Citing Sources

 

It is important to cite sources when you are using someone else’s words, data, or ideas. In the body of your paper you can do a parenthetical notation that includes 1.) the author or editor and 2.) the page number, as follows:

 

Almost two billion ha of agricultural land have suffered from environmental degradation over the past half century (Cunningham et al. 181).

 

Then, at the end of your paper, include a “Works Cited” section that lists more specific bibliographic information about each source. Use the format listed below.

 

A book by a single author:

 

Author’s name. Title of Book. Publisher location: Publisher, Publication year.

 

Example:  Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Random House, 1994.

 

 

A book by multiple authors:

 

Authors’ names (listed in same order as on title page of the book, with only the first author’s name reversed). Title of Book. Publisher location: Publisher, Publication year.

 

Example:  Cunningham, William P., MaryAnn Cunningham and Barbara Woodworth Saigo. Environmental Science: A Global Concern. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005.

 

 

A newspaper article:

 

Author’s name. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title Date: Page(s).

 

Example:  Werne, Joseph. “Reality? Not During the Game.” The Boulder Daily Camera 1 Feb. 2004: 3E.

 

If the article has no byline, begin with its title.

 

 

An article from a scholarly journal:

 

Author’s name. “Article Title.” Journal Title Volume Number.Issue Number (Year published): page numbers.

 

Example: Walker, Peter A. “Reconsidering ‘Regional’ Political Ecologies: Toward a Political Ecology of the Rural American West.” Progress in Human Geography 27.1 (2003): 7-24.

 

 

A web page:

 

Title of website. Name of editor, if given. Date of publication or of latest update of website, if given.

Name of sponsoring organization. Date you accessed website <URL>

 

Example: Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. May 2000. Indiana U. 26 June 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/>.

 

 Note that it is NOT acceptable to cut and paste text from websites into your papers without providing
BOTH quotation marks and the proper citation.

For more information on citation formats, see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., by Joseph Gibaldi, which is available in Norlin library.