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MLA Citation Guide: Why Cite?

A Note about this Guide

NYSID supports the MLA (Modern Language Association) style of citation, currently in its 8th edition. The Perdue OWL MLA Citation Style Guide (see link in box below) was heavily used for this Lib Guide; all examples in this guide reflect MLA 8, and as often as possible were taken from the NYSID collection

Why are Citations Important? The 4 S's

Citations SHOW the trail of research you have done.

They help you SHARE your sources with others.

They give a SHOUT OUT to other authors' work you have used.

They are a STRATEGY to avoid plagiarism. 

Research and Note-taking tips

  • As you are researching, copy and paste the citations for the works you are using into your notes (especially if you are cutting and pasting text or images from digital resources already).  This will help you remember what sources you used, and whether the words are your own or not (thus helping avoid plagarism).
  • Keep a running list of resources you are consulting with your notes--either on a custom document, or through saved citation folders in resources like Artstor or EBSCO.
  • Most online resources available through the NYSID library will format citations for you and email them, saving you time and work: just look for the "Send/Share" or "Cite" buttons.

 

MLA Citation Resources (online)

MLA Citation Resources (print)

 America., Modern Language Association of, and Joseph Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. ed., New York, Modern Language Association of America, 2009.

America., Modern Language Association of. MLA Handbook. Eighth edition. ed., New York, 2016.

Note-taking Tips to Avoid Plagarism

Safe Practice Suggestions from Purdue Online Writing Lab such as...

  • Use shorthand in your notes as to whether something is a quote (Q), source (S), or your own (ME)
  • Read original text, then write your own summary or paraphrase without looking at it.
  • Keep the source author's name in the same sentence as the quote in your notes
  • Highlight your notes in different colors to quickly see what is sourced from where--highlight the matching citation in the same color.

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