Documentation - Citing Sources and the Work Cited Page in Critical/Research Essays using MLA Guidelines (2015)

It is important, when writing critical/research essays about literature, that the essay writer always gives credit for the ideas and words he/she "borrows" or "adopts" from someone else or from some other source. Not to do so, or "to use and pass off the ideas or writings of another as one's own" is called plagiarism, which is a very serious offense in academic circles, especially in college. The process of giving credit within the text of the essay and listing the sources from which the ideas/words come is called Documentation or Documentation of Sources.

As you know, in an English class, the essay writer must follows the MLA (Modern Language Association) guidelines for essay formatting and structure. These guidelines also provide the procedure for documenting sources. 

• When one copies, word for word, a word, phrase, sentence, or passage from another source into one's essay, one must enclose the copied text in quotation marks and follow it by the source author's name and page number of the source in parentheses.
• When one paraphrases a word, phrase, sentence, or passage from another source into one's essay, one will not use quotation marks, but will still follow the paraphrased text with  parentheses containing the source author's name and the page number upon which the original text was found.
• Even if one "borrows" an idea from another source, one must include the source author's name and page number in parentheses right after the idea is expressed in the essay.
• These references to the source are called in-text citations or parenthetical citations. The in-text citation comes immediately after the end quotation mark and before the punctuation that follows. There are many different kinds of texts an essay writer might use for sources, and the MLA guidelines provide the required citation methods for all of them.
• At the end of the essay, one must include a separate sheet called the Works Cited page. The purpose of this page is to list, in alphabetical order, the full publication information for all the sources one uses, or cites, in the essay. 

There are many online resources to help you understand the correct citation method to use and the proper way to format your Works Cited page. Some resources are listed below. (Also note that my blog post of June 18, 2015 lists some of these links as well.)

Also note that documents on plagiarism, which you are expected to read, have been shared with you via email.

Purdue OWL: Purdue Online Writing Lab, or Purdue OWL

    This very comprehensive online resource is a premier source for explanations and examples for all     MLA Documentation rules.

Easy Writer: Easy Writer - Companion to Reference Book
     This is the online reference companion to the Easy Writer book we will use 
     occasionally in class.

EasyBib: EasyBib.com

    This is a citation and works cited entry generator and that is easy to use.

Bibme: bibme.org

    Another free cite for works cited entries