English Composition: The Vagrants by Yiyun Li & Other Readings: (MLA) Citations

There are several ways to seek help from a librarian:

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:

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.

There are many Web sites out there that assist students with learning MLA style, but here are two favorites:

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.

This guide is copyright-protected, but you are welcome to reuse it as per the license below (click for more details):