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MLA Eighth Edition STYLE GUIDE

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8th ed.).

TUTORIAL

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM

The MLA Eighth Edition Handbook uses the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary to define plagiarism as "committing 'literary theft.' Plagiarism is presenting another person's ideas, information, expressions, or entire works as one's own. It is thus a kind of fraud: deceiving others to gain something of value. While plagiarism only sometimes has legal repercussions (e.g., when it involves copyright infringement--violating an author's exclusive legal right to publication), it is always a serious moral and ethical offense" (6).

Evaluating Sources

MLA Eighth Edition states, "Today the Internet, with its many publications, databases, archives, and search engines, has accelerated the process of finding and retrieving sources-but at the same time it has complicated the researcher's assessment of their reliability" (11).

AS YOU EVALUATE YOUR SOURCES,

ASK YOURSELF THE FOLLOWING:

 

WHO  is the author of the source?

WHAT  is the title of the source?

HOW  was the source published?

WHERE did you find the source?

WHEN was the source published?

MLA HANDBOOK EIGHTH EDITION IS AVAILABLE AT THE LIBRARY

 2 Copies located at the Reference Desk
 3 Copies located at the Reserve Desk      

(2-Hour check out)

PLAGIARISM? You be the judge!

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