The Academic Writing Lab

MLA Workshop
What Kind of Stuff Can You Bring to Us?

Incomplete papers

Completed papers yet to be

graded

A second opinion on graded

work

Arguments/
Language
 How to get your essay reviewed by the
AWL
- Send in your essay 2 days (48 hours) before the deadline for online AWL!
- To send in a request, fill in the Google Form (emailed to you already) and attach a Word
document file of your essay to it. The AWL will only accept documents sent via the form
and not separately to the AWL email.
- A tutor from the AWL will get back to you within 2 days with suggestions added in the
comments section. Please note that this may take longer during busier weeks.
- The AWL is also operational in-person, at the AWL offices (near the PDC side of
Academic Block). It is operational 12 to 6 pm on Monday to Friday and a tutor would
be available to check your essay (preferably printed). For this, the deadline is 8 hours
before the essay deadline.
 What is Plagiarism?

Using another person’s

Passing off another’s
words, ideas, thoughts
work as your own
without their
constitutes fraud.
permission is a kind of
theft.
 Types of
- Claiming someone else’s
writing as your own. Plagiarism - DC.
- Taking a particularly apt - Grade reduction.
phrase or term coined by
someone else without referring
- Failing grade in the
course/instrument.
to them (e.g. “Imagined
Communities”). - Separation from the
- Presenting someone’s program.
arguments/ideas as your own.
- Discontinuation of
- Paraphrasing a text without Penalties for financial assistance.
citing.
Plagiarism
 Document Format

The
Modern What
Does
Language MLA
In-text Citations

Association Regulate?
(8th Edition)

Works Cited
 Double space
Last name and page Indent first line of
number in the right top paragraphs by one half
corner MLA inch
One space after
punctuation
Format: 12 pt. Times New Roman
The Basics
In-text citations and
works cited Titles are centered
1 inch margins on all
sides
In-Text Citations

- Every time you quote or paraphrase a source, you cite the author and the page number
in parentheses/brackets.
- The signal word in the text is the first thing in the corresponding entry on the Works
Cited page.
- MLA uses parenthetical citations e.g. (Anderson 9).
- Must match the first word of the Works Cited entry - usually the author’s last name. It
also includes a page number or range to help the reader locate the relevant passage.
The Default Rule: Author-Page Rule
In-text Example:
- Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a “spontaneous overflow of
powerful feelings” (263).
- Romantic poetry is characterized by the “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”
(Wordsworth 263).

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.

No punctuation at the end of the quote and the period

comes after the end bracket!
Print Sources with Author

In-text Example:
Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as “symbol-using animals” (3).

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method.
University of California UP, 1966.
In-text Example:
One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo "has
become notorious for its near-failure and many
obstacles" (Taylor, “Fitzcarraldo”).

Corresponding Works Cited Entry: Sources

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant, 13 Jun. 2003, from
www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed
29 Sep. 2009.
the
Internet
With Unknown Authors (In-text Example): Shortened
Title
We see so many global warming hotspots in North America
likely because this region has “more readily accessible
climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor
and study environmental change . . .” (“The Impact of Global
Multiple Authors

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a
semi-colon:
. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).

Citing Indirect Sources

In-text Example:
Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as “social service centers, and they
don't do that well” (qtd. in Weisman 259).
Authors and In-Text Citations
Name the first author
3+ authors (Wallace et al. 11–12)
followed by “et al.”
If a source was created by an
organization other than the
Corporate author (United Nations 22)
publisher, use the
organization name as author.
The author’s last names are
mentioned within the
2 Authors brackets separated with (Best and Marcus 78)
“and”- followed by the page
number.
Include the title (or a
Multiple sources by the shortened version) after the (Morrison, Beloved 73)
same author author’s name in each source (Morrison, Sula 45)
citation. Books. “Articles”
Short Quotations Formation
In-text Example:
According to some, dreams express “profound aspects of personality”, though others
disagree (Foulkes 184).

Long Quotations Formation

In-text Example:
Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him:
They entirely refused to have it in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had
no more sense, so, I put it on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on
the morrow. By chance, or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr.
Earnshaw's door, and there he found it on quitting his chamber. (Bronte 78)
Adding and Omitting Words

In-text Citation:
Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states:
“some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point...
learning every rumor or tale” (78).
 - Presenting information and ideas expressed by someone else in
your own words – while still crediting the original source

Paraphrasin - For example:

g Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states that
individuals involved in retelling urban myths are often very well
acquainted with the rumors and nuances of the stories (78).
 New Page

Works Cited Alphabetically arranged

Page: The
Basics Hanging Indent

Double Spaced
 Basic Format:
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.

Works
Cited Page:
Books

Example:
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer
Tutoring. Allyn, 2000.
Format:
Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). “Article Name.”
Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/organization
affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), Date of last update. Works
URL. Date of access. Cited
Example:
Page:
Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." The Online
New York Times, 22 May 2007, Newspaper
www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/science/earth/22ander.html ?
s/Articles
_r=0. Accessed 29 May 2019.
Missing Information (Web) – Works Cited
What’s missing? What to do Works Cited example
“Australia fires:
‘Catastrophic’ alerts in
Start with the source title
South Australia and
instead. Alphabetize by the
No author Victoria.” BBC News, 20
first word (ignoring
Nov. 2019, www.bbc.com/­
articles).
news/­world-­australia-­
50483410.
Mackintosh, Charles
Give a brief description of
Rennie. Chair of stained
the source. Use sentence
No title oak. 1897-1900, Victoria
case and no italics or
and Albert Museum,
quotation marks.
London.
Leave out the publication “Who are Scribbr Editors?”
date. Add the date you Scribbr, www.scribbr.com/­
No date
accessed the source at the about-­us/­editors/. Accessed
Works Cited Page: Journals
Article in Scholarly Journal Format:
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Volume., Issue, Year, pages.
Example:
Duvall, John N. “The (Super)Marketplace of Images.” Arizona
Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 1994, pp. 127- 53.

If from an Online Database:

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. “Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater
Invertebrates.” Environmental Toxicology, vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley
Online Library, doi:10.1002/tox.20155. Accessed 26 May 2009.
List films by their title. Include the name of the director, the film studio or
distributor, and the release year. If relevant, list performer names after the
director's name.

In-text Citation:
“Racing hasn't changed, and it never will” (Speed Racer 01:01:23–01:05:31).

Corresponding Works Cited Entry:

Speed Racer. Directed by Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski, performances by Emile
Hirsch, Nicholas Elia, Susan Sarandon, Ariel Winter, and John Goodman, Warner
Brothers, 2008.

Citing a Film
Youtube
● To cite a YouTube video in MLA, the Works Cited entry contains the name of the
video’s creator, the video’s title (in quotation marks), the word YouTube (in italics),
the name of the person or organization who uploaded the video, the upload date, and
the URL.
● If the video’s creator and uploader are the same, omit the author element and start the
citation with the title of the video instead.
In-Text:
(Liu 01:15–02:11)

Works Cited:
Liu, Jessica. “Develop a Theoretical Framework in 3 Steps.” YouTube, uploaded by
Scribbr, 20 Aug. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y1BAqOnhMM.
 Common Mistakes

(Author, page Unreliable sources

number) instead of such as Wikipedia
(Author page and Brainy Quotes
number)

‘Single quotes’ Not corresponding

instead of in-text citations with
“Double quotes” works cited entry
 - Books
Off Campus Access:
- Journal articles
library.lums.edu.pk → Offline Access
Resources - LUMS Library
(creates a VPN) →
- Newspapers
libraryportal.lums.edu.pk → JSTOR etc.
- News websites

- Instructor
- The Purdue Online Writing Lab
Guides (owl.purdue.edu)
- The MLA Handbook
- Coursepacks
- The AWL: [email protected]
JSTOR

Sci-Hub

- https://sci-hub.tw/
- When an article is restricted or unavailable
on other websites, Sci-Hub can give you access.
- Search by name, or copy/paste the
DOI/permalink
 Plagiarism Check

[email protected]

[email protected]