Citations MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

	It is very important to give proper credit by citing your sources in a researched paper. Today I will a brief overview of one method of citation. It is the MLA style of documentation, one of the more widely used in Universities, is most often used for papers in English. 


1. Using parenthetical citations.

	Traditionally footnotes and end notes were commonly used; even though the note system is still used in some disciplines, the MLA recommends using  the parenthetical notation directly in the text. These paranthetical notations refer the reader to a list of works cited at the end of the paper. The advantage of this system is that it is easy for both writers and readers to use. The MLA suggest reserving numbered notes for supplementary or explanatory comments. The numbers are inserted in the appropriate places in the text., and the notes are gathered at the end of the paper. p.539

	ELEMENTS

	The basic elements of the parenthetical citation are the author's last name and the page number of the material used in the source. However, it is not necessary to repeat any information that is clearly provided. In the other words omit the authors name in the parenthetical notation if you have identified it in the text of the paper, shortly before the material being cited.

	A Work By One Author.

	Olivier creates Richard III's "central device of coherence" by using a cyclical theme of the crown ( Brown 133).

	In this citation, the author's name is  included within the paranthesis because it is not mentioned in the text. Since there is only one work by brown in the list of works cited (p.541), there is no need to place a title in the parenthesis. However, a page number is included because the reference is to a specific passage. Note how the citation changes if the text includes more information about the source:

	Constance Brown argues that in Richard III, Laurence Olivier uses a cyclical theme of the crown to create the "the central device of coherence" (133).

	A Work By Two Authors

	The internet is "simply one of the central characters in the play, a play in which all the information around us is being converted into digital form and in which the digital 1s and 0s of that information are regularly exchanged" ( Carroll and Broadhead 9).

	Provide the last name of each author, punctuating as you would for items in a series. Commas are not necessary in a citation involving only two authors, for example: (  Carroll and Broadhead 9).

	A Work By More Than Three Authors

	For a work with more than three authors, follow the bibliographic entry, giving either the first author's last name followed by et al. [Latin for: "and others"], or all the last names. Note:( Do not underline or italize the Latin phrase.)

	In one important study, women graduates complained more frequently about "excessive control than about lack of structure" (Belenky et al. 205).

	OR

	In one important study, women graduates complained more frequently about "excessive control than about lack of structure" (Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule 205


	A Multivolume Work

	When you cite material from a multivolume work, include the volume number ( followed by a colon and a space)before the page number.

	As Katherine Raine has argued, "true poetry begins where human personality ends" (2: 247).

	If your list of works cited includes only one volume of a multivolume work, then you do not need to include the volume number in the parenthetical citation.

	More Than One Work By The Same Author

	When your list of works cited includes more than one work by the same author, your parenthetical citations should include a shortened title that reveals which of the author's works is being cited in a particular instance. Use a comma to separate the author's name from the shortened title when both are in the parenthesis.

	
	According to Gilbert and Gubar, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, and Virginia Woolf considered poetry by women to be forbidden and problematic (Shakespaere's Sisters 107). That attitude was based on the conception that male sexuality is the "essence of literary power" (Gilbert and Gubar, Madwoman 4)


	This passage cites two different books by the same authors, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar: Shakespeare's Sisters: Feminist Essays on Women Poets and The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination. The author's names are not necessary in the first citation since they are mentioned in the text; they are included in the second citation because their names are not mentioned in connection with Madwoman.

	You can often avoid cumbersome references by including information in the text that might otherwise have to appear parenthetically:

	In The Madwoman in the Attic and Shakespeare's Sisters, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar argue that the infrequent appearance of women as literary figures is a result of the repression imposed by male sexuality.

	Works by Different Authors with the same last name

	Occasionally your list of works cited will contain sources by two authors woith the same last name-for example, rhetoricians Theresa Enos and Richard Enos. In such cases, you must use the first name as well as the last.

	Richard Enos includes a thirteen-page bibliography in Greek Rhetoric before Aristotle (141-54). In her collection of articles by prominent figures in modern rhetoric and philosophy, Professing the New Rhetorics, Theresa Enos mentions the considerable