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Why We Cite: The Purposes of Citation

Citations serve three major roles in scholarly work:

  • They allow you to show how your argument is built upon the ideas of others.
  • They allow you to indicate which ideas are taken from others, and from whom those ideas were taken; in other words, to give credit where it’s due.
  • They allow the interested reader to follow your argument and confirm its logic by investigating the ideas on which the argument is built, or to further explore those ideas on their own.

In each case, it’s important that you acknowledge the ways in which others’ ideas contributed to your own. Otherwise, you run the risk of plagiarism.

MLA Citations Guide

 MLA Guides

MLA_Citation_Basics-EBook MLA_Visual_Guides_Part_1 MLA_Visual_Guides_Part_2

In-text citations using MLA Sample MLA Works Cited Page Quick Guide to 7th edition MLA Guide
OWL Writing Centre MLA Guide Overview of MLA Style – OWL MLA
Sample MLA paper MLA Poster MLA Visual Examples
Link to Source it MLA TEST
Updated on Friday, March 20, 2020.
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