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MLA Formatting and Style Guide - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

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Library Guides: MLA Citation Guide (MLA 8th Edition): In-Text Citation

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Library Guides: MLA Citation Guide (MLA 8th Edition): In-Text Citation

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Double-space

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MLA recommends using 12-point Times New Roman, since it's easy to read and installed on every computer. Other standard fonts such as Arial or Georgia are also acceptable. If in doubt, check with your supervisor which font you should be using.

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Build your knowledge around MLA formatting.  MLA Quizlet

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Test your knowledge

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Created with Hot Potatoes by Half-Baked Software, registered to Jason Rhode.

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Did you know there are 4 types? Learn all about how to avoid plagiarizing.

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Plagiarism means using someone else's work without giving them proper credit. In academic writing, plagiarizing involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without citing it correctly. In practice, this can mean a few different things.

Copying parts of a text word for word, without quotation marks

It makes it seem like these are your own words.

Paraphrasing a text by changing a few words or altering the sentence structure, without citing the source

It makes it seem like you came up with the idea, when in fact you just rephrased someone else's idea.

Giving incorrect information about a source

If readers can't find the cited source, they can't check the information themselves.

Quoting so much from a source that it makes up the majority of your text

Even with proper citations, you're not making an original contribution if you rely so much on someone else's words.

Reusing work you've submitted for a previous assignment, without citing yourself

Even though it's your own work, the reader should be informed that it's not completely new but comes from previous research.

Submitting a text written entirely by someone else (e.g., a paper you bought from a ghostwriter)

Not doing the work yourself is academically dishonest, undermines your learning, and is unfair to other students.

Common questions about plagiarism

It's easy to understand why you shouldn't buy essays, but students often struggle with the details of quoting, paraphrasing, and citing sources. Below, we address some questions and misconceptions students often have about plagiarism.

I need to quote and paraphrase a lot. Won't my paper be full of distracting citations?

It's true that some papers do feature a lot of citations. There are ways to reduce clutter by citing more efficiently, such as:

Combining multiple citations into one set of parentheses (usually separated by semicolons)

Not repeating the full citation when you cite the same source multiple times in a row

Using "ibid." to indicate a repeated citation (in certain styles)

Omitting citations for information that is common knowledge

Do I need to cite a certain number of sources? Can citing too much be a bad thing?

There's no fixed number of sources you should cite. Your use of sources should be based on strengthening your argument, not meeting a quota. A high number of citations isn't inherently a good or bad thing. Some types of academic text (e.g., a literature review) are more likely to cite a lot of sources than others.

When you do think you've cited too much, it's worth considering whether you need all the information you've included. All information should directly contribute to your argument, not just be tangentially related.

One thing you should avoid is quoting too much. If large portions of your text consist of someone else's words, it distracts from your own arguments. It's usually better to paraphrase unless you're specifically analyzing the language of the source (e.g., in literary analysis).

Is it better to just avoid using sources so I don't risk accidental plagiarism?

No, using sources is an essential part of academic writing. Academic research is an ongoing conversation between researchers. Drawing on other sources, and positioning your own ideas in relation to them, is not optional.

But it's understandable to be concerned about plagiarism. If you're worried about the possibility of accidental plagiarism, make sure to:

Is paraphrasing a kind of plagiarism?

No, paraphrasing is just a way of incorporating information from a source into your text by putting it into your own words. As long as you cite the source correctly, paraphrasing is the best way to incorporate information in most cases.

However, paraphrasing can be considered plagiarism if you:

Don't cite the source of the information, or cite it incorrectly

Phrase the information in a way that's too close to the original (e.g., just swapping out a couple of words instead of reformulating the sentence)

More tools and resources for avoiding plagiarism

Scribbr offers a variety of tools and services designed to help you with citations and plagiarism checking, including the best plagiarism checker available.
Plagiarism Checker
Citation Generator Citation Checker Citation Editing

And you can check out the in-depth articles below to learn more about the different kinds of plagiarism, its consequences, and how to avoid it:

Frequently asked questions about plagiarism

What happens if you plagiarize?

The consequences of plagiarism vary depending on the type of plagiarism and the context in which it occurs. For example, submitting a whole paper by someone else will have the most severe consequences, while accidental citation errors are considered less serious.

If you're a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it's your first offense or you've done it before.

As an academic or professional, plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation. You might also lose your research funding or your job, and you could even face legal consequences for copyright infringement.

Can plagiarism be accidental?

Accidental plagiarism is one of the most common examples of plagiarism. Perhaps you forgot to cite a source, or paraphrased something a bit too closely. Maybe you can't remember where you got an idea from, and aren't totally sure if it's original or not.

These all count as plagiarism, even though you didn't do it on purpose. When in doubt, make sure you're citing your sources. Also consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission, which work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts.

Scribbr's Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

How is plagiarism detected?

Plagiarism can be detected by your professor or readers if the tone, formatting, or style of your text is different in different parts of your paper, or if they're familiar with the plagiarized source.

Many universities also use plagiarism detection software like Turnitin's, which compares your text to a large database of other sources, flagging any similarities that come up.

It can be easier than you think to commit plagiarism by accident. Consider using a plagiarism checker prior to submitting your paper to ensure you haven't missed any citations.

Are plagiarism checkers accurate?

The accuracy depends on the plagiarism checker you use. Per our in-depth research, Scribbr is the most accurate plagiarism checker. Many free plagiarism checkers fail to detect all plagiarism or falsely flag text as plagiarism.

Plagiarism checkers work by using advanced database software to scan for matches between your text and existing texts. Their accuracy is determined by two factors: the algorithm (which recognizes the plagiarism) and the size of the database (with which your document is compared).

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What Is Plagiarism? | Definition & Examples

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Plagiarism means taking credit for someone else's words or ideas, either on purpose or accidentally through failure to cite sources.

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Examples

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An Essay in a Book Collection | MLA Style Center

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MLA Style Center, the only authorized Web site on MLA style, provides free resources on research, writing, and documentation.

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Access the FAQ for MLA  or Submit a Question

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MLA Style Center, the only authorized Web site on MLA style, provides free resources on research, writing, and documentation.

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🖱 Interactive Practice Template for Citations

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🖱 Interactive Practice Template for Citations

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This is NOT a citation generator. It can be uses to practice building one to see what the format would be for the work you are using.

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Skip to content

Interactive Practice Template

To build a works-cited-list entry, enter the elements present in your source into the template. You must include any necessary punctuation, capitalization, and italics. The entry will appear under "Your Citation," color-coded to correspond to the template.

The template is a tool for teaching and learning MLA style, not a citation generator. To verify that your entry is correct, consult the MLA Handbook.

To learn more about the template, read our works-cited quick guide and post on supplemental elements.

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Interactive Practice Template | MLA Style Center

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To build a works-cited-list entry, enter the elements present in your source into the template. You must include any necessary punctuation, capitalization, and italics. The entry will appear under "Your Citation," color-coded to correspond to the template. The template is a tool for teaching and learning MLA style, not a citation generator.

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We format our writing, so that the text is predictable and our readers know exactly where to find information about our work. Readers will know exactly where to find your name as an author, the structure the parts of your paper, and your citations that reference the evidence you gathered.

In BSD, we us MLA formatting for all of our papers. In college, you may be asked to format your paper in another way.

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Need the details? Dig into Purdue Owl, MLA formatting.

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General Format - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

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Why do we need to cite work? When and when not to cite.

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How to Insert Citations in Microsoft Word

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You can utilize citations and in text citations in Word from the Reference Tab, Citations and Bibliography.

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In Word, you can easily add citations when writing a document where you need to cite your sources, such as a research paper. Citations can be added in various formats, including APA, Chicago-style, GOST, IEEE, ISO 690, and MLA. Afterwards, you can create a bibliography of the sources you used to write your paper.

To add a citation to your document, you first add the source that you used.

Add a new citation and source to a document

1. On the References tab, in the Citations & Bibliography group, click the arrow next to Style and click the style that you want to use for the citation and source. For example, social sciences documents usually use the MLA or APA styles for citations and sources.

2. Click at the end of the sentence or phrase that you want to cite.

3. On the Reference tab, click Insert Citation and then do one of the following:

To add the source information, click Add New Source, and then, in the Create Source dialog box, click the arrow next to Type of Source, and select the type of source you want to use (for example, a book section or a website).

To add a placeholder, so that you can create a citation and fill in the source information later, click Add New Placeholder. A question mark appears next to placeholder sources in Source Manager.

4. If you chose to add a source, enter the details for the source. To add more information about a source, click the Show All Bibliography Fields check box.

5. Click OK when finished. The source is added as a citation at the place you selected in your document.

When you've completed these steps, the citation is added to the list of available citations. The next time you quote this reference, you don't have to type it all out again. You just add the citation to your document. After you've added a source, you may find you need to make changes to it at a later time. To do this, see Edit a source.

Notes:

If you've added a placeholder and want to replace it with citation information, see Edit a source.

If you choose a GOST or ISO 690 style for your sources and a citation is not unique, append an alphabetic character to the year. For example, a citation would appear as [Pasteur, 1848a].

If you choose ISO 690-Numerical Reference and your citations still don't appear consecutively, you must click the ISO 690 style again, and then press ENTER to correctly order the citations.

Add citations to your document

1. Click at the end of the sentence or phrase that you want to cite, and then on the References tab, in the Citations & Bibliography group, click Insert Citations.

2. From the list of citations under Insert Citation, select the citation you want to use.

Find a source

The list of sources that you use can become quite long. At times, you might need to search for a source that you cited in another document.

1. On the References tab, in the Citations & Bibliography group, click Manage Sources.

If you open a new document that does not yet contain citations, all of the sources that you used in previous documents appear under Master List.

If you open a document that includes citations, the sources for those citations appear under Current List. All the sources that you have cited, either in previous documents or in the current document, appear under Master List.

2. To find a specific source, do one of the following:

In the sorting box, sort by author, title, citation tag name, or year, and then look for the source that you want in the resulting list.

In the Search box, type the title or author for the source that you want to find. The list dynamically narrows to match your search term.

Note: You can click the Browse button in Source Manager to select another master list from which you can import new sources into your document. For example, you might connect to a file on a shared server, on a research colleague's computer or server, or on a Web site that is hosted by a university or research institution.

Edit a source

1. On the References tab, in the Citations & Bibliography group, click Manage Sources.

2. In the Source Manager dialog box, under Master List or Current List, select the source you want to edit, and then click Edit.

Note: To edit a placeholder to add citation information, select the placeholder from Current List and click Edit.

3. In the Edit Source dialog box, make the changes you want and click OK.

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Add citations in a Word document - Microsoft Support

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Add and edit citations and sources in your documents.

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Three free Citation Generators student can use:    --------------->
1. Zotero
2. Citefast
3. My Bib

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APA7 citation generator: Citefast automatically formats citations in APA 7th edition

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Citefast is a FREE APA, MLA and Chicago citation generator. Generate references, bibliographies, in-text citations and title pages quickly and accurately. Used by students and professionals.

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Free MLA Citation Generator [Updated for 2023]

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Generate MLA format citations and create your works cited page accurately with our free MLA citation generator. Now fully compatible with MLA 8th and 9th Edition.

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ZoteroBib: Fast, free bibliography generator - MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard citations

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Free, accurate citation and bibliography maker for APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA, and 10,000 other styles. No ads, no downloads, no account required.