Citation & Plagiarism: Formatting Guidelines

What information goes into a citation?

• Author and/or editor names (if available)
• Article name in quotation marks.
• Title of the website, project, or book in italics.
• Any version numbers available, including editions (ed.), revisions, posting dates, volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
• Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
• Take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.).
• URL (without the https://).
• Date you accessed the material (Date Accessed).
• Remember to cite containers after your regular citation. Examples of containers are collections of short stories or poems, a television series, or even a website. A container is anything that is a part of a larger body of works.
   

What is the format of a citation? It may look different depending on the type of information that you are citing. Here are some examples:

Book in print:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of chapter or section.” Title of the work, translated by or edited by First name Last name, vol. number, City of Publication*, Publisher, Year the book was published, page number(s).

Website:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of the Article or Individual Page.” Title of the website, Name of the publisher, Date of publication, URL.

Digital image online:

Creator’s Last name, First name. “Title of the digital image.” Title of the website, First name Last name of any contributors, Version (if applicable), Number (if applicable), Publisher, Publication date, URL.

 Journal article from database:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of the article.” Title of the journal, First name Last name of any other contributors (if applicable), Version (if applicable), Numbers (such as a volume and issue number), Publication date, Page numbers. Title of the database, URL.

Print magazine/newspaper:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of the article.” Title of the newspaper, First name Last name of any other contributors, Version, Numbers, Date of publication, Location.

Film or video online:

Last name, First name of the creator. “Title of the film or video.” Title of the website, role of contributors and their First name Last name, Version, Numbers, Publisher, Publication date, URL.
 

*MLA also uses the phrase, “Accessed” to denote which date you accessed the web page when available or necessary. It is not required to do so but especially encouraged when there is no copyright date listed on a website.

In text citations:

In-Text citations should be placed directly after the direct quote or paraphrase, or in a place that is a natural pause and does not cause the reader to become distracted while reading the body of your work.

Example:

In order to prevent starvation, Watney knew exactly what he needed to do. “My best bet for making calories is potatoes” (Weir 17).

When using the author’s name in the sentence, only include the page number in the parentheses.

Example:

Seuss’s use of words such as, “lurk” and “dank” help students understand the type of character that the Once-ler is (6).