• Keep careful research notes and keep track of citations and where your information comes from.
• Try EndNote or Mendeley to organize your references and PDFs.
  
  
• Copy and paste judiciously.
  
  
• Remember that most of the words you are using should be yours. Quotes from sources should be used to bolster your ideas.
  
  
• If you paraphrase or quote, you need to cite.  Other people's ideas need to be credited as well as their quoted words.
• See the Purdue OWL: Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

MLA was developed by the Modern Language Association. The humanities typically use MLA format to cite sources.

Now that you have assembled all of this great information, you will need to actually write your paper. If you need help with the writing part, please contact the Learning Center to schedule an appointment with a writing tutor.

If you need help with using citations or creating your Works Cited list, you can try some of the resources on this page, or come ask the Reference Desk librarians for help.