Common
Terms in MLA Style
Anthology: a
collection of many works, published in one work.
Article: a
short work published in a newspaper, magazine, or newsletter.
Author: the writer of a work.
Cite: to
quote, to copy another’s ideas and give credit to that author/writer/thinker.
Citation: a
parenthetical reference, a “tag” to identify the quotation source.
Critic: may be a writer,
editor, or journalist who reviews another’s work.
Database: a
retrievable collection of articles, restricted to subscribers, used online.
Document:
typically used to describe a government publication.
Documentation: the
process of identifying the source and citation formats in research.
Edition: an
edition suggests more than one revision has occurred, e.g. 6th
ed.
Editor: compiles a work; an
editor may also write comments in a work, e.g. Ed. Tom Ho.
Editorial: a
commentary in a newspaper, usually found on an editorial page.
Essay: a commentary or
composition, often found in anthologies.
Foreword: a
background or commentary, often written by a critic, of a work.
In-text:
refers to writing in the research paper, i.e. in the text of the work.
In-text citation: the
parenthetical reference that allows reader to identify
the
source of a quotation in a research paper from the Works Cited list.
Introduction:
similar to a foreword, but usually more content-focused, of a work.
Journal: a
peer reviewed publication, non-commercialized, for a field of study.
MLA Style: a
format for non-scientific research and documentation in literature, law,
business, communication, art, humanities, and other fields, created by the
Modern Language Association.
MLA: Modern Language
Association.
Online source: a
website used to support a research project.
Pagination:
sequential numbering of pages in a work.
Paraphrase: to
put a quote into one’s own words, but retains ALL the
original author’s ideas and must still be cited with a parenthetical reference.
Plagiarism: to
pass off another’s original writing as one’s own; to
commit faulty
paraphrasing or
summarizing; to reproduce another’s words (at least 3-4 words in sequence)
without using quotation marks and a citation.
Preface: an
introductory section of a work. See foreword.
Reference Work: a
library resource, e.g. Business Periodicals Digest or index, e.g. Reader’s
Guide to Periodical Literature, that lists publications by author, title, subject.
Scholarly journal: see journal.
Series: a
collection of writings published in a sequence, perhaps monthly.
Signal phrase: a
key quotation that identifies the central focus, main point, e.g. Thomas noted,
“One successful suicide is the reason for this course” (3).
Signed: means an author’s
name is attached to an article.
Source: a book, film, letter,
magazine, website, database article, interview, etc. which contains information
to use in research.
Summarize: to condense a writer’s ideas
into an overall statement or shorter version of the original, but which
requires a parenthetical reference just the same.
Quotation, quote: any
use of three or more words in a row exactly as the originator used them. Requires a citation or
parenthetical reference and a Works Cited entry when adhering to MLA format. Always
requires the researcher to put original into quotation marks.
Unsigned: no
author’s name is mentioned as the writer of an
article.
Work: a source or
publication; a work is where quotes
come from.
MLA Documentation
Guidelines
English Department
Page maintained by : Marla DeSoto
Last edited: 4/4/2006