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MLA & APA Citation Guides: Citations Home

We’ve designed this guide to explain: • What citations are • How you use them in your written assignments • Why it’s important to use them • How they are formatted

Welcome to the library's citation help guide.

This guide is meant to provide you with a self-paced, basic introduction to:
  • the concept or practice of using citations in research papers
  • the two standard research citation styles MLA and APA

Citation Guides

What are citations and why do I have to use them? I know most of what's in the paper anyway.

The premise behind your research paper is:

"After doing some investigation into this topic, this is what I think about it. But I’m not asking you to take my word for it; I’ve got highly respected writers and acknowledged experts to back me up. Also, on the last page of my paper I have listed, in alphabetical order, the name of each of those experts and the title of the article they wrote.  Plus, I've let you know exactly where in my paper I’ve used their ideas to back up what I’ve written by citing them in ( ) each time I use one of their ideas to prove my thesis."

What does a paper look like with in-text citations and Works Cited full citations? Scroll down the paper below to see.

The citations in this paper are formatted using MLA, so called because it is a citation standard developed and maintained by the         Modern Language Association.

 For illustration only: Each in-text citation  is color coded to match its corresponding full citation on the Works Cited page. Do not  use any font color other than black unless specified by your instructor(s).

 

Below, there is a link to a PDF copy of the sample paper you see above.

Your MLA Librarian

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