Citations 101

MLA General Guidelines

• Paper Setup: one inch margins, double spaced, size 12 Times New Roman font
• Paper Sections: Main Body and Works Cited

MLA In-Text Citations - Basic Guidelines

• Italicize the titles of books, movies, television series, documentaries, or albums
  • Ex.: Jordan Peele's directorial debut, Get Out, came out in 2017.
• The titles of short stories, journal articles, specific web pages, and song titles go in quotation marks
  • Ex.: The 1950 film Rashomon is based on Ryūnosuke Akutagawa’s “In a Grove,” which was first published in 1922.
• General author/date formats when summarizing or paraphrasing: Sentence (Lastname page number).
  • Ex.: Paraphrasing is an important skill (Wilcove 76).
  • Ex.: According to Wilcove, paraphrasing is an important skill (76).
• When there is no author or you have referred to the author within the sentence, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name: Sentence (Title page number).
  • Ex.: In his book on censorship, Ovenden offers multiple examples of the centrality of books to Jewish religion and culture (Burning the Books 119-120).
• Block quote only when the quote is four or more lines long. The parenthetical citation for block quotes comes after the closing punctuation: word. (p. 56)

MLA Works Cited - Basic Guidelines

• Double spaced, alphabetical by author's last name
• Books: Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
• Journal Articles: Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.
• Websites: Author. "Title of webpage." Title of website, Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). Date of Access (if applicable).
• Images/art: Creator. Name of the artwork. Date of creation. Owning institution/museum/gallery, URL.

MLA Citation Format for Class Handouts

Works Cited: Teacher last name, first name. "Name of the handout." Class Term and Year. Class Handout, Name of the class.

• Ex.: Silverman, Russell. "The Odyssey: Who's Who." Winter 2023. Class Handout, Class 9 English.

NoodleTools Steps for Class Handouts:

• Select "File, app, or eBook" and then "Standalone File"
• In the "Type of file/software/app" box, put "Class Handout, [Name of the class]"
• List the teacher as "Author" and the title of the handout as the "Title of the document"
• In the Date written/created box, put in the class term and year.

MLA Citation for Coursepacks

• Works Cited: Teacher last name, first name. Name of Course Pack. Name of the class, The Chapin School, Class Term and Year.
  • Ex.: Silverman, Russell. Class 9 English Course Pack. Class 9 English, The Chapin School, Winter 2021.
• Excerpts in Course Packs:
  • In-text citations: Sentence (Original Author lastname, in Lastname page number).
    • Ex.: The Odyssey is just as much the story of Telemachus (Beard, in Silverman 16).
  • Works Cited: Original Author Last Name, First Name. "Name of Excerpt." Name of Course Pack, by Teacher First Name Last Name, Name of the Class, The Chapin School, Class Term and Year.
    • Ex.: Beard, Mary. "Women and Power." Class 9 English Course Pack, by Russell Silverman, Class 9 English, The Chapin School, Winter 2021.

NoodleTools Steps for a Course Pack:

• Select "Anthology/Collection"
• List the original author, title, and publication year in the "Story, Essay, Poem, Longer Work" section
• Put in the page number(s) of the excerpt for the course pack (not any original page numbers)
• List the teacher as "Author" and the title of the course pack as the "Title of anthology"
• Publisher is The Chapin School, Year is the Class term and year, and Publication city is the name of the course