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Sample Essays: Writing with MLA Style

Congratulations to the students whose essays were selected for the 2023 edition of Writing with MLA Style! Essays were selected as examples of excellent student writing that use MLA style for citing sources. Essays have been lightly edited. 

If your institution subscribes to MLA Handbook Plus , you can access annotated versions of the essays selected in 2022 and 2023. 

Writing with MLA Style: 2023 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2023 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2023 selection committee was composed of Ellen C. Carillo, University of Connecticut (chair); Rachel Ihara, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York; and Tarshia L. Stanley, Wagner College.

Caroline Anderson (Pepperdine University)

“ L’Appel du Vide : Making Spaces for Sinful Exploration in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ”

Hunter Daniels (University of South Carolina, Aiken)

“Biblical Legalism and Cultural Misogyny in The Tragedy of Mariam ”

Aspen English (Southern Utah University)

“Putting the ‘Comm’ in Comics: A Communication-Theory-Informed Reading of Graphic Narratives”

Raul Martin (Lamar University)

“The Book-Object Binary: Access and Sustainability in the Academic Library”

Grace Quasebarth (Salve Regina University)

“Finding a Voice: The Loss of Machismo Criticisms through Translation in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits ”

Writing with MLA Style: 2022 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2022 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2022 selection committee was composed of Ellen C. Carillo, University of Connecticut; Jessica Edwards, University of Delaware (chair); and Deborah H. Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago.

Kaile Chu (New York University, Shanghai)

“Miles Apart: An Investigation into Dedicated Online Communities’ Impact on Cultural Bias”

Sietse Hagen (University of Groningen)

“The Significance of Fiction in the Debate on Dehumanizing Media Portrayals of Refugees”

Klara Ismail (University of Exeter)

“Queering the Duchess: Exploring the Body of the Female Homosexual in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi ”

Yasmin Mendoza (Whittier College)

“Banning without Bans”

Niki Nassiri (Stony Brook University)

“Modern-Day US Institutions and Slavery in the Twenty-First Century”

Samantha Wilber (Palm Beach Atlantic University)

“‘Pero, tu no eres facil’: The Poet X as Multicultural Bildungsroman”

Writing with MLA Style: 2019 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2019 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2019 selection committee was composed of Jessica Edwards, University of Delaware; Deborah H. Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago (chair); and Liana Silva, César E. Chavez High School, Houston, Texas.

Catherine Charlton (University of King’s College, Nova Scotia)

“‘Coal Is in My Blood’: Public and Private Representations of Community Identity in Springhill, Nova Scotia”

Alyiah Gonzales (California Polytechnic State University)

“Disrupting White Normativity in Langston Hughes’s ‘I, Too’ and Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’”

Meg Matthias (Miami University, Ohio)

“Prescriptions of (Living) Historical Happiness: Gendered Performance and Racial Comfort in Reenactment”

Jennifer Nguyen  (Chaminade University of Honolulu)

“The Vietnam War, the American War: Literature, Film, and Popular Memory”

Emily Schlepp (Northwest University)

“A Force of Love: A Deconstructionist Reading of Characters in Dickens’s  Great Expectations ”

English Education & English Writing: MLA Sample Paper from OWL Purdue

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Sample Paper Formatted in MLA Style from OWL Purdue

• Sample MLA Paper Below is a sample paper from OWL Purdue formatted to MLA Standards

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MLA Sample Paper

The following PDF provides a sample paper written in the MLA style to demonstrate visually how the guidelines work in action. This PDF is used with thanks and full credit to the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) , which maintains a robust online guide to a variety of style guides, avoiding plagiarism, and writing at the academic level in general. They are strongly recommended as a resource if you need something more in depth than this guide provides.

“MLA Sample Paper.” MLA Sample Paper - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University , Purdue OWL / Purdue University, 21 Oct. 2019, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_paper.html. Accessed on 28 Sept. 2023.

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Generate accurate MLA citations for free

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MLA Format | Complete Guidelines & Free Template

Published on December 11, 2019 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on March 5, 2024 by Jack Caulfield.

The MLA Handbook provides guidelines for creating MLA citations and formatting academic papers. This quick guide will help you set up your MLA format paper in no time.

Start by applying these MLA format guidelines to your document:

• Times New Roman 12
• 1″ page margins
• Double line spacing
• ½” indent for new paragraphs
• Title case capitalization for headings

For accurate citations, you can use our free MLA Citation Generator .

Download Word template Open Google Docs template

(To use the Google Docs template, copy the file to your Drive by clicking on ‘file’ > ‘Make a copy’)

Table of contents

How to set up mla format in google docs, header and title, running head, works cited page, creating mla style citations, headings and subheadings, tables and figures, frequently asked questions about mla format.

The header in MLA format is left-aligned on the first page of your paper. It includes

• Your full name
• Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
• The course name or number
• The due date of the assignment

After the MLA header, press ENTER once and type your paper title. Center the title and don’t forget to apply title-case capitalization. Read our article on writing strong titles that are informative, striking and appropriate.

For a paper with multiple authors, it’s better to use a separate title page instead.

At the top of every page, including the first page, you need to include your last name and the page number. This is called the “running head.” Follow these steps to set up the MLA running head in your Word or Google Docs document:

• Double-click at the top of a page
• Type your last name
• Insert automatic page numbering
• Align the content to the right

The running head should look like this:

The Works Cited list is included on a separate page at the end of your paper. You list all the sources you referenced in your paper in alphabetical order. Don’t include sources that weren’t cited in the paper, except potentially in an MLA annotated bibliography assignment.

Place the title “Works Cited” in the center at the top of the page. After the title, press ENTER once and insert your MLA references.

If a reference entry is longer than one line, each line after the first should be indented ½ inch (called a hanging indent ). All entries are double spaced, just like the rest of the text.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

Prefer to cite your sources manually? Use the interactive example below to see what the Works Cited entry and MLA in-text citation look like for different source types.

Headings and subheadings are not mandatory, but they can help you organize and structure your paper, especially in longer assignments.

MLA has only a few formatting requirements for headings. They should

• Be written in title case
• Be left-aligned
• Not end in a period

We recommend keeping the font and size the same as the body text and applying title case capitalization. In general, boldface indicates greater prominence, while italics are appropriate for subordinate headings.

Chapter Title

Section Heading

Tip: Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word allow you to create heading levels that help you to keep your headings consistent.

Tables and other illustrations (referred to as “figures”) should be placed as close to the relevant part of text as possible. MLA also provides guidelines for presenting them.

MLA format for tables

Tables are labeled and numbered, along with a descriptive title. The label and title are placed above the table on separate lines; the label and number appear in bold.

A caption providing information about the source appears below the table; you don’t need one if the table is your own work.

Below this, any explanatory notes appear, marked on the relevant part of the table with a superscript letter. The first line of each note is indented; your word processor should apply this formatting automatically.

Just like in the rest of the paper, the text is double spaced and you should use title case capitalization for the title (but not for the caption or notes).

MLA format for figures

Figures (any image included in your paper that isn’t a table) are also labeled and numbered, but here, this is integrated into the caption below the image. The caption in this case is also centered.

The label “Figure” is abbreviated to “Fig.” and followed by the figure number and a period. The rest of the caption gives either full source information, or (as in the example here) just basic descriptive information about the image (author, title, publication year).

Source information in table and figure captions

If the caption of your table or figure includes full source information and that source is not otherwise cited in the text, you don’t need to include it in your Works Cited list.

Give full source information in a caption in the same format as you would in the Works Cited list, but without inverting the author name (i.e. John Smith, not Smith, John).

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.

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style are as follows:

• Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Set 1 inch page margins
• Apply double line spacing
• Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page
• Center the paper’s title
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch
• Use title case capitalization for headings
• Cite your sources with MLA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a Works Cited page at the end

The fastest and most accurate way to create MLA citations is by using Scribbr’s MLA Citation Generator .

Search by book title, page URL, or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

The MLA Handbook is currently in its 9th edition , published in 2021.

This quick guide to MLA style  explains the latest guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers according to MLA.

Usually, no title page is needed in an MLA paper . A header is generally included at the top of the first page instead. The exceptions are when:

• Your instructor requires one, or
• Your paper is a group project

In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2024, March 05). MLA Format | Complete Guidelines & Free Template. Scribbr. Retrieved April 3, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/formatting/

Is this article helpful?

Raimo Streefkerk

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MLA Research Paper Formatting

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MLA Style (9th Edition)

• Sample Papers

You are going to love this! Save this template somewhere safe or e-mail it to yourself. Then resave it immediately with the name of your new document. This will keep your template safe and ready to reuse again for future assignments.

This template will be sufficient for most student MLA papers. For more information on formatting your paper, consult the official MLA Style website:  https://mlahandbookplus.org/books/book/5/chapter/56247/Introduction-to-Formatting-Your-Research-Project  or pages 1-14 in the MLA Manual. 

• Purdue Owl Sample Paper Sample paper is downloadable.
• Sample Papers - MLA Style Center PDFs available of the 2022 MLA Student Essay Contest winners.
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Citing Your Sources

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Online MLA guides

Sample papers.

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MLA style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature.

• The MLA Style Center A quick guide to works cited, FAQ, and overview of the changes in the 8th edition, guidelines for formatting your paper, and more.
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide (the OWL at Purdue) This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
• MLA Format A user-friendly guide from EasyBib.
• MLA Sample Paper (Purdue OWL)
• Sample Papers in MLA Style (The MLA Style Center) The three sample research papers (First-year course in expository writing, Second-year course in African American studies, and Fourth-year course in English literature) are typical of the papers that might be submitted in different kinds of courses.
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MLA Formatting and Style Guide

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Purdue Owl: MLA Formatting & Style Guide

Developed by the Purdue Online Writing Lab.  MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Author/Editor (By:)

Contributor, corporate author, related organizations, citation type.

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MLA Sample Works Cited Page

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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 for Writers of Research Papers (7 th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3 rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Contributors: Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Michelle Campbell, Rodrigo Rodr�guez-Fuentes, Daniel P. Kenzie, Purdue OWL Staff Last Edited: 2013-02-14 10:32:55

This handout provides an example of a Works Cited page in MLA 2009 format.

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund . Environmental Defense Fund, 8 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. �Clinton on Climate Change.� New York Times . New York Times, May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times . New York Times, 22 May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth , dir. Davis Guggenheim. rogerebert.com . Sun-Times News Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.

GlobalWarming.org . Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-organized Extinction: Toward a Co-evolutionary Economics of Sustainability." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.1 (2007): 27-36. Print.

An Inconvenient Truth . Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore, Billy West. Paramount, 2006. DVD.

Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology . New York: Springer, 2005. Print.

Milken, Michael, Gary Becker, Myron Scholes, and Daniel Kahneman. "On Global Warming and Financial Imbalances." New Perspectives Quarterly 23.4 (2006): 63. Print.

Nordhaus, William D. "After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming." American Economic Review 96.2 (2006): 31-34. Print.

---. "Global Warming Economics." Science 9 Nov. 2001: 1283-84. Science Online . Web. 24 May 2009.

Shulte, Bret. "Putting a Price on Pollution." Usnews.com . US News & World Rept ., 6 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Uzawa, Hirofumi. Economic Theory and Global Warming . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.

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Writing Support Resources: MLA Resources

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MLA 8e Template

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Online Citation Support

• The library is currently recommending ZOTERO for importing citations, and Zbib.org for creating citations.
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (often referred to as the OWL ) contains a wealth of academic writing resources, including a well-organized MLA guide and APA guide .

MLA Sample Papers

Mla handbook, how to format an mla paper.

Basic MLA Format Video

View this video (designed by Alexander Clarkson) for a tutorial on formatting a paper according to MLA style.

How to Format an MLA Works Cited Page

View this video (designed by Prof. Amy Harris, Saint Leo University) for a tutorial on formatting an MLA Works Cited page.

How to Format Hanging Indents Tutorial Video

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Citation Styles and How to Guide

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MLA Style is a citation style created by the Modern Language Association, which is how it got its name!  Although it's most commonly used in the humanities, MLA can be used across many disciplines.  Therefore, the current citation style for this edition is more like a set of guidelines rather than strict rules.

MLA Style is currently in the 9th edition.  For an overview of changes between the 8th and 9th editions of MLA, check out this article  from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL).

MLA Citation Style Basics

• Resources for Getting Started
• Formatting Paper
• In-Text Citations
• Works Cited

These are some recommended resources for getting started citing in MLA Style.

A collection of frequently asked questions about MLA style answered by the Modern Language Association.

From the creators of MLA Style, this is a great resource for getting started with MLA.

Purdue OWL provides a wealth of information in their MLA Formatting and Style Guide.

You must format your paper according to MLA guidelines if you are citing using MLA Style.  

Purdue OWL provides some  general guidelines  for formatting your paper in MLA Style, which include:

• Papers should be typed
• Use double spacing
• 1 inch margins 
• Use 12 pt. size font
• The first line of each paragraph should be indented with the  Tab  key
• On the first page of your paper, you should include the following information indented left: your name, your instructor's name, the course that the assignment is for, and the date.  All subsequent pages should have a header in the top right corner with the page number.
• A Works Cited page at the end of your paper that includes all the sources

For MLA Style formatting examples, take a look at  MLA Style Center's Sample Papers  and  Purdue OWL's Sample Papers .

MLA Style's in-text citations use parenthetical citations that consist of an author-page style. 

The author's last name and page number(s) from where the quotation or paraphrase is taken appears in the text.  The structure of the in-text citation will depend on whether you are paraphrasing or quoting the text.  This in-text citation will correspond to a complete reference on the Works Cited page.

For example, if you are citing something paraphrased by  Jasmine Plott  on  page 3  of her work, you would provide an in-text citation that looks as follows:  (Plott 3) .  The full citation would appear in the works cted page.

For more information about how to craft an in-text citation, refer to Purdue OWL's guidance available  here .

Your Works Cited page appears at the end of your paper and will alphabetically lists all the sources that you included as in-text citations in your paper.  For MLA Style, there are a set of  core elements  that serve as general guidelines for what should go into a citation.  Structure your citations using the core elements listed below.  Don't forget to include the punctuation after each element in the below list, since that is an important part of the citation too!

Try to include as many core elements as you can in your citation, but don't sweat it if some of the information simply isn't available.  For instance, only some sources will have  containers , which are bigger sources where that particular source is held.  As an example, an entry in an encyclopedia would be the source, and the encyclopedia itself would be the container.

MLA Style Center's Works Cited: A Quick Guide,  and  Purdue OWL's MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format  are recommended resources for getting more information about how to structure your Works Cited page.  Check out the selected links from MLA Style Center and Purdue OWL for more detailed information!

MLA Style Center's overview of how to structure citations for a Works Cited page

Purdue OWL's information about the general format of a Works Cited page

MLA Style Center's examples for how to cite five basic source types: (1) books; (2) online works; (3) songs, recordings, and performances; (4) movies, videos, and television shows; and (5) images

Purdue OWL's guidance for basic book formatting, books with more than one author, book chapter, other print sources, etc.

Purdue OWL's guidance for scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers

Purdue OWL's guidance for websites, images, articles in databases, YouTube videos, etc

Purdue OWL's guidance for interviews, artwork, films, music, etc.

Purdue OWL's sample Works Cited page

 Add / Reorder  

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Astronomy: MLA Paper Format

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MLA Handbook

A copy of this book is available at the help desk.

MLA Style FAQs

• Generative A.I. and M.L.A. Style Learn what the M.L.A. recommends about using and citing generative A.I. tools.

Purdue Owl: MLA

• Purdue OWL: MLA Style Guide

Click on the link above to be taken to the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University. The OWL has information on how to format your papers, craft your citations, and provides tutorials on how to do everything in between. 

Microsoft Word: How to Set Up MLA Format 2015

Google Docs: MLA Format Essay (2016)

Writing Your Paper: MLA

Things to know before you begin:

• Font:  Times New Roman  
• Font Size:  12 point
• Margins:  1 inch
• Paragraphs: All paragraphs should be indented.
• Spacing: All of the text in your paper should be double-spaced.

Typical MLA style papers have two sections:

• Works Cited

See the boxes below for a breakdown of how each portion should be formatted.

Sample Paper: MLA

• MLA Style Center: Sample Papers in MLA Style
• Purdue OWL: MLA Sample Paper
• Sample Paper MLA: 3D Printing An example of an accurately-formatted MLA-style paper.

Main Body: MLA

• MLA Style Center: Formatting a Research Paper If your instructor has specific requirements for the format of your research paper, check with them before preparing your final draft. The most common formatting is presented here.
• Purdue OWL: MLA General Format Click the link above for further information on general formatting using MLA style.

Works Cited: MLA

• MLA Style Center: Works Cited: A Quick Guide
• Purdue OWL: MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format
• Purdue OWL: MLA Sample Works Cited Page

How to Create a Hanging Indent

• Create a Hanging Indent: Google Docs Learn how to create a hanging indent in Google Docs.
• Create a Hanging Indent: MS Word Learn how to create a hanging indent in Microsoft Word.
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Citations: MLA Citation

• MLA Citation
• APA Citation
• Chicago Citation
• Bluebook Guide This link opens in a new window
• Plagiarism This link opens in a new window

Works Cited

For more information on MLA citations, click here to see the guidelines on the Purdue OWL website . You can also view a sample MLA paper and a  sample Works Cited page .

If you're writing an annotated bibliography, you can check out their guide on  how to write an annotated bibliography , or look at some sample annotations . 

Sample MLA Paper from Purdue OWL

• Sample MLA Paper

In-Text Citations

(Author last name page number)

Two authors (Author 1 and Author 2 page number)

(Hanson and Avidan 75)

Three or more authors (Author last name et al. page numbers)

(Hannigan et al. 179)

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book . City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis . New York, Pantheon Books, 2007.

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness . New York, The New Press, 2010.

Essay in a Collection

Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection , edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.

Perkins Gilman, Charlotte. "The Yellow Wallpaper." The Norton Anthology of American Literature, vol. 2, edited by Nina Baym, W. W. Norton and Company, 1994, 645-656. 

YouTube Video

Author last name, First name. “Title of Video.” YouTube , uploaded by Name of Channel, day month year, URL

Cox, Elizabeth. "The Surprising Link Between Stress and Memory." YouTube , uploaded by TED-Ed, 4 September 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyg7lcU4g8E. 

Green, John. "What is the real unemployment rate?" YouTube , uploaded by Vlogbrothers, 10 January 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Hn6JWzoKv14.

Academic Article

One author Last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal , Volume, Issue, Year, pages, Title of database, URL. Accessed day month year.

​Pagliaro, Michael. “Is a Picture Worth a Thousand Words? Determining the Criteria for Graphic Novels with Literary Merit.” The English Journal , vol. 103, no. 4, 2014, pp. 31-46, JSTOR,  https://www.jstor.org/stable/24484218. Accessed 3 March 2017.

Two authors Last name, First name and First name Last name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal , Vol. number, no. issue number, year, page numbers, Title of database, URL. Accessed day month year.

Nonis, Sarath A. and Gail I. Hudson. "Academic Performance of College Students: Influence of Time Spent Studying and Working." Journal of Education for Business, vol. 81, no. 3, 2006, pp. 151-159, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254344820. Accessed 1 February 2019.

Three or more authors Author Last name, First name et al. "Title of Article." Title of Journal , Volume, Issue, Year, pages, Title of database, URL. Accessed day month year.

Lepp, Andrew et al. "The Relationship Between Cell Phone Use, Academic Performance, Anxiety, and Satisfaction With Life in College Students." Computers in Human Behavior,  vol. 31, 2013, pp. 342-350, Science Direct, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563213003993. Accessed 5 June 2018. 

Note: If the article is not from the a library database,  you can skip adding the title of the database.

Last name, First name. “Title of web page”. Title of website. URL. Accessed date.

“Asthma: Data, Statistics, and Surveillance.” Center for Disease Control and Prevention website. https://www.cdc.gov/asthma/asthmadata.htm. Accessed 26 September 2018.

Newspaper Article

Last name, First name. "Title of Article."  Title of Periodical , Day Month Year, pages.

Maheshwari, Sapna. “Hold the Donuts, Says Newly Named Dunkin’”.  The New York Times , 25 September 2018. 

Last name, First name. “Title of Work.” Name of institution , date of creation, URL, date accessed.

VanGogh, Vincent. “Self-portrait With Straw Hat.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art , 1887, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436532, Accessed 27 September 2019.

Himsaini007. “Librarian.png.” Wikimedia Commons , 2016, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Librarian.png, Accessed 27 September 2019.

If you have any questions about your citations, email [email protected] .

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ENG 201: LaScala Spring 2024

• Source Types
• Finding Books
• Finding Articles
• Keywords & Searching
• Evaluating Sources
• Instruction Evaluation
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Additional Citation Resources

For more information and examples of citations, please be sure to check out these additional resources: 

• Pace Libraries: Academic Integrity & Avoiding Plagiarism
• Pace Libraries: Citing Sources & Style Guides
• Pace Libraries: Mini Zine on Citations
• Excelsior Owl | Online Writing Lab

Why Do We Cite?

Citations are short, yet thorough, references to another's work within your own writing, particularly in scholarship and academic communities. 

So why are they important and necessary for us to understand AND be able to use? 

• Citing your sources shows that you've done thorough, well-crafted research;
• Citing makes you a responsible scholar by giving credit where credit is due;
• Helps others find your sources
• Contributes to the growth of research/a discipline

Finally, citing your sources accurately & fully is the best way to avoid plagiarism! 

There are many different kinds of citation styles out there, but the Big 3 are: 

• MLA (Modern Language Association
• APA (American Psychological Association)
• The Chicago Manual of Style

Each style is utilized in specific disciplines. For example, MLA and Chicago tend to be utilized in The Humanities disciplines, while APA is useful in the social and health sciences. 

MLA: The Basics

Why use mla citation style.

MLA is most commonly used to cite sources within in the liberal arts, specifically the humanities.

What does that really mean?:

When you cite in MLA, you use  parenthetical citations for your in-text citations  and a works-cited page at the end of your paper.

A typical MLA citation will include: 

• the author's full name, last and first
• the year of publication
• the publisher/journal title
• page numbers

What does an in-text citation typically look like?:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263) . Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263) .   Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263) .*

*example from the Purdue OWL

What does a work-cited citation typically look like?:

Your works-cited page and your in-text citations should line up with each other - meaning that if you include an in-text citation, you will be able to find more detailed information about that source in the complete works-cited list.

For example the in-text citation might read, "(Worsdworth, 263)" - indicating the author's last name, and the page used in the paper. 

The works-cited citation for that book would be:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . London: Oxford UP, 1967.

The general format for a citation in your works-cited list in MLA will more or less follow this guideline:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of the Book . Publisher Location: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication.

Citation Style Guides:

The Purdue OWL is an amazing resource that gives great examples of how to cite different materials in MLA. Your citations in MLA will change slightly depending on the format of the work that you are using. Citing a book is slightly different than citing an article.

The Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide is a wonderful resource that breaks down how to cite different formats in MLA.

For more information, check out our citing sources guide .

APA: The Basics

Why use apa citation style.

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences, also including most hard sciences, psychology, sociology, and related disciplines.

APA employs in-text citations and a references list .

APA in-text citations also ask you to include :

• the author's first & middle initials & last name;
• the year of publication;
• the journal title, the volume number, and the issue number;
• source page numbers

If you are directly quoting from a work, include the author, year of publication, and the page number for the reference (preceded by "p.").

Introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.

According to Jones (1998) , "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199) . Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?

If the author is not named in a signal phrase, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199) , but she did not offer an explanation as to why.*

*examples from the Purdue OWL

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" centered at the top of the page (do NOT bold, underline, or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.*

*example from Purdue OWL

The general format for a citation in your works-cited list in APA will more or less follow this guideline:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication).  Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle . Location: Publisher.

APA style has a specific formatting and style that requires you to include different elements in your work that a paper formatted in MLA would.

The Purdue OWL guide for APA  includes more information on citing different in formats, as well as a  sample paper  formatted in APA style.

For more information, check out our  citing sources guide .

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ENGL 1101 Worozbyt Spring 2024: The Research Essay

The Research Essay

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Persuasive Research Essay

Choose any text from the syllabus that we have covered, except “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty, and perform a close, analytical reading, using the techniques for objective critical analysis that you have learned this semester, explaining the literary techniques and devices used by your chosen author to make their work function as literature. Use secondary critical resources to support and complexify your arguments and points. The task is textual analysis, that and that alone. The commentaries I have been posting all semester are good examples of what I am looking for. This is a research project, but I am most interested in seeing you display your own skill at critical thinking and analysis, and in your demonstration that you have taken the major lessons of the semester—the ability to observe and describe concretely; the ability to form a persuasive argument; the ability to analyze the symbols in a literary text—and brought them together in your mind for the final project: to objectively analyze the arguments of another, in this case the author of a work of literature.

The Method:

Compose in MLA format a research essay of at least 1000 words, using a minimum of four secondary sources that address some aspect of the text you choose to analyze. (While you are encouraged to use it, the OED is a primary, not a secondary, source, and does not count toward your minimum.) Source material must be drawn from books and articles in the GSU library or the Galileo databases. Material from non-GSU sources will not count toward the research requirement, and the use of it is discouraged. Do not summarize plots or provide biographies of the author. This essay is not about the author; it is about the text.

The Caveats:

You are obliged to have familiarized yourself with proper MLA formatting and citation. This information is found easily online, at the OWL Purdue website, and has been covered in Course Content. YouTube has plenty of videos on how to do it, and you will notice that the Galileo databases can easily generate entries for the Works Cited page. Internal parenthetical citation is also required.

By now I expect students to submit professionally clean and error-free copy, with no typos or mechanical or grammatical errors. Papers not following these guidelines will be penalized accordingly. Failure to submit your essay in MLA format results in an automatic point deductions of up to twenty points. Failure to provide sufficient, relevant source material results in an automatic fifteen-point deduction for each missing source. Essays failing to acknowledge and cite sources cannot be graded and therefore cannot receive credit.

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