Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010
When and how to cite sources in your text
MLA style
Citing sources
19.1 When and How to Cite Sources in Your Text
19.1.1 Parenthetical References
19.1.2 Forms of Parenthetical References
19.1.3 Footnotes
19.2 Works Cited
19.2.1 Elements Common to All Bibliographical Entries
19.2.1.1 Author's Name
19.2.1.2 Title
19.2.1.3 Publication Facts
19.2.2 Bibliographical Entries for Periodical Articles
19.2.3 Bibliographical Entries for Reference Works
19.2.4 Bibliographical Entries for Websites and Blogs
19.2.5 Bibliographical Entries for Books
19.2.5.1 Whole Books
19.2.5.2 Parts of Books
This chapter shows you how to use the MLA citation style. In this style, you use parenthetical references to cite every instance in which you use a source. You must also create a bibliographical entry for each source, listing its author, title, and publication data. At the end, you collect these bibliographical entries into an alphabetical list. This list must include every source you mention in your text or in a parenthetical reference. If it includes only sources you specifically cite, it is called a works cited list. That list may also include all sources you consulted in your research, even if you did not cite them in your text. In that case it is called a works consulted list. Ask your teacher which you should use.
How to Use This Chapter
This chapter presents models for the most common kinds of sources. You will find models of bibliographical entries in 19.2. The models are listed by kind of source: articles, reference works, websites and blogs, and books.
1. Find a model.
✵ Find the model that matches your kind of source. For instance, if you need to cite a scholarly journal article in an online database, find the example for “Online Journal.”
✵ Be certain that your source is in the same category as the example. If your source does not match any of the examples in this book, do notguess. Consult a more comprehensive guide, such as the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed. (2009).
2. Match the model.
✵ Create your citation by exactly matching the bibliographical information on your source to each detail in the model, point for point. Make sure that your bibliography entry corresponds to the model in every detail, including capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, and spacing.
✵ If your source has multiple authors, consult the information on authors' names in section 19.2.1.1.
3. Adjust, but only if necessary.
✵ You may make reasonable small adjustments if your source is the same kind as a model but its bibliographic information is slightly different. For example, if the person who put together a book of collected material is called a “compiler” rather than an editor, you may use the form for an edited volume and use the word “compiler” or the abbreviation “comp.” wherever the example uses “editor” or “ed.”: Henry Jones, compiler. The Oxford Book of . . .
Many of you will use software packages that format citations for you automatically. You may let your software create a first draft of your citations, but do not trust it to produce the correct form. If you use an automatic citation builder, recheck each bibliographical entry. Find the appropriate example and match it to the citation point by point. It is easy to miss small but important details when a citation is already formatted for you, so go slowly and be careful.
19.1 When and how to cite sources in your text
19.1.1 Parenthetical References
You must indicate in your text every place where you use the words or ideas of a source (see chapter 10). The general rule is to insert a parenthetical reference that gives readers the minimum information they need to find the cited passage. Typically, that includes only the last name of the author and the page number(s) of the material in the source. The author's name tells readers how to find the details of that source in your works cited list, and the page numbers tell them where to look in the source. In some cases, however, you have to give more information to help readers identify a specific source (see 19.1.2).
You should insert the parenthetical reference immediately after the material borrowed from a source. For a quotation or paraphrase, insert the reference at the end of a sentence or clause (outside of quotation marks but inside a period or comma):
The founding fathers' commitment to religious freedom was based on their commitment to the freedom of ideas. They were adamant that the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body” ( Jefferson 159).
If you quote or paraphrase several passages from the same work in a single paragraph, use only one parenthetical reference after the final quotation:
The founding fathers' commitment to religious freedom was based on their commitment to the freedom of ideas. They were adamant that the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body.”The purpose of the law was, they believed, to protect us from injury. “But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god” ( Jefferson 159).
For a block quote, add the parenthetical reference to the end with no period after it.
According to Jared Diamond,
Because technology begets more technology, the importance of an invention's diffusion potentially exceeds the importance of the original invention. Technology's history exemplifies what is termed an autocatalytic process: that is, one that speeds up at a rate that increases with time, because the process catalyzes itself. (301)
For ideas or methods, insert the reference at the end of the sentence(s) in which you first introduce or explain the borrowed material. Be sure to cite every source that influenced your thinking, even if you do not quote or paraphrase from it. A reader might think you're guilty of plagiarism if you seem to reflect the ideas of a text that you do not cite. (See chapter 10.)
19.1.2 Forms of Parenthetical References
Each parenthetical reference must point to one and only one source in your works cited list. The standard form includes the author's last name and a page number. (If the work is listed by an editor or translator rather than an author, use that name but do not add ed. or trans.) You may, however, need more or less information. If you mention the author when you introduce a quotation or paraphrase, you should not include the name again in the reference. If you list more than one work by an author in your works cited, add a short title to identify which work you are citing. If you refer not to a specific passage but to a whole work, do not include page numbers. There are other variants. These are most common:
Author Not Mentioned in Text
(Name Page)
The founding fathers' commitment to religious freedom was based on their commitment to the freedom of ideas. They were adamant that the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body” ( Jefferson 159).
Author Mentioned in Text
(Page)
. . . their commitment to the freedom of ideas. As Thomas Jefferson put it, the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body” (159).
Author with Same Last Name as Others in Works Cited
(Initial Name Page)
. . . their commitment to the freedom of ideas. As Thomas Jefferson put it, the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body” (T. Jefferson 159).
More than One Work by Author
(Name, Short Title Page)
. . . their commitment to the freedom of ideas. They were adamant that the “coercion of the laws” cannot apply to “the operations of the mind” in the way that they must apply to “the acts of the body” ( Jefferson, Notes 159).
Two or More Authors
(Name and Name Page) or (Name, Name, . . ., and Name Page)
A “family life map” illustrating the relationships between children and their parents or other caregivers can be instrumental in understanding the problems an adolescent faces at home (Harper-Dorton and Herbert 41).
19.1.3 Footnotes
In MLA style, you do not use notes to identify citations unless a citation is so long that it would disrupt the flow of your text. This situation typically arises when you cite many sources for a single idea. In that case, use the author + page form to refer to each source in the note:
Most Americans think of homelessness as a recent development, but it has always been part of the American heritage.1 Beggars had long been common in London . . .
1. For the British legacy of homelessness, see Hitchcock 491. For the American scene, see Armstrong 213—44; Cunard 55—58; Taylor 101—33; Unger, Streets 12—20; and Unger, Spaces 66—67.
You may, of course, also use notes for substantive comments, supplemental information, and so on.
Each note must be numbered with a corresponding raised number (or superscript) inserted in your text. Notes can be printed as footnotes, at the bottom of the page, or endnotes, on a separate page at the end. Because you are likely to have few notes, you should treat them as footnotes, which are easier for readers to find. List each footnote at the bottom of the page that includes the corresponding numbered reference. Use a line about two inches long to separate the body text and the footnote. (If your software does not add one automatically, do it yourself.)