MLA Style Citation—Introduction

Citation is:

• the process by which we point people towards material that we read in order to write our work
• an expectation for all college students and scholars
• what separates scholarly research from rank plagiarism.

Citation is not:

• an optional practice for overacheivers
• something we add to our ideas afterwards to make our research look good.
• done the same way by scholars in different fields.

• To give credit to those who helped form our ideas
• To make it easy for people to find materials that we read
• To help readers find other material relating to the topic, besides what we wrote
• To help readers evaluate the context from which we took our quotations

The Modern Language Association (MLA) has developed and endorsed a style of citation which is widely used by students and scholars in the humanities, most specifically in the study of literature.

A description of MLA style can be found in their Handbook for Writer's of Research Papers and (in abbreviated form) in Diana Hacker's A Writer's Reference, both of which can be found in the FP library. Answers to common questions about MLA style can be found at the MLA Style FAQ on the Web, but this is not a comprehensive source of information on MLA Style.