Goal:    to practice and perfect use of MLA Format

There are a number of online websites with information on how to make perfect MLA format such as The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University and Cornell Library. I have also gathered some of the most imporntant rules in this document as a reference to supplement your text's coverage of MLA format in Chapter 22.

Instructions: Open your paper in Microsoft Word.  Check the following 17 rules in your paper. Write 2-3 paragraphs describing your most common mistakes.

In-Text Citations

1. There must be an in-text citation for every source on the Works Cited page.
2. Cite all material that was summarized, paraphrased, or quoted from an outside source.
3. Place the author's name and page number in parentheses immediately after the material being cited.
4. If the source has no author use the first few words of the source title with the page number.
5. If an attributive tag already names the author, give only the page number in parentheses.
6. Once you have cited an author and it is clear that the same author's material is being used, you need only cite the page in parentheses.
7. The citation goes before the period.
8. If you are citing a quotation, the citation follows the quotation mark but goes before the final period.
9. When using a quotation or data that appears as a citation in another text, cite the indirect source by using "qtd. in."
10. If more than one work by one author was used, include an abbreviated title of the source.
 

The Spanish tried to reduce the status of Filipina women who had been able to do business, get divorced, and sometimes become village chiefs (Karnow 41).

The Spanish tried to reduce the status of Filipina women who had been able to do business, get divorced, and sometimes become village chiefs ("In Our Image" 41).

According to Karnow, the Spanish tried to reduce the status of Filipina women who had been able to do business, get divorced, and sometimes become village chiefs (41).

"And, to this day," Karnow continues, "women play a decisive role in Filipino families" (41).

(qtd. in Karnow 41).

(Karnow, "In Our Image" 41).

1. The list should not include works you read but did not cite.
2. All works are listed alphabetically by author, or by title if no author is listed.  Do not number the list.
3. Center the words Works Cited at the top of the page in regular font with no underlining or bold.
4. The first line of each entry should be flush left, while subsequent lines are indented five spaces.
5. The first word and all nouns are capitalized in all titles.
6. All entries end with a period.
7. Although Scholarly Journals, Popular Magazines and Newspapers are all periodicals, their entries provide different information. Please pay close attention to the requirements.
 
 

Barton, Ellen L. "Evidentials, Argumentation, and Epistemological Stance." College English 55.1 (1993):

            745-69.

Fallows, James.  "Vietnam: Low-Class Conclusions." Atlantic Monthly Apr. 1993: 38-44.

Henriques, Diana B. "Hero's Fall Teaches Wall Street a Lesson." Seattle Times 27 Sept. 1998: A1+.

Karnow, Stanley.  In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines.  New York: Random, 1989.

Portugeuse Langauge Page. U of Chicago. 16 April 2002 <http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/port/> 18 April
    2002.

United States.  Cong. Senate.  Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments of the Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings on the “Equal Rights” Amendment. 91st Cong., 2nd sess. S. Res. 61.   Washington: GPO, 1970.