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Assignment | Controversial Topic Research Essay (Pentecost): MLA Style & Citations

ENGL 1302 | Prof. R. Pentecost (Spring 2022)

Working With Your Citations

Each time you use information not original to you, you need to include an in-text citation to link it to the source described on the Works Cited page.

It doesn't matter whether you're quoting the material or paraphrasing it: attribution is required!

Direct Quotes = Borrowed Words + Ideas

Ideas and Words (light bulb and speech bubble graphic)

Quoted material (repeated word-for-word) must have:
  • "Quotation marks" to show which words have been copied exactly
  • In-text citation, to give credit to the words + ideas you have borrowed

Paraphrasing = Borrowed Ideas

Ideas (light bulb graphic)

Paraphrased material is using the source's ideas when you need to use details, but the exact wording isn't important (or is too complicated or technical in the the original). This also calls for
  • In-text citation, to give credit to the ideas you have borrowed or have summarized

Summarizing = Shortened Ideas

 

 

Ideas (light bulb graphic)

 

 

Summarized material is much, much shorter than the source. It captures the gist or the main point in support of your argument but lengthy explanations are unnecessary. This also calls for
  • In-text citation, to note which of your sources you've summarized, still following the MLA style standard.

In-text citations come in two forms:

  • Parenthetical citations.
    • Reflects whatever comes first in the citation: often an author last name, but could be part of an article title instead, if a source doesn't have an individual author.
    • (Smith). (Smith and Jones). (Smith et al.). (Smith 34).

Side-by-side, an excerpt sentence with a parenthetical citation with a line drawn to match it to the full citation in the Works Cited.

  • Narrative citations.
    • Names a person or entity in the sentence. May be used in combination with a parenthetical citation to provide a page number, or if the speaker is different from the author of the cited source.
      • The New York Times reported something... (Smith).
      • Pew Research found that... ("Survey Results").
    • More effective if the person is actually interesting/significant. Primary source-makers -- the researchers who led an original study or a journalist who conducted an investigation.
      • Psychologist Dr. Jane Herrera at Stanford University found that ....

 

You can make some compromises: if you have several sentences in a row all from the same source, you can wait until the last sentence to give the parenthetical citation instead of having it over and over. However, if you keep using that same source in your next paragraph, you should go ahead and include the citation at the end of the first paragraph, and then start over with the sentence count with the next paragraph.

"A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane" ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Too long of a quote for a 5-page paper
  • Doesn't use any original content to introduce the quote or finish up the thought

The Kuiper Belt consists of icy chunks of frozen water, ammonia, and methane believed to be "leftover from the formation of the solar system," much like the rocky field of the asteroid belt ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • Only directly quotes what is needed
  • Original content introduces the quote

A bigger version of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But while the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

The Break-down:

  • No citation is given
  • Even if there were a citation, there are no quotation marks around the words repeated verbatim.
  • A few words have been swapped out for synonyms but this does not actually introduce originality.

Original Text from Source:

A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

 

Works Cited Citation:

“Two Years On, the Kuiper Belt is in sight.” The Economist, 16 Sept. 2017, www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2017/09/16/two-years-on-the-kuiper-belt-is-in-sight.

The Kuiper Belt is a planetary junkyard, full of debris believed to be left over from the formation of the solar system. It is a much bigger analogue of the asteroid belt. Objects in the Kuiper Belt, on the other hand, are primarily constructed of frozen water, ammonia, and methane, while those in the asteroid belt are mostly made of rock and metal. ("Two Years On")

The Break-down:

  • No true paraphrasing: just a synonym swap.
  • Flipping the order of a couple sentences also does not constitute original thought or interpretation.

Though both the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are believed to be remnants of the solar system's formation, the Kuiper belt consists mostly of ice rather than rock, including frozen methane and ammonia as well as water ("Two Years On").

The Break-down:

  • The source material is almost completely re-written
  • This would much more easily fit into the organization of my paper, since it's my voice and re-shaped to my purposes.

Though both the asteroid belt and Kuiper belt are believed to be remnants of the solar system's formation, the Kuiper belt consists mostly of ice rather than rock, including frozen methane and ammonia as well as water.

The Break-down:

  • No citation is given!
  • Even though this is paraphrased, it still needs the citation.

Original Text from Source:

A much larger analogue of the asteroid belt, the Kuiper Belt is a cosmic junkyard, full of rubble thought to be left over from the formation of the solar system. But whereas the asteroid belt is made mostly of rock and metal, objects in the Kuiper Belt are composed largely of frozen water, ammonia and methane.

 

Works Cited Citation:

“Two Years On, the Kuiper Belt is in sight.” The Economist, 16 Sept. 2017, www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2017/09/16/two-years-on-the-kuiper-belt-is-in-sight.

Example Citations

Two Authors:

Hill, Heather D., and Jennifer Romich. “How Will Higher Minimum Wages Affect Family Life and Children’s Well‐Being?” Child Development Perspectives, vol. 12, no. 2, June 2018, pp. 109–114. Academic Search Complete, doi:10.1111/cdep.12270. Accessed 1 April 2023.

Parenthetical Citation: (Hill and Romich). (Hill and Romich 110). (Hill and Romich 113-4).
Narrative Citation: University of Washington professors Heather D. Hill and Jennifer Romich suggest that... Hill and Romich also report...

 

No Author

"What is the Minimum Wage Really About?" Wall Street Journal, 14 Oct. 2020. US Major Dailies, login.lscsproxy.lonestar.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.lscsproxy.lonestar.edu/newspapers/what-is-minimum-wage-really-about/docview/2450611151/se-2?accountid=7054. Accessed 1 April 2023.

Parenthetical Citation: ("What is the Minimum Wage").
Narrative Citation: Not preferred in this case.  The Wall Street Journal says stuff ("What is the Minimum Wage").

Pre-Made Citations in the Databases

They all have a tool somewhere on the page to provide a premade citation. These tend to be pretty good in most cases, but do double-check what it gives you against the MLA guide examples and the information on the article itself!

 

EBSCO databases (like Academic Search Complete):

  1. Click into the article (record or PDF).
  2. Click "cite" in the toolbar on the right that appears.
  3. Scroll down to MLA and copy.
  4. Paste into document by right-clicking and choosing "merge formatting" option to exclude any unwanted colors, etc.
  5. Fix anything that needs fixing.
    1. Swap out EBSCOhost for the specific database name.
    2. If anything is in CAPSLOCK (author or article title), put it into Normal Title Capitalization instead.

When you click into an EBSCO article, a toolbar appears on the right. Towards the middle is a button to cite the article, which will open up a panel with an MLA citation to copy.

Gale in Context

  1. Click into an article.
  2. At the top of the page, there is a citation button with a quote mark icon. Click!
  3. Copy the provided citation (MLA8 is the default).
  4. Paste into your document, and check for any style revisions or corrections you might need to make.

Gale has a citation tool link near the top of the page, which will open up a citation window.