Guides: MLA referencing style: Introduction

In this guide...

Why is Referencing Important?

Referencing or citing your sources is an important part of academic writing. It lets you acknowledge the ideas or words of others if you use them in your work and helps avoid plagiarism.

When books, journals, official publications, newspapers etc. are used to reinforce ideas in an essay, you must give credit to these sources.

Referencing also demonstrates that you've read relevant backgound literature and you can provide authority for statements you make in your assignments.

Every scholarly discipline has a preferred format or style for citing sources. A widely accepted method used in the humanities is the MLA documentation style. The following guide explains how to use this system, however, if you require further information consult the MLA handbook 8th edition.

*** Please remember to check with your unit co-ordinator or tutor before submitting your assignments, as their style preference may vary from the guidelines presented here. ***

Getting Started

There are two components to referencing: in-text citations in your paper and the reference list at the end of your paper.

The in-text citation:

Are brief and only provide as much information as is necessary to identify the source as it appears in the Reference List/Bibliography. This generally means the author's name and the page reference.

In-text citation of a book (the same format applies for a journal article)

If the author's name is mentioned in the text, only the page number appears in the citation.

Works Cited list:

Also known as a Reference List or Bibliography
A complete list of the works consulted at the end of the essay. The cited works are listed in alphabetical order by the author's surnames or by title if there is no author.
Works Cited entries contain all the information that someone needs to follow up your source.

Works Cited entry for a book