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MLA Citation Style

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About Citing Sources

For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and a specific example will be provided.

The following format will be used:

Parenthetical Citation - entry that appears in the body of your paper.

Works Cited - entry that appears at the end of your paper.

Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the MLA Handbook (7th ed.)

Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the manual.

Indirect Sources (226)

Sometimes an author writes about work that someone else has done, but you are unable to track down the original source.

In this case, because you did not read the original work, you will include only the source you did consult in the Works Cited list.

The abbreviation “qtd.” in the parenthetical reference indicates you have not read the original research.

General Format
 
In-Text Citation:
(Author Surname qtd. in Author Surname [of the source you did read] page number)
 
Works Cited:

Author Surname, First Name [of the source you did read]. Title: Subtitle. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium.

 
Example
 
Fong’s 1987 study found that older students’ memory can be as good as that of young people, but this depends on how memory is tested (qtd. in Bertram 124).
 
[Do not include Fong (1987) in Works Cited; do include Bertram.]