Properly citing and documenting sources according to the discipline in which you are writing is essential.
The MLA citation format differs from other citation formats in that it emphasizes the use of abbreviated, in-text parenthetical citations that direct a reader to a page on which works are cited at the end of the paper rather than to extended citations and footnotes. Since the MLA format is used for papers written in the humanities, the timelines of the sources are not emphasized as much as in the APA style, nor are footnotes or superscript numbers required as in the Chicago Manual of Style method of citation.
History
According to Phyllis Franklin, "The MLA Handbook was developed by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA), an organization of teachers and scholars founded in 1883, when the modern languages were just beginning to gain a place in the college curriculum alongside the classical languages" (see Reference 1). The purpose of the MLA citation format was to "simplify the task of preparing a manuscript for publication by "documenting quotations, facts, opinions, and paraphrases" (see Reference 1). By 1984, the second edition of the MLA handbook introduced the current, simplified rules for documentation that allow citations to be place in the text within parentheses.
In-Text Documentation
In MLA citation format, you document sources by keying brief parenthetical citations in your text to an alphabetical list of works that appears at the end of the paper. For example: "During the World Cup Draw, the participants, referred to throughout as Fans, select eight teams for the quarterfinals" (Marcus 18). Note that the citation is enclosed in parentheses, that it follows the end-quotation mark and that it is before the period that marks the end of the sentence; also, the brief citation includes only the last name of the author and the page number of the work in which the original quote appeared. If a reader want more information about this source, he or she can turn to the list of works cited at the end of the paper.
Works-Cited List
The MLA citation format includes a brief in-text citation (shown above) that prompts the reader to a list of works that appears at the end of the paper. This list of works, typically called the "Works-Cited List," is arranged alphabetically by last name of the author. For the sentence quoted in the previous example, the works-cited information might look like this: Marcus, Garvey. World Cup 2010. New York: Penguin, 2009. This information is: Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
APA Style
Look at an example of the American Psychological Association (APA) style of documentation to understand better what defines the MLA style. The example given (Marcus 18) in the MLA style would be (Marcus, 2009, p. 18) in APA style. The APA style includes the year of publication in the in-text citation. Since the APA is used by psychologists, the date of the data and research cited is often significant, as medical and scientific research can become irrelevant with the passage of time. In the works-cited list, the date immediately follows the name of the author, and only the first word of the title is capitalized.
Chicago Manual of Style
The Chicago Manual of Style method of citation makes use of superscript numbers corresponding to bibliographic information in either a footnote or an endnote, with the first note including all the bibliographic information regardless of position in the paper (see Reference 3). This differs from the MLA, which does not require the use of footnotes or superscript numbers, although they may be used depending on the material cited.
