What is MLA Style?
Citation style from the Modern Language Association. For the study of literature and language; used in English, Foreign Languages, Linguistics, American Studies, and related fields in the Humanities.
Features: In-text parenthetical citations of author and page number: (Smith 123). Endnotes or footnotes may be used to add supplementary bibliographic data or commentary. MLA style prefers endnotes over footnotes.
The citation examples provided on this guide are based on the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in 2016. The examples are intended to get you started with the basics. For more detail and many more examples, we recommend:
The MLA Style Center
Introduction to Zotero
Zotero is a free, simple plug-in (for Firefox) or a standalone program (with browser extensions to Google Chrome and Safari) that collects, stores and organizes references for books, journal articles, websites and other materials that you've collected and then automatically converts those references into a properly formatted bibliography. It is fairly easy to use, reliable, and well-documented. Zotero can:
- import references directly from many of the Tisch Library's databases
- create a properly-formatted bibliography that conforms to your selected output style, including APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, or any one of hundreds of other formats
- format in-text citations, endnotes, and footnotes in the documents you are writing
- serve as your own searchable reference database
- organize references into custom groups, enabling you to track your sources by topic, course, book chapters, or other criteria of your choosing
- capture snapshots of websites
- attach notes to references, create standalone notes
- sync your library to "My Library" on the Zotero servers to save your work
Alongside tracking literature citations, Zotero stores downloaded or links to Acrobat pdf files or any other types of files on your computer.
See the complete guide for more detailed information. See the Tisch Library Workshops webpage for a schedule of workshops.
