Citation, Plagiarism & AI

Parenthetical Citation: Put a reference to the work cited in parentheses after a quote or paraphrase. The in-text citation appears at the end of the sentence and before the period.

Author-page style: put the author's last name and the page number(s) in the text and a complete reference on your Works Cited page. The author's name may be in the sentence or in parentheses; the page number(s) must be in the parentheses.

Parenthetical citation: (Eriksson et al., pp. 18-19)

Narrative citation: Eriksson et al. (pp. 18-19)

Basic Format: “Quote” or paraphrase (Author’s last name page #).

Example: “Cookbooks are tangible, printed records that illuminate many aspects of the past; however, to interpret accurately what they tell us about their time, I believe that it is important to keep the books themselves at the center of the story" (Driver 258).

• Citations by Format [examples]
• Works Cited Quick Guide
• Interactive Practice Template
• MLA Checklist [paper]

• Electronic Sources in MLA Works Cited - Purdue OWL
• In-Text Citations - Purdue OWL
• Core Elements - Douglas College Library

Formatting Guide

• OWL Excelsior - MLA Style Formatting Guide

• Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style

Author. Title. Title of container (do not list container for standalone books, e.g. novels), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs URL or DOI). 2^nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

Gagne, Chloe M., and Daniel B. Jones. Processed Foods: Quality, Safety Characteristics and Health Implications. Nova Publishers, 2013.

Little, Amanda. The Fate of Food: What We’ll Eat in a Bigger, Hotter, Smarter World. First edition, Harmony Books, 2019.

Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Utah State UP, 2004.

Jacob, Dianne. Will Write for Food: Pursue Your Passion and Bring Home the Dough Writing Recipes, Cookbooks, Blogs, and More. 4th ed., e-book ed., Hachette Go, 2021.

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Rath, Eric C. Food and Fantasy in Early Modern Japan. University of California Press, 2010, https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520947658.

Seton, Ernest Thompson. The Trail of the Sandhill Stag. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1914. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32319.

Vivek Bald. Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America. Harvard UP, 2012. EBSCOhost, research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=ffdd5edf-9750-34ee-b01a-a05b6a90b60f.

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. One Hundred Years of Solitude. Translated by Gregory Rabassa, Harper and Row, 1970.

Stendhal. The Red and the Black. Translated by Roger Gard, Penguin Books, 2002. 

Check with your instructor if it is acceptable to use AI tools as an information source or as a writing assistant.

If you use an AI tool, such as, ChatGPT, you must cite it as any other source. Suggested Format: 

"Text of prompt” prompt. ChatGPT, Day Month version, OpenAI, Day Month Year, chat.openai.com.

Example: "Tell me about confirmation bias” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 16 Feb. 2023, chat.openai.com.

Instructor’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Lecture.” Title of Course, Date of lecture, Location. Lecture.

Torres, Javier. “Adam Smith: Bible of Capitalism.” Philosophy 101, 26 May 2018, Highlands University. Lecture.

• How do I cite a book chapter or handout that my professor uploaded to a website?
• How do I cite a slide presentation uploaded by an instructor to a learning management system? 
• How do I cite a syllabus?
• How do I cite an online lesson?
• If more than one source for a paraphrased idea is cited in a parenthetical citation, in what order do I list the sources?

Online News Articles

Barry, Dan. "Who Really Invented Basketball? The 'Human Calculator' Thinks He Knows." The New York Times, 17 June 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/nyregion/basketball-herkimer-ny.html. 

Bernstein, Mark. “10 Tips on Writing the Living Web.” A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

Bilger, Burkhard. "The Height Gap." The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2004, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/05/the-height-gap.

Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good Housekeeping, Mar. 2006, pp. 143-48.

Unknow author

"Business: Global Warming's Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland." The Economist, 26 May 2007, p. 82.

Recipe from an Online Source

Nice, Miriam. "Vegan Chocolate Cake." BBC Good Food, 22 May 2025, https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/vegan-chocolate-cake.

Recipe from a Cookbook

“Butternut Squash Soup.” The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook, America’s Test Kitchen, 2023, p. 22.

Madison, Deborah. “Basic Mayonnaise.” Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, by Madison, Broadway Books, 1997, pp. 58–60.

See more examples in MLA Style Center

With an Author

Online

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Entry." Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary, Publisher, Publication Date or Last Update Date, URL. 

Friesen, Gerald. "Assiniboia." The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Canada, 31 Jan. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/assiniboia. 

Print

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Entry." Title of Encyclopedia, edited by Editor's First Name Editor's Last Name, Edition if not the first edition, vol. #, Publisher, Year of Publication, pp. xx-xx.

Barber, Russell J. "Anthropological Ethics." Ethics, edited by John K. Roth, Rev. ed., vol. 1, Salem Press, 2005, pp. 67-69. 

Young, Willie. "Knowing the Unknowable." Poker and Philosophy, edited by Eric Bronson, Carus Publishing Company, 2006, pp. 41-57.

Without an Author

"GMO." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/GMO. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.

"Mystic." Oxford Concise Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Oxford UP, 2003, p. 349.

"Taste." Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Jun. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/science/taste-sense. 

Allende, Isabel. “Tales of Passion.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, Jan. 2008, www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion/ transcript?language=en.

"Digoxin Nursing Pharmacology NCLEX (Cardiac Glycosides)." YouTube, uploaded by RegisteredNurseRN, 9 Mar. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=S73GT32EE48.

McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” YouTube, uploaded by Big Think, 3 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkdzy9bWW3E.

Menker, Sara. "A Global Food Crisis May Be Less Than a Decade Away." TEDGlobal, Aug. 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/sara_menker_a_global_food_crisis_may_be_less_than_a_decade_away.

Note: If the author’s name is the same as the uploader, only cite the author once. If the author is different from the uploader, cite the author’s name before the title.