This presentation is designed to introduce students to the significance of citation and documentation.

1. CITATION AND
DOCUMENTION, MLA
STYLE
Why do we do it and why is it
important to do well?
Christina Neckles
CRWT I 101-08
October 25, 2012

2. What is citation?
• Citation is indicating, in a piece of writing, where you got the
information.
• In-text citation use parentheses to indicate where you, the writer,
obtained information, wording, or an idea.
• If you quote TWO or more words in a row from another piece of writing those
words need to be in quotation marks.

3. Why do we cite sources?
• In North American and most of Europe, we cite sources as often as
possible to give credit for intellectual property.
• Citing sources makes you more reliable as a scholar because it shows
you’ve done research on your topic and that you know where your
information comes from.
• Citing source also allows your readers to follow up on other sources that
they found interesting. In other words, it gives your readers respect and
the freedom to follow their own interests.
• We also cite sources because of copyright laws. It’s illegal to use
someone else’s written ideas without giving them credit.
• Sometimes it’s illegal even if you DO give credit (like if you want to show a
movie on Netflix to your sorority sisters for “Friday Channing Tatum Night”).

4. But citation doesn’t really count
outside of school—why bother?
•The fact is: You are right.
•MLA Style doesn’t matter at all
outside of school.

5. What does matter?
• Information literacy
• Crucial to understand what kind of information sources you
encounter and how to use them.
• MLA style and other citation styles are just the formats through
which you learn that skill.
• In our Website Evaluation session, we practiced that skill – you’ll
always have to evaluate web resources, even if it’s just for
shopping.
• You’ll put the skill into effect as you choose and evaluate and cite
your sources for the research paper.

6. How do we cite sources?
• In English, Literature and Languages, • MLA style privileges the author’s
and Philosophy, we use MLA style,
the standardized citation style of the name because most information is
Modern Language Association. intellectual property (arguments
and ideas rather than statistics or
• MLA style is a set of rules that research discoveries).
scholars follow so that all of their
citations look the same.
• APA style privileges dates because
• It’s a fairly simple system, but psychology and other sciences
tedious to learn. Even experts have privilege the most recent research.
to look up the rules
sometimes…and sometimes they
change. • Chicago style allows for more
footnotes because history can
• Using a standardized style ensures require more background
that the resources you used are
recognizable and fairly credited. explanation.

7. IMAGINE THIS…..
• If we all cited sources however we wanted, an in-text citation of the
same newspaper article could look like this:
• “cool is irrelevant” (Rubin par.3).
• “cool is irrelevant” (Rubin)
• “cool is irrelevant”
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/fashion/for-college-students-
social-media-tops-the-bar-
scene.html?_r=0&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1348708968-
MLct9UnOt56qvHMKvGNK4w)
• “cool is irrelevant.”
• “cool is irrelevant” (“Bars”).
• “cool is irrelevant” (NYT 2012)

8. What would happen?
• We might find everything … if we really wanted to …but it would
take a lot of extra time.
• Do any of us want to take more time to do research than we have
to?
• Using proper citation styles make things easy for you reader.
• Using proper citations helps you steer clear of plagiarism.
• Taking the time to think critically about when and how to cite
sources will save you and your readers time in the long run.
• So we choose one standard style and use it consistently.

9. When do I need an in-text citation?
• When you quote TWO OR MORE words in a row from another text.
• When you paraphrase or summarize the ideas or information in
another text.
• Citations should come at the end of the sentence in which the
quotation or paraphrase appears.

10. In-text citations wouldn’t help me…
• They don’t help anyone on their own.
• They only work if a list of the sources they reference is provided at
the end of a text.
• In MLA style we call this the Works Cited page.
• In APA style it’s called the References page.
• In both styles, the term Bibliography is only used if you include
more sources than you actually cited.
• You won’t use this in most classes.

11. How do I know what to include in the Works
Cited citation?
• Every MLA style Works Cited entry (AKA bibliographic citation) will
probably include:
• Author name
• Title of piece.
• Quotations for articles or other short pieces
• Italics for books, movies, or other “complete” works.
• Publication information
• Date of publication
• Here’s one for the online newspaper article I cited haphazardly in slide 5:
Rubin, Courtney. “Last Call for College Bars.” NYTimes.com. The New York
Times, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Sept. 2012.

12. Will that work for everything?
• NO
• There are special rules for each type of source you use.
• The newspaper article needed different information, because it’s
not from a book and because I found it online.

13. Then how…??
• There are resources to help you.
• Hacker and Sommers’ Pocket Style Manual, 6th edition.
• Not the 4th or 5th. Remember what I wrote about rules that change…
• The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.
• OWL at Purdue.
• Google it.
• The Center for Reading and Writing for difficult cases.

14. But I….
Don’t even know what
to look up?
This is where
Information Literacy
comes in. You have to
know what kinds of
sources you are using in
order to cite them
properly.
You also need to know
what kinds of sources
you are using in order to
read them critically…but
that’s for another class.

15. So how…??
• For books it’s easy:
Look at the title page.

16. Check out the title
page:
And, if it’s an anthology
check out the first page
of the selection.
Look for all the important
elements of a citation.
Remember the purpose
of citation: To make it
easy for someone else to
locate your sources.

17. But I’m not using a book by one author…
• Familiarize yourself with the kinds • The most common are:
of sources that could come up by • work in an anthology
reviewing the list in your
• article in a journal
handbook.
• article in a newspaper
• edition other than the first
• Review the information about the
source you can find and figure out • Article in an online publication
what will work best. (newspaper, journal, website)

18. So what about EasyBib?
• That’s fine….
• But if you don’t know what kind of source you are citing or how to
cull the correct information, it all comes out garbled.
• EasyBib is just a formatting tool.
• You, as scholars, need to understand the kinds of sources you are
using and how experts in your field have agreed to cite them.
• Like everything else in Critical Reading, it takes time and focus to
cite and document your sources well.

19. Works Cited
Hacker, Diana and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. 6th
Ed. New York: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2012.
Rubin, Courtney. “Last Call for College Bars.” NYTimes.com. The
New York Times, 26 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Sept. 2012.

20. Exercise
• Break into groups of 3
• I have brought in 12 information sources
• Each group should take two.
• You have to figure out how to cite the thing….or the part of the
thing I tell you to.
• I want a sample in-text citation and a bibliographic citation.
• Be ready to share with the class:
• Type of source.
• How you made the determination.
• Where the citation information can be found in your handbook.
• You have 20 minutes.