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ENC 1101: Composition - Professor Miranda: MLA Style

This guide was created to support Professor Miranda's ENC 1101 course

Typewriter with ENC 1101 and the word Composition

MLA Handbook

Introduction to Citations, MLA 9th ed.

Sample Paper

This paper is formatted using MLA formatting.

Formatting Guidelines

  • 1 inch margins from top, bottom, left, and right
  • Times New Roman, 12 point font
  • Double spaced
  • Create a header with your last name and page number in the top right corner (Ex: Hughes 1)
  • Unless directed by a professor, you do not need a title page. Instead, in the top left corner include:
    • Your Name
    • Your Professor's Name
    • Course Name
    • Date
  • Include a Works Cited Page as a separate page at the end

Citations

  • Citations are needed when paraphrasing or direct quoting any information that is not considered common knowledge.
    • Paraphrasing is writing someone else's ideas in your own words. 
    • Direct quoting is using the exact wording of the author.
  • In-Text Citations:
    • Where documentation is required, put the author’s last name or one word title of web site and page number at the end of the sentence in parentheses. 
    • If you included an author’s name in your sentence, you do not need to reuse the author’s name. 
  • Examples:
    • Paraphrasing: When the Civil War started, it was assumed the South's loyalty to the Union would prevail after a quick skirmish. The Union did not anticipate a long war but rather foresaw a limited engagement to put down an insurrection (McPherson 333).
    • Direct quoting: "In the spring of 1861 most northern leaders thought in terms of a limited war. Their purpose was not to conquer the South but to suppress insurrection and win back the latent loyalty of the southern people. The faith in southern unionism lingered long" (McPherson 333).
    • Direct quoting using author's name in the sentence: According to historian James McPherson, "In the spring of 1861 most northern leaders thought in terms of a limited war. Their purpose was not to conquer the South but to suppress insurrection and win back the latent loyalty of the southern people. The faith in southern unionism lingered long" (333).

Works Cited Examples

Books

Book by One Author

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. Picador, 2010.

Book by an Unknown Author

Beowulf. Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.

An Edited Book

Sánchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor. Mexican Literature in Theory. Bloomsbury, 2018.

Online Works

Article on a website

Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/ the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-thecreative-entrepreneur/383497/.

Book on a website

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. HathiTrust Digital Library, hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924079574368.

Journal Article in a Database

Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, spring 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.

Songs, Recordings, and Performances

Song from an Album

Snail Mail. “Thinning.” Habit, Sister Polygon Records, 2016. Vinyl EP. 

Song on a website

Snail Mail. “Thinning.” Bandcamp, snailmailbaltimore.bandcamp.com.

Concert Attended in Person

Beyoncé. The “Formation” World Tour. 14 May 2016, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles.

Movies, Videos, and Television Shows

A Movie Viewed in Person

Opening Night. Directed by John Cassavetes, Faces Distribution, 1977. 

A Movie Viewed Online

Richardson, Tony, director. Sanctuary. Screenplay by James Poe, Twentieth Century Fox, 1961. YouTube, uploaded by LostCinemaChannel, 17 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMnzFM_Sq8s.

A Television Show Viewed on Physical Media

“Hush.” 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fourth Season, created by Joss Whedon, episode 10, Mutant Enemy / Twentieth Century Fox, 2003, disc 3. DVD.

Images

A Photograph Viewed in Person

Cameron, Julia Margaret. Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 1866, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

A Painting Viewed Online

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

An Untitled Image from a Print Magazine

Karasik, Paul. Cartoon. The New Yorker, 14 Apr. 2008, p. 49

 

Source: MDC LibGuide: MLA Style

Works Cited Page

  • Cite only the sources you used in your paper.
  • Works Cited pages should be alphabetized by author's last name or the title of the work if there is no author.
  • Double space all citations.
  • Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations five spaces so that you create a hanging indent.

Citation Generators

There are multiple websites that generate citations; they are not always perfect, however, so please double check your citations!

Example of Works Cited