Research Using MLA
In order to write a proper research paper, you need academic, scholarly sources. When you use the words or original ideas of another person, you need to document the sources. If exact words from the original are used, quotation marks are necessary. If you paraphrase, or restate the idea in your own words, quotation marks are not required, but in-text citations must be used.
Research papers must include quotes from primary and secondary sources using MLA documentation. These sources should support your thesis. Please use scholarly articles from the library (don't Google and use unacceptable articles found in SparkNotes, Wikipedia, Shmoop, Bookrags, wikis, and Content Farms).
To access the online library databases, go to the ACC Library and click A-Z list of databases, then click Subject. With some topics, you might be able to find useful databases via the Multi-Subject link (such as JSTOR or Academic Search Complete). At some point, you will be prompted to type in your ACCeID and password. Click here to find learn how to find scholarly articles using the ACC Library databases. If you need help, Ask a Librarian (available 24/7).
Library Presentation; Library PPT(note focus on biographical research)
English Department Research Guide; Literature & Literary Criticism Databases: JSTOR; Gale Literature Criticism; Literary Reference Center
The Works Cited
Instead of a bibliography, MLA format calls for a Works Cited page. In your Works Cited page, it is important to use hanging indentation, alphabetize, and double space.
All entries should be double spaced.
Alphabetize your list of sources by the last name of the author. If there is no author, alphabetize by the first word of the title (articles like a, an, and the do not count).
The first line of each entry is flushed left to the margin.
The second and subsequent lines use hanging indentation (and indented one-half inch to the right).
For audio-visual of sources formatted in hanging indentation, check out Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word (video). If you are using Pages, click here. For Google Docs, watch this helpful video or guide for setting up your Works Cited using hanging indentation.
Click here to learn how to cite lines of poetry (and music) and create a works cited entry. When citing poetry or song lyrics, provide the line numbers, rather than page numbers. Check out this video for guidance: Citing Poetry, Songs, and Plays
Click here to see how to cite an image using MLA format and here to cite AI research.
KnightCite - Easily create citations in MLA, APA, or Chicago/Turabian style using this app.
In longer papers (master's theses, dissertations), a Works Consulted page is often included to cite all the references that you may have referred to or used in your research but were not directly quoted from or paraphrased in your paper. Go here to view a paper that uses headings and subheadings (not allowed in most English classes).
Parenthetical Documentation (in-text citations)
In MLA, you will need to cite your source whether you are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing. In MLA format, "parenthetical documentation" or in-text citations are used to briefly identify the sources of information you have borrowed in writing your paper.
The general rule is to cite the source in the text of your paper and give the author's last name (or abbreviated title if there is no author), then the page number. The reader can then consult the list of works cited at the end of the paper to get the complete citation. Check out this video for audio/visual help.
Internet sources that lack pagination do NOT require page numbers in the citations.
If the author's name is mentioned in the signal phrase, you only need to put the page number in parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example:
Ross Parke says, "[N]atural fathers aren't the only ones raising children on their own" (52).
When there are three or more authors, use "et al." which is Latin for "and others."
For example: (Smith et al. 56) is preferable over (Smith, Jones, Miller, Brown 56).
For publications with no author given, you should include the first 2-3 key words from the title and the page number in parentheses (if it's a paginated source). For example:
The majority of fathers today "no longer know who they are or what their wives and children expect from them" ("Fathers Confused" 5).
When paraphrasing or summarizing information derived from several sources, you may document at the end of the paragraph. Separate sources with a semi-colon. For example:
In order to achieve Nirvana, one must follow the Eight Noble Path ("Nirvana"; Ross 92).
Block Quotes
Use the block quote format when prose is more than four typed lines or when poetry is more than three typed lines-- and do not use quotation marks unless the author uses them. Indent one-half inch on the left side, double space, and do not indent on the right. The citation should follow in parentheses (or line nos. in poetry). After each block quote, you should have a comment that ties the quote to the point you are trying to make. Below is an example of a long quote that is introduced with a sentence and colon and is in the block quote format :
