What Is MLA Style?
MLA style is a system for documenting sources in scholarly writing. For over half a century, it has been widely adopted for classroom instruction and used worldwide by scholars, journal publishers, and academic and commercial presses.
The ninth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in spring 2021, builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements—facts common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date—that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today.
Source: https://www.mla.org/MLA-Style
In-text citation - a short note embedded in the text of your paper in which you acknowledge the source of quotations or paraphrases of someone else's words. Some common formats of MLA style parenthetical documentation are shown below:
Usually, the author's last name and a page reference are enough to identify the source and the specific location from which you have borrowed material:
"The stories in the Panchatantra originated in India, many going back to the second century B.C." (Chaitanya 361).
When the author or work is mentioned in the text immediately prior to the quotation, a simple page reference is sufficient:
It may be true, as Robertson maintains, that "in the appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of primary importance . . ." (136).
When you are using several works by the same author and have mentioned the author immediately prior to the quotation, indicate the short form of the source’s title and the page number:
According to Naomi Baron, reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" ("Redefining" 194).
When you are using several works by the same author, but have not mentioned the author in the text immediately prior to the quotation, indicate the author’s name, the short form of the source’s title, and the page number:
Reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (Baron, "Redefining" 194).
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. (186)
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