Knowing what to write about is only half of what you need to know to write a good paper. You also need to know how to write that paper, and what rules and conventions of language and citation you are expected to follow. After all, if you are going to spend your time writing the paper, you want to make sure you earn as high a grade as possible. One way this is accomplished is by using a style guide. A style guide is a manual that establishes standard rules such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, formatting, language, citations, and references. These manuals help to establish consistency on what is accepted, expected, and allowed in formal writing.

MLA Style

Most English, literature, and humanities courses follow the rules of the Modern Language Association, or MLA, Style Guide. Most teachers will simply refer to it as “MLA.” In this interactivity, learn some of the most commonly used MLA style guidelines regarding formatting and citations. Click the player button to begin.

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In-Text Citations

Remember, when you borrow someone else’s words, works, or ideas, you must cite its source. You need to tell your readers from whom you are borrowing work, where it is in your paper or project, and where to find the original source. With the Modern Language Association, or MLA, Style Manual documentation, you do this in two steps. First, you provide the reader with an in-text citation with the author’s name and a page number.  In-text citations, also called parenthetical citations, should be placed in the sentence where the actual quote or paraphrase is located. Next, all sources from which in-text citations are gathered are then included as full-source citations on a Works Cited page. Here is an example of an in-text citation:

One scholar believes that the smelling abilities of dogs are as complex as the vision abilities of humans (Smith 72).

In this example, “(Smith 72)” is the in-text citation, indicating that this information came from page seventy-two of a work written by someone with the last name Smith. If the reader wanted more information about the source, he or she would go to the Works Cited page, the list of sources used in a paper, to find the full source information for the work by Smith. The chart below shows you how to format parenthetical in-text citations for commonly-used source types.

Situation	Format for In-Text Citation	Example of Citation
Work with One Author	Author’s last name and a page #	(Smith 72).
Work with Two Authors	Authors’ last names and a page #	(Bell and Gable 153).
Work with More than Two Authors	First author’s last name and “et. al.” and the page #	(Thompson et. al. 7).
Work with No Author	First three words of title (properly formatted) and the page #	(“Food for Thought” 18). (World Book Encyclopedia 153).
Two or More Works by the Same Author	Author’s last name, a comma, a shortened version of the title, and a page #	(Morrison, The Bluest Eye 56). (Morrison, Song of Solomon 21). Morrison wrote “…” (Sula 33).
Authors with the Same Last Name	Use the first initial, a period, and then the last name with a page number	(C. Moore 221). (A. Moore 45).

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Signal Phrases and Punctuation with In-Text Citations

When you are going to include a quote or paraphrase from another source in your paper, you should include a signal phrase.  A signal phrase lets your reader know that you are about to include a quote in your text. You will need to adjust the contents of your in-text citation depending on the information that you include in your signal phrase. There are two rules associated with signal phrases:

• RULE 1: If your signal phrase includes the author's name or names, then you will need to include the page number only in your parentheses.
• RULE 2:  If your signal phrase does not include the author's or authors’ name(s), then the author’s name and the pages number(s) are included in the parentheses.

It is important to punctuate in-text citations correctly. If you formally introduce a quote, you should use a colon before the quote, as shown in this example. If the quote becomes part of the sentence, then you should use the punctuation appropriate for the sentence, as shown in this example.

Works Cited

The final stage in the documentation process is to provide your readers with a list of all the sources referenced in your paper. In the Modern Language Association, or MLA, Style Manual, this listing of sources is called a Works Cited page. In this interactivity, learn more about a Works Cited. Click the player button to begin.

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MLA Style Review

Check your knowledge of MLA Style by completing the non-graded activity below. Choose the options that are correctly written and formatted in MLA Style. After selecting each answer, click SUBMIT. Click the player button to get started.