Chapter 10: Documenting Sources: MLA
344
See the additional resources for content and reading quizzes for this chapter.
345
When you are building an argument, you use sources for support. To acknowledge the material you borrow and to help readers evaluate your sources, you need to supply documentation. In other words, you need to tell readers where you found your information. If you use documentation responsibly, you will also avoid plagiarism, an ethical offense with serious consequences. (See Chapter 11 for more on plagiarism.)
WHY DOCUMENT SOURCES?
To acknowledge the debt that you owe to your sources
To demonstrate that you are familiar with the conventions of academic discourse
To enable readers to judge the quality of your research
To avoid plagiarism
To make your argument more convincing
MLA documentation consists of two parts: parenthetical references in the text of your paper and a works-