4.4.1 MLA Format and Avoiding Plagiarism

MLA FORMAT

When you read the grading criteria, you may have noticed that some of your grade for this paper is determined by your correct usage of Modern Language Association (MLA) format. At that point, you may have wondered why you are being graded on something that you have never heard of before! Have no fear; for the rest of this course you will practice using MLA format.

What is MLA format?  Many academic disciplines use their own editorial styles for in-text citations and for listing the works cited. In the humanities, the style that we use is called MLA format. The Purdue OWL describes MLA format in greater detail:

Modern Language Association (MLA) format provides writers with a system for cross-referencing their sources--from their parenthetical references [also referred to as in-text citations] to their works cited page. This cross-referencing system allows readers to locate the publication information of source material. This is of great value for researchers who may want to locate your sources for their own research projects. The proper use of MLA style also shows the credibility of writers; such writers show accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism--the purposeful or accidental use of source material by other writers without giving appropriate credit.

For your position paper, you will need to use the information from the CQ Researcher source to support your ideas. When you use information from a source, you need to cite it in your paper. This can be a challenging concept, so please review the following resources to help make it clearer. 

• First, in your textbook, read "Using Sources to Support your Ideas" on pages 569-580 and "Citing and Documenting Sources in MLA Style on pages 581-598.

• The textbook reading highlights the importance of in-text citations in your essays. Please use in-text citations in your paper! Please view this video on in-text citations.

• You will also need to list your sources in your Works Cited at the end of the paper. Please view this video on the Works Cited.

Avoiding Plagiarism by using MLA format

When asked, many people think plagiarism is simply the copying of someone else's work. Using this definition, an example of plagiarism might be copying and turning in a friend's paper that she wrote for an English class the semester before. Another example would be using a quote from a newspaper article in your essay and changing a few words around and not mentioning that you got the quote from an outside source. Indeed, these are examples of plagiarism. However, this is not the only type of plagiarism that exists. A more common type of plagiarism occurs when a person reads something in an outside source and then takes an idea from the reading, incorporates that idea into a paper, and passes it off as his/her own idea. In this case, nothing is directly copied from one source into the person's paper. It is just the idea that is taken. And this is plagiarism! You must give credit to a source even when you are only borrowing ideas.

To sum up, plagiarism is defined as any of the following:

• failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas;
• failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks;
• failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words.

Once you feel comfortable with your knowledge of MLA format and avoiding plagiarism, you will need to take the quiz 4.4.1 MLA format and Avoiding Plagiarism. Please review the calendar for the due dates.

When you have completed the quiz, you are ready to move on to Module 4.4.2: Information Literacy Exam.