Do’s and Don’ts of Citing in MLA

Do’s

For every source that is cited within the body of the paper, a corresponding Works Cited entry is created.
Within any sentence that is drawing material from an outside source, enough information should be provided for the reader to find the corresponding entry in the Works Cited page.
Every sentence that draws material from research source should also directly cite the source (i.e., tell the reader that a source is being quoted or paraphrased and indicate the author or title of that source).
Always place the source information (usually the author name) within the sentence that is actively citing from the source.
Integrate cited material into a sentence that also includes some original language of your own.
It’s fine to quote at almost any length – from single words to short phrases to whole sentences or multiple sentences.* The rule of thumb is that quotations should not be longer than half of a double-spaced page.

(*See the specific rules about Block Quotations for formatting requirements for quotations of four or more lines.)

No sentence should use material from an outside source without indicating what source the material is coming from.
Never present directly quoted material without placing that material inside quotation marks.
Do not wait until the end of a paragraph to identify the source of material that was cited in the middle of the paragraph. (Place source information somewhere in each sentence that is pulling material from a research source.)
Do not begin a sentence with quotation marks and end with quotation marks. Add language of your own so that the quoted material becomes part of a new sentence.