MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. Use MLA style for Humanities and Language courses. MLA 9 is the newest version of the rules.
"MLA citations" refers to the formatting rules you need to follow for giving credit to sources.
There are two parts to citation in an essay:
This guide has lessons, tools, and videos to help you create perfect citations. If you are not sure about something or you need help, please email your librarian.
#1 piece of advice:
Take notes using a system that keeps your fact, your source, and your thinking about the fact together in one note. When you do in-text citations later, it will be very important to know what evidence is paraphrased, what is quoted, and where that exact information came from.
Good notetaking = easy referencing later on
#2 piece of advice:
Create your Works Cited page FIRST, then do your in-text citations.
MLA Style Guide: How to format your paper & your citations.
FDR's Style Guide: How to format your paper & your citations
Sample Paper in MLA format from WritingCommons.org
Sample Science Paper in MLA format
Sample History Paper in MLA format (via OWL)
Sample Paper in APA format (via OWL)
Works Cited Example from Purdue's Online Writing Lab (OWL)
In-text Citation Examples from WritingCommons.org
MLA Template (forced google doc copy)
