The Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style is usually used in writing and humanities classes. MLA style includes guidelines for in-text citations (parenthetical citations) and the accompanying “Works Cited” list at the end of your paper. In other words, cite sources that you have paraphrased or quoted in two places:

1. In the body of your paper where you add a brief in-text citation.
2. In the Works Cited list at the end of your paper where you give more complete information for the source.

Basic in-text (parenthetical) citation guidelines

Provide source information in parentheses whenever a sentence includes a quotation or paraphrase. The simplest way to do this is to put the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (just before the period). MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken appears in your text, and a complete reference appears on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses.

EXAMPLE Parenthetical Citation:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

EXAMPLE Work Cited:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

Basic Works Cited guidelines

According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper (all entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the in-text citations in your main text). Below are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in a Works Cited entry. The elements should be listed in the following order, and then each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown below. If there is not an element in your resource, leave it out. 

1. Author.
2. Title of source.
3. Title of container,
4. Other contributors,
5. Version,
6. Number,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date,
9. Location.

Capitalization and punctuation of Works Cited entries

• Capitalize each word in the titles of journal articles, books, etc., but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle.
• Use italics for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)

Formatting of Works Cited page

(Adapted from OWL Purdue)