Writing: A Research Guide

This page guides you through library resources and search strategies for the WRIT 100 & 200 series

MLA

You know you need to cite your sources, but MLA style has a lot of guidelines! Here's a 3-minute intro to the basics:

 

 

If you really want to nerd out on MLA style, MLA Handbook Plus, available online through the library, has a whole series of videos on the different parts of citations.

Or ask a librarian!

Now try this to get an auto-generated MLA citation for a source from Library Search: 

  1. Try a search on your topic in Library Search. 
  2. Pick an article that looks relevant. 
  3. Click the quotation mark (") icon, just above the title of the source.
  4. Click MLA (9th edition)

Then consider the following:

  1. Compare the database-generated citation you just pasted with the video's example of a properly cited journal article. Is there anything about this database-generated citation that you would need to fix to make it a proper MLA citation? (For example, is everything capitalized correctly? Are the authors' names formatted correctly?)
  2. Then consider: How would you write the in-text citation for a quote from that same article? (You can make up a page number.) Example: (Kelson and Daneshjoo, 134)

SMC Library's MLA Style Guide

Subjects: Writing
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