Above you'll find out more about accidental plagiarism and get our top pieces of advice to help you try to avoid violating the academic honesty policy by mistake. (as a bonus, most of these tips will also make your paper better in other ways!)

If you want to take a deeper dive to feel more comfortable with MLA, try our interactive tutorial (Will take roughly 20-35 minutes to complete). This will give you hands-on experience creating in-text and full citations in MLA style for most source types (articles, books, films, and websites).

MLA Citation Resources Online:

Questions about other styles? Eloise is happy to help!

Citing a photograph or work of art directly

Format: ArtistLastname, First. Title of Work. Year, Location, City.

Example:

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800, Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Citing an image found on a website

Format: CreatorLastname, First. “Title of the digital image.” Title of Website, Publisher, Publication date, URL. Access Date.

(Note: If the image has no title, you may describe it but don't use quotation marks ("")

Examples: 

Vasquez, Gary A. Photograph of Coach K with Team USA. NBC Olympics, USA Today Sports, 5 Aug. 2016, www.nbcolympics.com/news/rio-olympics-coach-ks-toughest-test-or-lasting-legacy. Accessed 24 April 2018.

Gilpin, Laura. “Terraced Houses, Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico.” Library of Congress, Reproduction no. LC-USZ62-102170, 1939, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/90716883/. Accessed 26 April 2018.

• As you draft your final project, cite in-text and as you go to attribute quotes from, paraphrases of, or summaries of a source. 
  • If you create an outline, include citations in it as well so you don't need to go back to try to find what information you get from what source.
• Often, quotes are best saved for work that you are centering and/or analyzing. If you are referencing general ideas or laying out what research has been done on this topic, paraphrases and summaries are preferred in most cases. 
• Citation generators can be helpful, but they are often incomplete (including citations from Worldcat or other academic databases). Feel free to use these tools, but always double-check with a model from a trusted source.
  • Need help figuring out the structure of a citation or how to know what pieces of information for a citation you need and where to find them? Librarians are happy to help!