Writing a Proper Citation
In MLA Format

Overview

When you use someone else's thoughts, words, or ideas in your paper, you must write a proper bibliographic citation. This tutorial is designed to introduce you to the parts of a citation and to show you the basic formats. It will also link you to Knight Cite; an on-line citation generator developed by the Hekman Library at Calvin College.

Objectives

At the conclusion of this tutorial, you will:

• be able to identify the basic elements of a proper citation: author, title, publisher, publication date, and date of access (for Internet sites).

• be able to write a basic citation using models provided in the tutorial.

• be able to access Knight Cite which can be used to check your citations.

Content

There are five sections in the tutorial

• Section 1: Courtesy, Credibility, and Credit: The Three Cs of Citation

• Section 2: Parts of a Citation

• Section 3: Basic Formats

• Section 4: Frequently Asked Questions

• Section 5: Knight Cite
  PLEASE NOTE: As of 25 May 2009, Knight Cite had not yet updated their website to incorporate changes made in the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook; changes that became effective in April 2009. Those changes are scheduled to take place during Summer 2009.

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Steven L. Berg, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of English and History
Schoolcraft College, 18600 Haggerty
Livonia, MI 48152
734-462-4400
sberg@schoolcraft.edu

This page was last updated on 25 May 2009.