CTVA 400: Media and Society

MLA stands for Modern Language Association and is the citation style most commonly used for humanities subjects such as language, literature, composition and arts. 

 Basic MLA Formatting Guidelines: 

• A Works Cited list should be organized alphabetically by author’s last name. If the last name is not available use the title. 
• A Works Cited list should be double spaced with a hanging 1/2 inch indent.
• In-Text citations should be placed directly after the quote or paraphrase. Information needed: (Author’s Last Name page number)
  • Parenthetical citation: “Direct quote” (Furlong 25).
  • Narrative citation, if the author is mentioned in the sentence, only provide the page #. Example: Furlong found that “direct quote” (25)
• Publication date should be formatted day month year with the month abbreviated. It could also be: month year or season year. Examples:
  • 26 July 2016
  • Dec. 2015
  • spring 2016
  • Abbreviations: If the month is more than 4 letters, abbreviate as follows: Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sep. Oct. Nov. Dec.

MLA Style Center provide citation guideline for common titles of online works.

Citation managers are software that keep track of your sources and automatically format your citations in a variety of styles.

• EndNote Web (free version) integrates with MS Word and any browser; can export references directly from many databases
  • Help with EndNote Web
• Zotero - free to anyone; integrates with MS Word and/or Google Docs; must be installed on your own computer 

Is AI a Source or a Finding Tool? 

When using the AI research tools recommended on this site, you will cite the sources you found using the tool, not the AI tool itself. This is similar to how using OneSearch, you cite the sources you find, not OneSearch, in your work.  

Standard writing practice is to trace the source of a piece of information back to original source. Since Generative AI always draws on other sources and is not a source of original information, you are responsible for fact-checking the information and determining if the sources it provided are credible. 

Moreover, generative AI may produce citations or quotes within their content. or hallucinated information with phantom citations. If AI provides you with a source, use the library's OneSearch. to try and locate the material to evaluate.