ShmoopTube

00:03

MLA style a la shmoop MLA is not that hip-hop artist you saw

00:09

[hip hop singer twerking on a stage] twerking at the VMA MLA actually stands for Modern Language Association but

00:15

they're about more than simply banishing all the thees, thine and doths from

00:19

our language these folks are devoted to all things language and literature and

00:23

that includes citation MLA style is used in almost all English and lit classes [hand picking up an MLA style book from a shelf]

00:28

it's pretty simple too all you need is the main body of your paper and a

00:31

special page devoted to the text you've quoted also known as works cited that's

00:36

a whole page one nice thing about MLA is that you don't even need a title page [piece of paper floating in the air by the seaside]

00:40

they're all about saving paper four out of five trees recommend MLA when citing

00:45

sources in the body of your paper you'll include the author's last name and the

00:48

page number of your quote putting them both into a little front seat sandwich

00:52

after whatever it is you're citing mayo and relish optional if you mention the [A note displaying citing sources with mayo and relish pots]

00:56

author's name when you introduce your quote or reference then you just include

00:59

the page number in your parentheses your parenthetical citation is always after

01:04

the quotation mark your page number is always inside the parentheses and your [piece of writing highlighting page number inside a parentheses]

01:08

period is always after the parentheses but of course there's always an

01:12

exception when citing more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse [large piece of text highlighted in yellow]

01:16

you'll put it into a block quote in this case your page number will come after

01:21

the ending punctuation of your quote MLA discourages the use of footnotes but you

01:25

can use them for bibliographic or explanatory notes so if you want someone [a judge sentencing a piece of paper with a footprint]

01:30

to put your paper down and run and grab another book use a footnote same if you [woman throwing a book and running away]

01:34

go off on a tangent like talking about that time you were in the basement of a

01:38

restaurant New York City singing show tunes not that we know anything about [a man in a restaurant singing]

01:43

tangents or show tunes frankly at the end you need to include a work cited

01:47

page it starts out simple put the words works cited centered at the top of the [piece of paper with works cited highlighted in yellow]

01:53

page no bold no quotes nothing flashy then your sources need to be listed

01:57

alphabetically by authors last name and you should utilize what they call the

02:01

hanging indent it's like a dangling symbol in that it sound a little

02:05

dirty but it's not that's MLA style no title page always include your page [MLA style guidelines on a book page]

02:10

number inside parenthetical citations and forget the work cited page which uses

02:14

hanging indents beats Gangnam style anyway [man dancing to gangnam style]

Full Transcript