• Good documentation establishes your credibility to your readers (by showing them your intellectual debts) and to your sources (by giving them proper credit).

• You must document each and every source you use even if you restate it in your own words and even when you borrow not only content from a source but also even phrasing.

1. Quotation: To copy a source's exact words. Use sparingly for emphasis when you cannot improve upon or adapt the source using your own language.
2. Paraphrase: To restate a source's main points and supporting detail in your own words. A paraphrase will be about the same length as the original.
3. Summary: To restate only the main point(s) of a source in your own words. A good summary, which gets to the heart of the idea or source, will be much shorter than the original.

• It is very important that you do not blend summary and paraphrase with direct quotation. Consistently use your own words for paraphrases and summaries; as a rule of thumb, if you state more than three (3) consecutive words from a source, you're quoting the source.

• Parenthetical In-text Documentation Systems consist of two basic parts: (1) the brief parenthetical note in the body of your paper, which points to (2) a longer bibliographical entry at the end of your paper

A bibliographical citation to a book in the MLA style, listed on the "Works Cited" page, consists of three basic components, in this order:

1. The "Author" Block.
   Reverse the first and last name of the first author only, Last name, First.
   Cite the name given on the title page. Depending on the source, there may be multiple authors, a corporate author, or no author listed.
   When no author is given, use the title as the author.
   
2. The "Title" Block.
   List the title of the work and the subtitle in the following format, Title: Subtitle.
   Use an underline for longer works (like books and plays); use quotation marks for shorter works like articles and poems.
   
3. The "Publication Data" Block.
   For books, list the information in this order, City: Publisher, Year.
   For quarterly journals: Title vol.# (Year): pages. Ex: Chaucer Review 1 (1967): 1-7.
   For weekly newspapers and magazines: Title (Date): pages. Ex. New York Times (Dec. 25, 1997): A1.
   
4. Indent the second and subsequent lines five (5) characters with a "hanging indent" (or as I like to call them, "undents").
   
5. Example:

   Nirenberg, David. Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle
        Ages. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1996.

1. The "Author" Block.
   Reverse the first and last name of the first author only, Last Name, First Initial.
   No matter how the name is given on the title page, cite only the initials.
   Depending on the source, there may be multiple authors, a corporate author, or no author listed. When no author is given, use the title as the author.

2. The "Date of Publication" Block.
   Cite the date of publication in parenthesis: Use the year for books (1996) and the date, year for periodicals (1996, May 4).

3. The "Title" Block.
   List the title of the work and the subtitle in the following format, Title: Subtitle.
   Use an underline for longer works (like books and plays), but do not use quotation marks for shorter works in the APA style.
   Capitalize only the first words of the title and subtitles and proper nouns.

4. The "Publication Data" Block.
   For books, list the information in this order, City: Publisher.
   For quarterly journals:  Title, volume, pages.  Ex. Chaucer Review,1,1-7.
   For weekly magazines and newspapers:   Title, pages. Ex. New York Times, p. A1.

5. Indent the first line five (5) characters while the second and subsequent lines go the margin.

6. Example:

   Nirenberg, D. (1996). Communities of violence: Persecution of minorities in the Middle
       Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.