Free Citation Resources

• APA Formatting (Template and Sample)
• Plagiarism Tutorial
• Citation Web Quest: Here’s an activity for students to learn about MLA & Plagiarism! (Great for Sub days!)
• Making Outlines — FREE
  • Teach your students classic, old-school outlines & watch how fast their work becomes better organized and more fleshed out! (Word)
• APA Citation Checklist

My Citation Resources on TPT

Teach MLA in-text citation for ANY source! 78 slides!

• Stop sending students straight to citefast, bibme, or Purdue Owl! Actually teach them lessons on MLA in-text citation & help them SEE what their citations should look like! (PowerPoint)

Making MLA Works Cited Pages

• Show students how to format their Works Cited pages & Works Cited entries. Walk them through the process with direct instruction! (PowerPoint)

Citing Websites in MLA formatting (Works Cited pages)

• Give students a handout/cheat sheet for citing websites (Word)

Simple MLA handouts (Word) for In-text citation + Works Cited pages

Converting from MLA to APA 

• Teach students who already know MLA how to format and cite in APA. (Word)

Teaching MLA formatting

• Why not SHOW students how to format their papers in MLA style in a hands-on, follow-along lesson? Includes ideas for gamifying the lesson as well!

MLA Works Cited Elements:

MLA Citation FAQ

1. How do I know when I need to cite? 

• You must cite not only when you are taking words directly out of a source, but also when you are paraphrasing someone else’s words or ideas.
• If you don’t cite, you are PLAGIARIZING, even if you put everything  your own words! Stealing ideas is just as punishable as stealing exact wording.

2. What does “cite your sources” mean?

• We must always tell our reader/listener where ideas and direct quotes came from, both within a paper/speech AND in a works cited page.
• If you are using a fact, an idea, or a direct quote from any source other than your own mind, you must either cite with a signal phrase (e.g. “So-and-so writes…”) OR place a parenthetical citation after that information (e.g. (Miller 234)).
• In a speech, you must cite your source(s) aloud; tell the audience where the information was found. Do this by telling them two of these three things: 1) the author, 2) the title of the article/book/web page, or 3) the name of the container, like The New York Times.

3. How do I cite in a speech?

• If there is an author, you can say something like, “According to Mary Smith, in her article “Underwater Basket Weaving” on WashingtonPost.com, blah blah blah.”
• If there is no author stated, you can say, “According to an article called “McCarthy and the Red Scare” on BBC.com, blah blah blah.”
• When you’re writing a speech or making a Power Point presentation, don’t forget to also make a works cited page if you used any ideas or took any direct quotes from a source!

4. How should my MLA Works Cited page look? 

5. How do I “set up” or “lead into” my quotes?

• There are many ways to set up or lead into a quote!
  • You can make the quote flow within your sentence, like this: In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, Frederick Douglass argues that “Slavery proved as injurious [to slave holders] as it did to me” (31).
  • You can use a phrase and a comma. It would look like this: Douglass argues that Auld’s prohibition against literacy for him was a profound experience, saying, “It was a new and special revelation” (29).
  • You can also use a complete sentence and a colon. It will look like this: The effects of Auld’s prohibition against teaching Douglass to read were quite profound for Douglass: “It was a new and special revelation” (29).
• Want to read more about integrating quotes? Click Here!

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Connect with Me!

• How do you teach MLA 9?
• Has teaching MLA formatting and citation been contentious in your English department? What do you and your colleagues disagree about?
• Comment below! I’d love for my readers to add to the conversation!

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Related Posts for You:

• Teach MLA Like a Pro!
• Using a Webquest to Teach Citation Skills
• MLA FAQ
• All of My MLA Teaching Materials
• Why MLA Deserves Our Attention
• How to Teach Revision to High Schoolers
• Writing Help Page

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About the Author: Carly Lamp has taught English 11/English III (American Lit) for 13 years & AP Literature for 10 years. She creates thorough, thoughtful, and rigorous materials, units, and resources for high school English teachers through both her blog and her TPT store (both named English with Mrs. Lamp). She believes great teaching shouldn’t require burning yourself out!