Citing Sources: MLA

• Citations are no longer specific to the type of source.
• You no longer need to include medium (print, web, etc.)
• You no longer need cities of publication for books.
• If the publisher of a website is the same as the name of the website you no longer need publisher information. 
• You no longer need to include the date you accessed a website or database.
• Journal issues are now identified with abbreviations for volume and issue (e.g. "v. 64, no. 1" replaces "64.1").

Citations allow us to give credit when we borrow from the words and ideas of author and artists.

When you forget to cite or purposely try to pass off someone else's work or ideas as your own, it's considered plagiarism. Besides being dishonest, plagiarism is a violation of the FIT Academic Honor Code. Check out this infographic from Turnitin.com to see how you can avoid the most common types of plagiarism.

Just FYI: Our library catalog as well as many of our databases have a built in citation generator tool!

Here are some other popular ones:
• Easy Bib
• Mendeley
• Zotero (Check out our research guide on Zotero.)

Yes, we certainly can! Here are a couple of ways to reach us:
• Text: 646.759.9553
• Call: 212.217.4400
• Email/Chat: Ask the Library 

For help with in-depth writing and proofreading you can contact the FIT Writing Studio. (It's free!)

Also known as an indirect or secondary citation. The best way to handle this is to try and access the original source. For example, if you read a news article that cites a market report, you should try to find the market report and cite directly from that. This can also be helpful to make sure you understand the context of the original report.

Sometimes however, you may not have access to the original source. In that case cite the secondary source (i.e. what you have in front of you) using qtd. as an abbreviation for "quoted" and mention the original source within the sentence.

According to a Mintel report, consumers are more likely to purchase athletic shoes (65%) over dress shoes (34%) as the trend for comfortable shoes continues (qtd. in Doupnik 11).

In the above example, Mintel is the original source and Doupnik is the secondary source.

There's no magic number for how many times you should have an in-text citation.  The general rule is that each time you use an idea or words from someone else you should provide a citation. This could mean having multiple citations in one sentence or having one citation at the end of entire paragraph.  Make sure that you cite in a way that someone reading your paper for the first time can match exactly which idea came from which source.

For an example of what NOT to do:

Frogs are excellent indicator species to measure wetland health. They are very sensitive to changes in pH caused by acid rain, and they are also very sensitive to different types of pollution. When frog populations in a wetland plummet, one can be sure that something is going wrong in the wetland. In addition, when oddities in frog morphology appear, like frogs with five legs or two heads, one can also assume something is going wrong in the wetland environment (Willemssen 341).

This writer has not included enough citations.  It's difficult to tell which part of this paragraph came from the source.

Here are two examples of GOOD in-text citation style:

Sample 1

Frogs are excellent indicator species to measure wetland health. According to a recent study by Willemssen, frogs are very sensitive to changes in pH caused by acid rain, and they are also very sensitive to different types of pollution. The study notes that when frog populations in a wetland plummet, one can be sure that something is going wrong in the wetland. In addition, when oddities in frog morphology appear, like frogs with five legs or two heads, one can also assume something is going wrong in the wetland environment (Willemssen 341).

Sample 2

Frogs are excellent indicator species to measure wetland health.  Willemssen recently conducted research in Wisconsin that shows that frogs are very sensitive to changes in pH caused by acid rain, and they are also very sensitive to different types of pollution. Willemssen's research indicates that when frog populations in a wetland plummet, one can be sure that something is going wrong in the wetland. One very telling quote from Willemssen's research is that "87% of wetlands where two-headed frogs are found have high levels of  environmental contamination" (p. 341). 

Adapted from http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/faq/32328

This guide was created by Marian Weston and adapted by Miyo Sandlin. It incorporates work from the MLA guide created at St. Francis College. Sources consulted include Plagiarism.org, Rasmussen College LibAnswers, The MLA Style Center and OWL at Purdue. Icon made by Freepik from flaticon.com