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GU-Q: MLA Style

Using MLA

Cite & Write Checklist
Using Sources

Paraphrasing

Is my sentence structure & vocabulary completely different from the source’s?
Have I expressed the author’s idea correctly?
Did I cite all my paraphrasing properly?
Do I have enough citations for my paraphrasing?

(i.e. Did I paraphrase a whole paragraph and only cite it once at the end? That’s not good!)

Short Quotes & Long Quotes

If I copied a few words/a short amount of text, did I use “quotation marks”?
If I copied a longer amount of text, did I put it on a new line and indent it?
Did I cite all quotations properly?

Citing: Am I sure I cited all the ideas and information and quotes that I got from...?

another person
online sources
paper sources
papers that I wrote for another class/purpose

References/Bibliography/Works Cited

Have I included every source that I cited in the paper?
Have I included all the information needed for each type of source?

(e.g. books vs. articles; paper sources vs. online sources)

Using sources
This tutorial from California State University, Chico concisely explains the importance of citing sources and offers you "what if" questions to test your understanding.