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Assignment | Political Typology Beyond Red vs. Blue (Plank): MLA Writing & Citing

GOVT 2305 | Prof. Matt Plank (Spring 2024)

Example Citations

Example: Web Article

Use this if you're reading it as a webpage and jumping from page to page.

"8. Outsider Left." Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology, Pew Research Center, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/outsider-left/.

Parenthetical citation: ("8. Outsider Left").

 

Alternate approach:

If you feel unhappy with starting the article title with a number, try this way:

"Outsider Left." Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology, section 8, Pew Research Center, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/outsider-left/.

Parenthetical citation: ("Outsider Left").

 

Example: PDF Report

Use this if you download the pdf, which combines all the different smaller articles into one big report. Because there are page numbers, your in-text citations will include that!

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology. Pew Research Center, 9 Nov. 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/11/PP_2021.11.09_political-typology_REPORT.pdf.

Parenthetical citation: (Beyond Red vs Blue). (Beyond Red vs Blue 101).

 

Hint:

Don't pay any attention to that "recommended citation" on the cover page of the report. Does that look like MLA to you?

(Second hint: look at the above example to compare if you aren't sure!)

Borunda, Daniel. "Sen. Ted Cruz Focuses on NAFTA, Border Wall, Obamacare in El Paso Visit." El Paso Times, 24 Aug. 2017, https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/politics/2017/08/24/sen-ted-cruz-targets-obamacare-during-el-paso-visit/597749001/.

Parenthetical citation: (Borunda).

No author?

These examples are treated as not having an author because an individual author is not identified, but we can also be pretty sure that the politicians are not personally updating and writing their own content.

"Energy, Water, Environment." Ted Cruz: US Senator for Texas, US Senate, https://www.cruz.senate.gov/about/issues/energy-environment.

Parenthetical citation: ("Energy"). Or depending on your other citations, could be ("Energy, Water") or even ("Energy, Water, Environment") -- enough to be unique!

 

"Sen. Cruz Reintroduces Bills to Protect American’s Essential Freedoms by Blocking Current and Future Government COVID Mandates." Ted Cruz: US Senator for Texas, US Senate, 31 Jan. 2023, https://www.cruz.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/sen-cruz-reintroduces-bills-to-protect-americans-essential-freedoms-by-blocking-current-and-future-government-covid-mandates.

Parenthetical citation: ("Sen. Cruz").

 

"The Green New Deal." Bernie, Friends of Bernie Sanders, https://berniesanders.com/issues/green-new-deal/.

Parenthetical citation: ("The Green New Deal").

MLA Tip

Citations are impacted by how and where you read the content. For Pew's Political Typology, there's a couple ways to go:

  •  flip through page to page of their report just by browsing the site.
  • They also have everything bundled up as 1 report.

 

Cite according to what you actually looked at.

In-Text Citations

MLA How-To: In-Text Citations

A basic MLA in-text citation includes the author's last name and specific page number your information came from. Parenthetical citations come before the final period of a sentence, but after any quotations marks used to indicate a direct quote.

(Lastname #)   e.g.  (Smith 14)

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