Understand how the MLA system works - Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism - Writing Papers in MLA Style

Rules for writers, Tenth edition - Diana Hacker, Nancy Sommers 2021

Understand how the MLA system works
Citing sources; avoiding plagiarism
Writing Papers in MLA Style

✵ How to be a responsible research writer

In a research paper, you draw on the work of other writers, and you must document their contributions by citing your sources. As an academic writer, you’ll cite sources for two reasons:

1. to tell readers where your information comes from — so that they can assess its reliability and, if interested, find and read the original source

2. to give credit to the writers from whom you have borrowed words and ideas

You must include a citation when you quote from a source, when you summarize or paraphrase, and when you borrow facts that are not common knowledge. Borrowing another writer’s language, sentence structure, or ideas without proper acknowledgment is plagiarism. The only exception is common knowledge — information that your readers may know or could easily locate in any number of general sources.

55a Understand how the MLA system works.

MLA style requires you to acknowledge your sources by using an in-text citation — a citation placed in parentheses within the body of your paper — to indicate the source of a quotation, paraphrase, or summary. The in-text citation points readers to a list of works cited at the end of your paper. There is a direct connection between the in-text citation and the alphabetical entry in your works cited list.

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NOTE: This basic MLA format varies for different types of sources. For a detailed discussion and other models, see 57.

WRITING FOR AN AUDIENCE

You demonstrate your credibility, your ethos, by choosing the most trustworthy and reliable sources and showing readers how to find them. When your citations guide readers quickly to the sources of quoted, paraphrased, and summarized ideas, you show respect for your audience’s interest in your research. Ask yourself two questions: How can I make my documentation useful to my readers? What would readers need to know to find each source themselves?