By providing in-text and bibliographic citations, the writer acknowledges, or gives credit to, sources of information.
The formatting for documentation determined by the discipline.
For academic writing in the sciences, criminology, and social work, see APA formatting.
For academic writing in arts, humanities, and language and literature courses, see MLA formatting.
In MLA the following are to be documented with both an in-text citation and a Works Cited:
direct quote
summary
paraphrase
See the information and discussion: MLA 2, MLA 3 and MLA 4 in Hacker and Sommers.
In-text citations are "a combination of signal phrases and parenthetical references" (Hacker and Sommers 389).
The signal phrase "introduces" source material; the parenthetical citation indicates the end of the borrowed material and is typically located at the end of the sentence (inside the period).
See the rules and models for in-text citations in MLA-4a (Hacker and Sommers 389-398).
A Works Cited is an alphabetical list of bibliographic citations for the texts, including images and electronic sources, that are referenced with in-text citations.
The Works Cited is a separate page in the same document: Use Insert>Page Break.
The cited works are listed alphabetically by the first word in the entry (excluding a, an, and the).
The cited works use a hanging indent and are double spaced.
See the rules and models for citations in MLA-4b (Hacker and Sommers 398-428).
Bibliographic citations provide publication information for the source.
The information that is included in the citation or entry is determined by the type of source: book, periodical (magazine, journal, newspaper), images, interview, speech, audio-visual, or electronic, including Internet sources.
As a general rule the citation begins with the author's last name. If the author is unknown, the citation begins with the source title.
The first line of each citation is flush with the left margin. The remaining lines are indented. The paragraph format option, hanging indent, is the option that is used to accomplish this.
The rules or guidelines for the bibliographic citation or entry are available in a number of sources:
Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2011. Print.
MLA: pp. 371-440.
provides information about supporting the thesis, what is to be cited and how to gather information, integrating sources into the paper, and the format for bibliographic citations, including a "Directory to MLA works cited models," which is a list of types of sources for which rules and models are provided.
"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." OWL Purdue Online Writing Lab. Purdue U. 2010. Web. 20 Aug. 2010. <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/>.
Additionally, there are several sites that provide templates to assist in creating citations. They are helpful but not infallible: Check citations.
Easy Bib
Bibme
Son of Citation