Ask-A-Librarian
There are several ways to seek help from a librarian:
Writing Center
On the Rutgers-Newark campus, the Writing Center is located in Conklin 126. Tutors there are available to help students with revising drafts of their papers, including improving grammar and usage. Check the Web site for the most up-to-date hours of operation:
-
The Writing Center Web site"The Writing Center offers writing tutoring and writing workshops to all undergraduate students currently enrolled in classes on the Rutgers, Newark campus."
Introduction to Citation
Remember to cite when:
- quoting
- paraphrasing
- summarizing
- borrowing an image
You do NOT have to cite when it is:
- common knowledge
- original thought
MLA citation style is one of the more common styles in the humanities. Please see the boxes below for more information on how to write a paper following the MLA style manual. You may also find the citation tools mentioned below to be quite helpful, especially for longer papers.
MLA Style Manual
-
MLA Handbook by Call Number: LB2369.G53 2016ISBN: 9781603292627Publication Date: 2016-04-01The Modern Language Association, the authority on research and writing, takes a fresh look at documenting sources in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. Works are published today in a dizzying range of formats. A book, for example, may be read in print, online, or as an e-book--or perhaps listened to in an audio version. On the Web, modes of publication are regularly invented, combined, and modified. Previous editions of the MLA Handbookprovided separate instructions for each format, and additional instructions were required for new formats. In this groundbreaking new edition of its best-selling handbook, the MLA recommends instead one universal set of guidelines, which writers can apply to any type of source. Shorter and redesigned for easy use, the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook guides writers through the principles behind evaluating sources for their research. It then shows them how to cite sources in their writing and create useful entries for the works-cited list. More than just a new edition, this is a new MLA style.
Helpful Resources for MLA Citations
There are many Web sites out there that assist students with learning MLA style, but here are two favorites:
-
The MLA Style CenterThe MLA Style Center offers free online support to users of the MLA Handbook and anyone interested in editing, writing, and research.
TIP
As you gather your sources, compile your Works Cited section. Complete this section before you begin writing your paper! Why?
- This will ensure that you have copied down all the necessary citation components of your book, article, Web site, etc.
- It will make your life much easier when you need to do in-text citations since authors and dates are already neatly organized on your reference page.
- It decreases the chance that you'll include an in-text citation for a source, but then forget to include it within the reference section.
Physical Sciences Librarian
185 University Ave
Newark, NJ 07102-1814
(973) 353-3811
Licensing Information
This guide is copyright-protected, but you are welcome to reuse it as per the license below (click for more details):
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.