MLA Electronic Sources ENC1102 F19

Direct Quotations vs. Paraphrasing

Direct quotation, which is when you word-for-word cite source material, MUST be placed in quotation marks.

Let's check out some examples!

For long direct quotations (generally >40 words), use block formatting. Begin the quotation on a new line, indented 0.5", and maintain double spacing throughout.

Paraphrasing, or summary, is when you put others' material into your own words. (Paraphrasing necessitates more than just using the thesaurus and changing a few words here and there!) Provide the author(s) and page number(s) in the in-text citation.

A Refresher on Signal Phrases

Signal phrases introduce direct quotations and paraphrased material by providing context to situate your reader and prepare them for the information to follow. Never begin a sentence with a quotation. Always lead in with a signal phrase to give necessary background for your source material.

Examples (this electronic source has page numbers):

Cavalcante states, "[The] scholarship on reality TV offers insight into why audiences make serious investments in its representations and may take to social media to share their thoughts and opinions" (25).

Much research is being conducted on reality TV, "offer[ing] insight into why audiences make serious investments in its representations and may take to social media to share their thoughts and opinions " (Cavalcante 18).

Citing Electronic Sources

As the Purdue OWL explains, sometimes writers panic because there are no page numbers present in their electronic sources. But if your electronic source does not have page numbers, that's perfectly okay (and even to be expected). Here are a few general rules for electronic in-text citations as laid out by the Purdue OWL:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).

• You do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.

• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs, such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Citing Electronic Sources: Examples

Author's names in signal phrase (when there are no page numbers):

According to Mims, "Manatees roam the waters of southeast Florida from April through October."

Author's names not in signal phrase (when there are no page numbers):

Manatees typically "roam the waters of southeast Florida from April through October" (Mims).

When there is no author (or authors) and no page numbers:

Use the title of the web page/article (what would begin the Works Cited page citation)

According to "The 2018 Social Audience Guide," over 2.8 billion people around the world use social media.

Over 2.8 billion people around the world use social media ("The 2018 Social Audience Guide").

Citing Indirect Sources

For indirect sources:

These are situations in which a source is cited in another source. Use the abbreviation "qtd. in" to indicate that the source appears in another source.

Example: Thomas and Callahan state that "the 'myth of the happy poor' plays an essential role in 'limiting social mobility (or social change in general) so as to preserve the status quo'" (qtd. in Calvalcante 28).

Core Elements & Containers

As the MLA Style Center explains, "Each entry in the list of Works Cited is composed of facts common to most works—the MLA core elements. They are assembled in a specific order" ("Works Cited: Quick Guide").

The 8th edition of MLA Style emphasizes the concept of containers. The MLA Style Center describes this content as such: "When the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source" ("Works Cited: Quick Guide").

Electronic Sources

For scholarly articles from a database:

• Author/editor name(s)
• Article name or name of web page in quotation marks
• Title of the larger work (e.g., overall website) in italics
• Any version numbers available
• Publisher and publishing date
• Any page numbers, if applicable
• URL (w/o "https://") or DOI
• Date accessed (not required but highly recommended)

Cite online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other subscription services as containers. Thus, provide the title of the database italicized before the DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.

For Your Position Papers...

I want you to cite your primary article in two ways: first, as you found it on the Opposing Viewpoints in Context database and second, as it is in its original context.

Examples:

Citation from the database

Citation from the original website

Electronic Sources: Examples

Article or page on a website:

A YouTube video:

A Tweet:

An Email:

Entire website (it's rare that you'll do this, as you always want to be as specific as possible):

Images: Examples

For paintings, sculptures, photographs, and other works of art accessed online:

For photographic reproductions of artwork (e.g., images of artwork in a book):

But what about random images I've found using Google?

Check out this post from the MLA Style blog! https://style.mla.org/citing-online-images/. Let's also look at an example...

Images Found via Search Engines (like Google):

I found the image to the left using Google Image search, but it is not enough to just cite "Google." By clicking on the image search result, I found out that the photo is hosted on this web page: https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/things-to-do/outdoors-nature/places-to-see-swim-florida-manatees.html

The information on this web page is necessary for building a proper citation for this image.

This example image did have a caption, "Two manatees swimming," which is what I then used as the title of the piece. However, if the piece doesn't have a caption/title, you can just describe it yourself, as I did in the second example.

OR

Podcasts, Shows, Blogs...Oh My!

Podcasts:

You can even cite...

memes?!?

Sure you can!

Shows on streaming platforms:

Web postings (e.g., blogs):

For more information on citing memes, see this very helpful page on the MLA Style blog: https://style.mla.org/how-do-i-cite-a-meme/