NoodleTools can assist in creating Works Cited lists in the MLA citation style. To do this, create a New Project in NoodleTools and select MLA and Advanced.
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Developed by the Modern Language Association, this citation style is most widely used for research papers in the humanities.
Each citation consists of two parts:
In-Text citation (also known as the parenthetical reference) - provides brief identifying information within the text.
Works Cited list - provides full bibliographic information at the end of a paper.
This guide will go over how to create MLA citations, in particular in-text citations. For more information about MLA citations, please refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th Edition, located at the Upper School Library Reference Desk, or the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
In MLA, in-text citations are called parenthetical references. They use the author's last name followed by the page number referenced in the work. The reference is placed in parentheses usually at the end of the sentence and before the period. Each source in the Works Cited list (found at the end of the paper) corresponds to an in-text citation in the body of the text.
Sample in-text citation --> This point has been argued previously (Said 3-4).
Corresponding Works Cited list source --> Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.
If the context makes it clear what work is being cited, only the page number need appear in the parentheses. For example, if the sentence already includes the author's name, or you are citing the work again and it is obvious which work you are citing, only the page number is needed.
Said makes a similar argument (3-4).
Later, the protagonist of Jane Eyre proclaims, "I would always rather be happy than dignified" (413).
If citing more than one work by the same author in a paper, then the in-text citation should contain the author's name, a comma, the title of the work (if brief) or a shortened version italicized, and the page numbers.
We should all try to "live in the Past, the Present, and the Future" (Dickens, A Christmas Carol 95).
If the author's name is already in the sentence, just the title of the work (italicized) and the page number are needed.
We should all take Dickens' advice to "live in the Past, the Present, and the Future" (A Christmas Carol 95).
When an author is an organization, use the full name of the group or a shortened form in the in-text citation.
(National Institutes of Health 115)
(NIH 115)
When the reference in the Works Cited list does not have an author, use a few words of the title in place of the author in the in-text citation.
("Recent innovations" 231)
When the reference in the Works Cited list has two or three authors, use the last name of each in the in-text citation.
(Smith, Jones, and Brown 323)
When the reference in the Works Cited list has more than three authors, give all the authors' last names OR just use the first and "et al." for the rest. Make sure that your in-text citation matches the entry in your Works Cited list.
(Bia, Pedreno, Small, Finch, Patterson 161)
(Bia et al. 161)
When the reference in the Works Cited list does not have page numbers, use paragraph numbers, if available.
If the work does not have page numbers or paragraph numbers, include the name of the author in the sentence instead of using a parenthetical reference. To learn more, refer to the MLA Handbook, sections 6.4.1 and 6.4.2.
When paragraph numbers are available --> (Smith para 17)
When no page numbers or paragraph numbers are available --> As Smith points out...
If the Works Cited list contains two or more authors with the same last name, include the first initial of the author in the in-text citation.
(A. DeCarrera 213)
If the initial is also the same, use the whole first name.
(Annette DeCarrera 213)
If the reference is to an exact quotation, the in-text citation is placed after the quote.
It may be true that "the attitude of the observer is of primary importance" (Robertson 136).
Citations taken from a secondary source should generally be avoided; consult the original work whenever possible.
If only an indirect source is available, put the abbreviation qtd. in (quoted in) before the indirect source in the in-text citation and include the indirect source in the Works Cited list. To learn more, please refer to section 6.4.7 of the MLA manual.
In-text citation --> In a May 1800 letter to Watt, Creighton wrote, "The excellent Satanism reflects immortal honour on the club" (qtd. in Hunt and Jacob 493).
Works Cited list entry --> Hunt, Lynn, and Margaret Jacob. "The Affective Revolution in 1790s Britain." Eighteenth-Century Studies 34.4 (2001): 491-521. Print.