Citations - Retired SP 2020

This guide explains how to set-up an MLA style Works Cited page in Word 2010 step by step.

Click on the link below to open the full document as a PDF.

Direct Quoting - When you are using someone else's exact words.

1. If you are using a quote that is less than 4 lines, enclose the quote in quotation marks and add the author’s name (unless it is already in the sentence) and page numbers in parenthesis.  Place this reference where a pause would occur or at the end of the sentence.  Punctuation marks should be placed after the parenthetical citation. You also will need to add each work from which you cite to your Works Cited page. Here are three examples:

    

   • She asserts, “A lot of what you see on the Internet is the same thing you see everywhere else” (Basch 9).

   • Books about the Internet are “out of date by the time they are published” (Basch 1), and they are never very comprehensive.

   • Basch believes “print is pretty much a losing proposition” (1).

2. If you are using a quote that is more than 4 lines, do not use quotation marks. Instead, put the quote on a new line and indent the whole block approximately 1 inch from the left margin. Keep the quote double-spaced. Remember to add a parenthetical citation and put the work on your Works Cited page.  For example,

She asserts the following:

A lot of what you see on the Internet is the same thing you see everywhere else:  opinion masquerading as fact.  People do not communicate out of an abstract desire to transmit information.  They communicate to achieve a result, to induce action or belief.  In some ways I’d trust a Usenet news posting more than I would a newspaper article.  The article may be better researched, better organized and more complete, but the posting is far more transparently a work of opinion. (Basch 9)

Paraphrasing or Referring to Works - Acknowledging the sources you used in your research.

1. If you mention the author’s name in the paragraph, then just put the page number in parentheses.

   Basch believes that Usenets are not very organized, but are still useful (9).

1. If you do not mention the author’s name, then include the author’s name in parentheses before the page number.

   In a recent book about the Internet, Usenets were championed as being trustworthy (Basch 9).

  Example of In-Text MLA Citation

Adapted from the Citations Guide by the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College Library.