MLA/Plagiarism

Below you will find a quick summary of basic MLA format for writing bibliographic entries and for citations in your paper. Some basic rules:

�Put the bibliography on a separate page and title it Works Cited

�Alphabetize all the entries. Most entries start with the author’s name, but if the author is unknown, start with the title.

�If a title entry begins with "A," "An," or "The," include that word in the title, but ignore it when you alphabetize.

�Begin the first line of each entry flush left; indent successive lines one tab.

Author. Title of book. City of publication: Publisher, Year of publication. Print.

Author. "Title of article." Magazine or newspaper Date of publication: pages of publication. Print.

�MLA no longer requires the use of URL’s in bibliographic entries. (The word “Print” will tell the teacher which of your resources were actual print copies.)

Author (if available). Title of the Web site. Sponsoring organization (if applicable). Day the site was updated or created. Web. Day you visited the site.

Wigglesworth, Belinda. Fire Fred. Students for a Wigglesworth-free Society. 10 August 2008. Web. 17 August 2008.

�For specialized entries, such as personal interviews, TV shows, movies, CD’s, and others, check this site: owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

Now let's look at how to cite an entry within the paper. The purpose of a citation is to take you to the right source in the bibliography. So put in parentheses whatever leads off the bibliographic entry.

�Whatever is FIRST in the bibliographic entry is what matters for the citation. This means usually putting the author's last name and the page number --no comma between them -- in parentheses. (But it could be the title if there’s no author.) If there's no page number (as with a Web site), don't include a page number.

�Put the parenthetical citation just inside the final period.

�If you are citing a long quote, you don't need to use quotations marks. Instead, indent the left side of the quote one tab, double-space the long quote, and put the ( ) at the end of the quote.

If you cite someone’s remarks that were published in a second source – not the original source – use the abbreviation qtd. before the second source

Jones reports that Twain wrote in one of his novels that English teachers are “God’s blessing on us” (qtd. in Jones 45).

Throughout your paper, don’t limit yourself to using only one source per paragraph. Feel free to use multiple sources within a paragraph; that’s why you take notes on note cards. That makes it easier to re-arrange your notes when you plan your paper.

WRONG: “The initial impulse came from what the French call ‘rage militaire’ – a patriotic furor that swept North and South alike” (McPherson 16). This will be marked NIQ (No Isolated Quotes)

RIGHT: As one historian has written, “The initial impulse came from what the French call ‘rage militaire’ – a patriotic furor that swept North and South alike” (McPherson 16).

Don’t use direct quotes any old time. Only use them when the original wording is so special or well done that you can’t really paraphrase it well.

WRONG: One historian has written, “Relatively few Union volunteers mentioned the slavery issue when they enlisted” (McPherson 19).

RIGHT: According to one historian, “Because the conventions of masculinity equated admission of fear with cowardice, however, many soldiers were reluctant to confess what surely all felt” (McPherson 36).

If you use another person’s ideas or analysis, you must give them credit with a citation.

Some historians believe that soldiers who didn’t believe in murder found a way to justify their killing of the enemy in the Civil War (McPherson 72).

You cannot use someone else’s words or phrases (except in direct quotes), even if you add a citation. Say the original quote is this: “But when they deliberately shot at somebody, they had to find a way to justify it.”

THIS IS PLAGIARISM: When Civil War soldiers deliberately shot at somebody, they had to find a way to justify their actions (McPherson 72).

If you want to use someone else’s ideas, but not quote them, change the wording twice: first when you take notes onto note cards and then again when you star writing the paper. In that way, the words become twice removed from the source (you still have to cite!)

Original wording: “But when they deliberately shot at somebody, they had to find a way to justify it.”

First change: After soldiers shot at the other side, they tried to justify their actions with their beliefs.

In your paper: Civil War soldiers had to make their actions jibe with their beliefs after firing on the enemy (McPherson 72).

If you have several facts (one after another) in a paragraph, then you can cite the last sentence. The understanding is that that footnote speaks for the previous sentences. DO NOT OVERUSE THIS DEVICE!

You need at least one citation in the paper for each source listed in the bibliography. Why? A reader will be suspicious if three books are cited throughout the paper but seven sources are listed in the bibliography.

Also, try not to over-rely on one or two sources in citations. Why? If most of your citations come from one source, a reader will be suspicious that you simply copied most of the paper from one source.

If you set up a quote with an incomplete sentence, use a comma after it. If you set it up with a complete sentence, use a colon.

According to one historian, “The purpose of prayer was to cleanse the soul, not to shield the body” (McPherson 68).

McPherson notes the limitations of the soldiers’ faith: “The purpose of prayer was to cleanse the soul, not to shield the body” (McPherson 68).