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ENG 120: Astashinskiy Spring 2025

Course Resource Guide for ENG 120, Astashinskiy, Spring 2025

Citations are short, yet thorough, references to another's work within your own writing, particularly in scholarship and academic communities. 

So why are they important and necessary for us to understand AND be able to use? 

  1. Citing your sources shows that you've done thorough, well-crafted research;
  2. Citing makes you a responsible scholar by giving credit where credit is due;
  3. Citing is an essential aspect of Scholarly Communications:
    • Helps others find your sources
    • Contributes to the growth of research/a discipline

Finally, citing your sources accurately & fully is the best way to avoid plagiarism! 

There are many different kinds of citation styles out there, but the Big 3 are: 

  1. MLA (Modern Language Association
  2. APA (American Psychological Association)
  3. The Chicago Manual of Style

Each style is utilized in specific disciplines. For example, MLA and Chicago tend to be utilized in The Humanities disciplines, while APA is useful in the social and health sciences. 

MLA: Citing Online Sources

Citing Online Newspaper Articles in MLA

Template Last Name, First Name. "Article Title." Publication Title, Day Month Year, URL
Example

St. Fleur, Nicholas. "City Bees Stick to a Flower Diet Rather Than Slurp Up Soda." The New York Times, 19 May

2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/science/urban-bees-diet-flowers-soda.html.

Citing Online Academic Journal Articles in MLA

Template Last Name, First Name. "Title in Title Case." Publication Title, Day Month. Year, URL. 
Example

Collins, Ross. "Writing and Desire: Synthesizing Rhetorical Theories of Genre and Lacanian Theories of the

Unconscious." Composition Forum,

vol. 33, spring 2016, compositionforum.com/issue/33/writing-desire.php.
NOTE: DOIs (digital object identifiers) are the preferred location element for online content. If there is not a DOI, a permalink is the next preferred choice followed by the URL. Unless the URL is hyperlinked, you do not need http:// or https:// included in the URL address.

Citing Online Magaine Articles in MLA

Template

Last Name, First Name. "Title in Title Case." Publication Title, Day Month. Year, 

URL
Example

Bilger, Burkhard. "The Height Gap." The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2004,

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/05/the-height-gap.

Citing Websites & Webpages in MLA

Template Last Name, First Name. "Webpage Title." Website Title, Day Month Year, URL. 
Example

Hollmichel, Stephanie. "The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print." So Many Books,

25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-

and-print/.
NOTE: Unless the URL is hyperlinked, you do not need http:// or https:// included in the URL address.

Citing blogs, emails, online courses, comments, social media posts, and more vary from more traditional online information sources. 

For more information on how to cite in each format, please refer to Excelsior's Online Writing Lab: MLA Style

MLA: The Basics

Why use MLA citation style?

 

MLA is most commonly used to cite sources within in the liberal arts, specifically the humanities.

 

What does that really mean?:

 

When you cite in MLA, you use parenthetical citations for your in-text citations and a works-cited page at the end of your paper.

 

A typical MLA citation will include: 

 

  • the author's full name, last and first
  • the year of publication
  • the publisher/journal title
  • page numbers

 

What does an in-text citation typically look like?:

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

Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
 
Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).*

*example from the Purdue OWL

 

What does a work-cited citation typically look like?:

Your works-cited page and your in-text citations should line up with each other - meaning that if you include an in-text citation, you will be able to find more detailed information about that source in the complete works-cited list.

For example the in-text citation might read, "(Worsdworth, 263)" - indicating the author's last name, and the page used in the paper. 

The works-cited citation for that book would be:

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

The general format for a citation in your works-cited list in MLA will more or less follow this guideline:

Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of the Book. Publisher Location: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication.

Citation Style Guides:

The Purdue OWL is an amazing resource that gives great examples of how to cite different materials in MLA. Your citations in MLA will change slightly depending on the format of the work that you are using. Citing a book is slightly different than citing an article.

The Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide is a wonderful resource that breaks down how to cite different formats in MLA.

For more information, check out our citing sources guide.