Citing sources is an important component of information literacy, because it helps you trace where your information came from and to support it with evidence. Citations capture the scholarly conversation surrounding a topic and citing gives credit to the original author, which helps you avoid plagiarizing their work. While there are a large number of different citation styles, each citation style uses the same building blocks (e.g. author name, title, page numbers, etc.) so once you know one style, you can easily transfer your skills to any other style.
MLA (Modern Language Association) is the common citation style of the humanities. This is the citation style that you will use for any English classes that you take, so no matter what you are studying, it's a useful style to know.
Note for INFO 1010:
MLA 9th Edition (MLA 9) is the citation style you will use for your ENGL 2010 papers. Proper citations are also required for both the INFO 1010 Module 4 and Module 5 assignments. Citations are very detail oriented, especially with regards to punctuation. Every period and comma are there for a purpose, and you need to be sure of each one. The additional resources and quick guides in the box to the bottom left are super helpful if this guide leaves you with more questions. Also, the SUU librarians are always happy to help you with proper citation.
Citation StylesCitation style formats guide you on how to organize the information so that it's easily recognizable and others can find the sources used by an author. Think about the citation as being the address or directions to locating the information. You need to know the exact address to find the source. For example, if you are using Google Maps to find a house but the address is missing a house number, you will have trouble finding the location. Citation formats are just like address formats in that they quickly tell us where the article, book, or video can be found and who created it.
Text in the body of the paper:
"Although it is hardly a cruel story, the legend of Hachiko provides a useful framework for probing the relationship between dogs and fascism " (Skabelund 91).
According to Skabelund, the legend of Hachiko shows the connection between native dogs and fascism (91).
The legend of Hachiko was then used to promote fascism through the promotion of pure native dogs (Skabelund 91).
The study by Su et al. shows that dogs are more expressive with their emotions than cats are (9).
The study revealed that dogs are more expressive with their emotions than cats are (Su et al. 9).
The full citation as it would appear in the Works Cited page:
Your Works Cited page is a list of all the sources that you used in your paper. Remember, your in-text citations are short notes that point to the full citation at the end that contains the details in the proper citation format. This means that everything you cite in your paper should have a full citation on your Works Cited page. Also, everything on your Works Cited page should be cited in the text of your paper. So when your professor asks for a certain number of sources for your paper, they expect you to cite these sources in the text of your paper with the complete citations on your Works Cited page.
MLA 9 always follows the same format and order using the core elements of the source you are citing. There are nine core elements: author, title of source, title of container, number, publication date, and location. If the source doesn't have a certain element, you simply skip it. Here is how a book and an article commonly look with the elements that commonly apply:
Notice how neither of these citations use every single core element, and that one of them has two of an element, namely the second container on the article citation format for the name of the database that had the article in it. One of the newest additions in MLA 9 is the concept of containers, or the bigger work where the source is contained, such as in a book, journal, or subscription services like library databases or streaming platforms (i.e. ProQuest Central or Netflix, etc.). Books are considered containers because they are larger publications with smaller parts inside (chapters). Journals and magazines are containers because they contain articles. Databases are also considered containers because they contain books and articles from journals, magazines, and newspapers.
Note that the citations on the Works Cited page require what is called a Hanging Indent. This means that the first line of the citation is flush left with the margins and all lines below indented by half an inch. There are different ways to do this depending on what word processor you are using: Hanging Indents in Microsoft Word and Hanging Indents in Google Docs.
Articles are shorter pieces of writing that are published inside a journal, magazine, or newspapers. They are typically about a single subject and can be brief, like in newspapers, or long like in journals. They are therefore published in a container, which is the journal, magazine, or newspaper mentioned earlier. These containers are published frequently and are marked with volumes and issues to make each easy to find articles within the container itself. The volume and issue designations are held over from when journals and magazines were all published in physical copies.
For journals, the volume usually refers to how many years the journal has been in publication. The issues will be the individual journals published within that volume year. So a journal that had been in publication for 20 years and publishes an issue 4 times a year, could have a volume 20 with 4 different issues. In MLA, the first issue of that 20th volume would be cited as Vol. 20, no. 1. The “no.” being a short form for number, meaning the issue number.
When you are citing articles, you will cite the actual article you are using by title, as well as the container it's published in (i.e. the name of the journal or magazine). Then you list the volume and issue that article is published in. The publisher isn’t necessary, since the journal information is enough, so you skip that and move on to the date and location. Location for articles means the page range where you can find the article within that volume and issue of the journal or magazine. Some journals and magazines won’t have page numbers because they exist completely online. If that is the case, then you just skip it, ending with the date.
Then you start the process again with the second container, if you are accessing the article through a database, where you add the database name in italics, and the location of the article within that database, which is the DOI or stable URL
Template:
Example:
Books are considered containers, because they have smaller parts inside (i.e. chapters), so the title is italicized. Since books don't have volumes or issues you skip these elements and go straight to the publisher and date.
If the book is an ebook, you should either state that it’s an ebook in the version spot, or if you accessed it through a library database you once again cite the second container which is where you accessed that ebook, or the database you accessed the ebook from.
Template:
Example:
Here are some tips to remember:
When listing sources on a Works Cited or References page, it might help to think of the citations as little sentences describing the information, separated with the appropriate punctuation. You will need to follow the MLA 9 style for Module 4 Assignment, so pay close attention to the patterns so you can accurately create your own citations for your own sources.
Citation generators (such as the EBSCO or ProQuest database generators or products like BibTeX or Zotero) are really nice tools for saving time, but they aren't always 100% correct, so being familiar with a citation style so that you can spot the mistakes is important when using them. Citation generators save a lot of time because you do not have to create a citation from scratch, but double check those citations for machine-generated mistakes. The databases can only be as smart as the data entry, so things like ALL CAPS, mistakes in the DOI, or missing italics happen. Always make sure to proofread!
In ProQuest databases, you can find the citation generator in the top right corner when viewing an article.
Once you’ve clicked on the cite link (icon with the quotation marks) you can choose your citation style, MLA 9, and then copy the citation into your word document or worksheet.
Notice how the following generated citation has a few very obvious errors. There is a random bit of punctuation in the author name list, and it lists both the URL and the DOI at the end of the citation. You don’t need both and when the DOI is available, that is the much better option to use. So a best proofreading practice here would be to delete the URL and leave the DOI.
Note that even the citation generator reminds you to use a style guide to check the accuracy of all generated citations.
If you are using an EBSCO database, the citation generator is on the right sidebar. You can scroll to the correct citation style, highlight the citation, and then copy and paste.
A best practice when copying from EBSCO is to make sure to merge formatting (Microsoft Office- Ctrl + m) or paste without formatting (Ctrl + Shift + v) to remove the beige background, and to match the citation to same font and style you are using in your document. Be sure to add back in any italics or other formatting that will be removed if you paste without formatting.
Note that not all citation generators are up to date, sometimes they will list the edition of the style (i.e. APA 6th or MLA 7th), but other times they will just list the citation style name (i.e APA or MLA). Google Scholar is a Citation Generator to be wary of because it is currently out of date and still uses MLA 7. This is so different from MLA 9 that it would be better to use a different citation tool, or even create your own citation by hand. Always proofread and compare any generated citations with a citation style guide such as this reading or information from the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): Purdue OWL.
You will be asked to create and use proper citations for both INFO 1010 Module 4 and Module 5 assignments. These citations can be either created by hand or copied and pasted from the citation generator. However, either way you will have to carefully proofread to make sure these citations are correct and in a consistent format to the rest of your assignment. Common errors include having author names or titles in ALL CAPS (capital letters), or losing the italics when you paste without formatting. Make sure that you use the proper DOI or permalink as well. Ultimately, you are responsible for creating a correct citation.
