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Questions tagged [mla]

Questions related to the Modern Language Association (MLA) writing and formatting style

The Modern Language Association (MLA) style is widely used in the liberal arts and humanities as a guideline for manuscript formatting and English usage, as well as a referencing system for bibliographies and citations. Questions with this tag should be specifically related to the MLA style, such as clarifications of rules, how to implement recommendations, and so on.

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MLA: How do I add an in-text citation when I'm quoting a quote that has a quote?

I am quoting Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, who is in turn quoting Rene Girard. Here is the sentence in question that I am quoting: Monsters are never created ex nihilo, but through a process of fragmentation and recombination in which elements are…
Summer
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MLA citation in the middle of a sentence?

In school, I was taught that the in-text MLA citations should always be at the end of the sentence, even when the quote itself is located in the middle of a sentence. I was looking at the Purdue OWL website and noticed that it says to put the…
user138415
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MLA multiple parenthetical citation essay without page numbers

I have an older source that has no pagination. My question concerns the correct mode of multiple parenthetical in-text reference to the source according to MLA style. In the works cited section: Smith, Alexander. "The Problems of Writing." New…
Sarah K
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Is it acceptable to use numbers as in-text citations?

Could I number my works cited sources and put them in my in-text citations using (1), (2), etc.? Just wondering because I used a lot of sources and my paper would look a lot cleaner in my opinion. I'm using MLA format by the way.
user151460
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Quotes inside of Quotes inside of Quotes

For an essay I am using Mother Lois' quote on page 104 of the Washington Square Press paperback edition of Warrior's Don't Cry. In particular, the line goes like this: "Look," Mother said, "there's a price to paid for freedom; we pay it now or…
Snakes and Coffee
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how to cite a pdf without a date in MLA

As the title suggests, I need to cite a pdf that has no publication date. However, I do have the date that the original text was published. The title I need to cite is Don Quixote. The original text was published in 1605 and I think that the pdf was…
Xander Weiss-Lemieux
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Does anything look wrong with my MLA 8 citations

I have a general question about MLA. If you're citing an article and there is only one edition of the article, do you have to put "1st ed.," or can you leave it blank?
artdensity
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Starting my essay with one word (MLA)

This is how it starts.... Is it grammatically correct for MLA? "Religion" (I'm sure you've all heard of this before). Religion has.....
user14439
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How would I cite this pdf short story?

How would I cite this pdf short story in MLA format? MLA provides the following template for ebooks, but is a pdf version of a book really an ebook? Also, in this case, who is the publisher of the book? Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book [eBook…
Redline
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When you quote a line from poetry but omit a line, how do you format the line number citation?

Should my citation be, “spent in the lifelong practice of despair… how painfully they shone” (Espaillat 12-14). Or “spent in the lifelong practice of despair… how painfully they shone” (Espaillat 12...14).
artdensity
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