WHY USE MLA FORMAT?
• Provides Consistent Format Within a Discipline. Using a consistent format allows you to keep track of your sources. It helps your reader (and instructor) understand your arguments and the sources you used to build those arguments. It also helps readers evaluate the context from which you took your quotations. • Gives You Credibility as a Writer and Researcher. Documenting the sources you used when writing your research paper shows accountability on your part. Submitting a 10 to 20 page paper without any citations or references to outside sources indicates that you have not conducted any library research. • Gives Credit to Those Who Helped Form Your Ideas and Protects You From Plagiarism. Proper citing of your sources in MLA style can help you avoid plagiarism—the unknowing or purposeful use of another person’s words or ideas—which is a serious offense. Plagiarism may result in anything from failure of the assignment to expulsion from school.
