an extract showing what In-text Citations look like in the MLA Style:
Adams (377) argues that in her 2005 novel, On Beauty, Smith portrays more the battle within the opposing sides of a liberal campus consciousness, rather than the clash of liberal and conservative.
Here is an example of what a Reference List looks like in the MLA Style. Note the hanging indent.
Works Cited
Adams, Ann Marie. "A Passage to Forster: Zadie Smith's Attempt to 'Only Connect' to Howard's End." Critique, vol.
52, no. 4, 2011, pp. 377- 399.
Altieri, Charles. "Lyrical Ethics and Lyrical Experience." Mapping the Ethical Turn, edited by Todd F. Davis and Kenneth
Womack, Virginia University Press of Virginia, 2001, pp. 30-59.
For more information on creating a Works Cited list using the MLA style, please consult Section 5, p 105 of the MLA Handbook, 9th Edition.
The use of quotations enables the reproduction of original material by another author in the research paper. It is important that accuracy is maintained when using quotations. MLA style suggests that all quotations should be kept as brief as possible. The student should ensure that the original meaning is not altered if integrating quotations into the text.
Short Quotations
For a quotation that is four lines in length or shorter, use quotation marks and incorporate it into the text. If the quotation is formally introduced it should be preceded by a colon. The parenthetical reference for short quotations should be placed in brackets before the full stop.
Shelley thought poets "the unacknowledged legislators of the World" (794).
Shelley held a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World" (794).
Long Quotations
For quotations that exceed four lines in length, the quotation should be set off from the text. It should be typed double spaced on a new line using an indent of one inch from the margin. A colon is generally used to introduce the quotation. The parenthetical reference is placed in brackets after the full stop.
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now
for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed
to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the wreckage
of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and
sob too. (186)
For more detailed examples of quotations in poetry, drama etc. see section p. 100 of the MLA Handbook, 9th Edition.