CHAPTER 10
Documenting Sources: MLA

When you are building an argument, you use sources for support. To acknowledge the material you borrow and to help readers evaluate your sources, you need to supply documentation. In other words, you need to tell readers where you found your information. If you use documentation responsibly, you will also avoid plagiarism, an ethical offense with serious consequences. (See Chapter 11 for more on plagiarism.)

MLA documentation consists of two parts: parenthetical references in the text of your paper and a works-cited list at the end of the paper. (The references are keyed to the works-cited list.)