Citing Sources Within Your Essay
Part of proper documentation involves referring to the items from your works cited list within your essay. The Modern Language Association (MLA) suggests these methods for referring to sources.
- One way to do this is to put the author's last name in parentheses
at the end of your sentence followed by the page number on which
this information appears in the source. If your source does not
list an author, use the title of the article (or just the first
two or three words) as in the following example:
An article in Newsweek points out that, although women make up 11 percent of the military as a whole, they make up only 1.2 percent of all general and executive officers ("Fresh Shot" 12).
- Another way is to include the author's name in your sentence
and put only the page number within parentheses. This is often
the better way, especially when you are dealing with opinions
rather than facts or statistical data:
Asa Barber argues that the presence of women in combat would compromise the safety of the troops (12).
- In the previous examples, although the information was taken
from the source, none of the words were directly quoted. The material
was paraphrased or summarized. That is, the gist of the material
was conveyed in the words and voice of the person writing the
essay using the source to make his or her own point. If you are
using the exact words from a source, be sure to use quotation
marks to indicate this. Do not use any quotations without attaching
them to some introductory words of your own:
Baber argues that "genetically, subconsciously, most men can tolerate the losses of war if they have to" (12).
Help with On-line Sources
"Beyond the MLA Handbook" at
http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html
"Research and Documentation" by Diane Hacker at
http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
For further information about the WEPT, please contact Lindsey Martin-Bowen, Coordinator of Writing Assessment, by phone at (816) 235-2563 or via email at bowenlm@umkc.edu
