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Writing · Writing: Planning, Drafting, Revising and Publishing

Research II: Integrating Sources and Citing in MLA Style

1.3 1.5About 75 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can decide when to quote, paraphrase or summarize a source.
  • I can integrate sources with signal phrases and precise signal verbs, using the quotation sandwich.
  • I can write MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries for common source types.
  • I can check that borrowed information is accurate, complete, fairly represented and honestly credited.

Words to know

integrate
To blend source material into your own writing smoothly, with an introduction and explanation.
signal phrase
Words that introduce a source, such as researcher Leah Moreau explains that.
signal verb
The verb in a signal phrase (argues, reports, claims); it shows your attitude to the source.
in-text citation
A short reference in your sentence, such as (Okafor 42), that points to a Works Cited entry.
Works Cited
The alphabetical list of all sources at the end of an MLA paper.
container
In MLA, the larger work a source is part of, such as a website, magazine or journal.
plagiarism
Presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own, on purpose or by accident.

Borrowed words, honest credit

You have found good sources. Now comes the part where many students get into trouble: putting other people's ideas into your own writing. Done well, sources make your writing more convincing; your reader sees that experts and evidence agree with you. Done badly, quotations float around unexplained, or worse, ideas appear without credit, which is plagiarism.

This lesson teaches you to integrate sources smoothly, cite them in MLA style (the style most Ontario English classes use), and check that what you borrowed is accurate and complete.

Remember from Grade 9

In Grade 9 you learned to quote, paraphrase and summarize, avoid patchwriting, use signal phrases, tell common knowledge from ideas that need credit, and build MLA entries with containers and a hanging indent. In Grade 10 you will use several sources in one essay, choose precise signal verbs, and handle tricky citation cases.

Quote, paraphrase or summarize?

  • Quote (exact words in quotation marks) when the wording itself matters: a striking phrase, a definition, or an expert's exact claim. Keep quotations short.
  • Paraphrase (the idea in your own words and sentence structure, about the same length) when the idea matters more than the wording. Most of your source material should be paraphrased.
  • Summarize (the main idea, much shorter) when you need the big picture of a long source.

All three need a citation. Paraphrasing without credit is still plagiarism, because the idea belongs to someone else.

The quotation sandwichTOP BUN: introducewho said it, and why they matter (a signal phrase)FILLING: the evidencethe quotation or paraphrase + in-text citationBOTTOM BUN: explainwhat it means and how it supports your point
Never serve the filling on its own. Every quotation or paraphrase needs a signal phrase before it and your explanation after it.

Signal phrases and signal verbs

A signal phrase tells the reader whose idea is coming. Choose the verb carefully, because verbs carry meaning:

  • Neutral: states, reports, notes, explains, describes, observes
  • Agreeing or arguing: argues, maintains, insists, emphasizes, concludes
  • Doubtful: claims, alleges (suggests you are not sure it is true)
  • Admitting: acknowledges, concedes, admits

Environmental reporter Michelle Tran claims that green roofs cool cities sounds doubtful. ... reports that... sounds neutral. Pick the verb that matches what you actually think of the source.

MLA in-text citations

In MLA style, the citation in your sentence is short; the full details go in the Works Cited list at the end. The in-text citation points to the matching entry, usually by the author's last name.

  • One author, with a page number: (Okafor 42). No comma between name and page.
  • Author named in your signal phrase: Okafor explains that rinks "bring neighbours outside" (42).
  • No page numbers (most websites): (Tran).
  • Two authors: (Singh and Moreau 47). Three or more: (Lee et al. 12).
  • No author: the title in quotation marks, shortened only if it is long (start with the same first word as the Works Cited entry so readers can find it): ("Extreme Heat Plan").

The citation goes after the closing quotation mark and before the period: ..."bring neighbours outside" (42).

MLA core elements, in order1. Author.2. Title of source.3. Title of container,4. Other contributors,5. Version,6. Number,7. Publisher,8. Publication date,9. Location.Skip any element that does not apply. Use the punctuation shown after each one.
Every MLA Works Cited entry is built from these elements in this order. The container is the larger thing the source is part of: a website, a magazine, a journal or a book collection.
Source typeMLA Works Cited entry (invented examples)
BookOkafor, Ruth. Rinks and Rivers: Winter in Small Towns. Northern Lights Press, 2021.
Article on a websiteTran, Michelle. "Why Cities Are Planting Rooftops." Urban Green Review, 14 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/rooftops.
Journal articleSingh, Arjun, and Leah Moreau. "Roof Gardens and Summer Heat." Journal of City Climate, vol. 8, no. 2, 2023, pp. 41-58.
Web page, no author"Extreme Heat Plan." City of Maplewood, 2 June 2025, www.example.org/heat-plan.
These authors, titles and websites are invented for practice. Titles of whole works (books, websites, journals) go in italics; titles of parts (articles, chapters, poems, short stories) go in quotation marks. If you find a journal article in a library database, MLA adds the database name (in italics) and a DOI or URL at the end as a second container.

Works Cited checklist

  • Title Works Cited, centred, at the top of a new page.
  • Entries in alphabetical order by the first word (usually the author's last name).
  • Hanging indent: the first line of each entry starts at the margin; the following lines are indented.
  • Double-spaced like the rest of the essay.
  • Every source in your essay appears in Works Cited, and every Works Cited entry is used in your essay.

Reviewing what you borrowed (accuracy and completeness)

Before you move on, check every borrowed piece:

  1. Accurate: Did you copy each quotation exactly, word for word? Does each paraphrase keep the source's meaning?
  2. Complete: Does every quotation and paraphrase have a citation? Is every source in Works Cited?
  3. Fair: Did you change the meaning by leaving words out? (Use an ellipsis ... only when the meaning stays the same.)
  4. Allowed: Did you follow your teacher's rules about AI tools and online help? If a tool is allowed, your teacher will tell you how to acknowledge it. Never hand in generated or copied text as your own writing.
Worked example

Let's integrate and cite two sources in one paragraph

Write a short body paragraph for the point Green roofs can cool buildings, but they do not solve heat on their own, using the journal article by Singh and Moreau (page 47 says green roofs lowered roof-surface temperatures "by as much as 30 degrees" in their study) and the City of Maplewood heat plan (which says tree planting is its main cooling strategy). These sources are invented for practice.

  1. Topic sentence (your point): Green roofs are an effective tool for cooling individual buildings, but cities cannot rely on them alone.
  2. Signal phrase + quotation + citation: In their study of roof gardens, researchers Arjun Singh and Leah Moreau found that green roofs lowered roof-surface temperatures "by as much as 30 degrees" (47).
  3. Explain: This large drop shows how much heat a bare roof absorbs and how plants and soil can block it. However, a cooler roof mainly helps the building underneath, not the people on the sidewalk.
  4. Paraphrase + citation (no author, so a short title): For that reason, Maplewood's heat plan makes planting street trees its main cooling strategy ("Extreme Heat Plan").
  5. Explain and link: Together, these sources suggest that the best approach combines green roofs on large buildings with trees at street level.
  6. Works Cited (alphabetical): "Extreme Heat Plan." City of Maplewood... comes before Singh, Arjun, and Leah Moreau... because E comes before S.

Two sources, two different integration methods (quotation and paraphrase), each sandwiched with the writer's explanation, and a Works Cited list in alphabetical order.

Hands-on activity

Cite what is on your shelf

You need: two books from home (any kind), one article from a news or magazine website (with a grown-up's help), paper and a pencil.

  1. Write a correct MLA Works Cited entry for each book. Find the author, title, publisher and year on the title page and the back of the title page (the copyright page).
  2. Write an entry for the web article: author, title in quotation marks, website name in italics (underline it when writing by hand), date, and URL.
  3. Put all three in alphabetical order with hanging indents.
  4. Choose one sentence from a book and write a quotation sandwich with an in-text citation, such as (Lastname 23).

What to look for: italics (or underlining) for whole works, quotation marks for parts, periods after the author and the title, a comma before the date, and no comma inside (Lastname 23).

Just for fun

MLA stands for Modern Language Association, not My Last-minute Assignment, although Works Cited pages have been known to appear at 11:58 p.m.

Your turn

1

Fix the in-text citation: Rinks "bring neighbours outside." (Okafor, 42)

2

Should you quote or paraphrase a long paragraph of statistics from a government report? Why?

3

Which signal verb suggests you doubt the source: reports, claims or explains?

4

Write the in-text citation for page 15 of a book by three authors whose first author is Diane Lee.

5

In MLA, is the title of a short story in italics or quotation marks? A novel?

6

Put these Works Cited entries in order by their first words: Tran...; "Extreme Heat Plan."...; Okafor...

More practice: warm-up

1

What is the title of the MLA list of sources?

2

What is a hanging indent?

3

Does a paraphrase need a citation?

4

What goes in the filling of a quotation sandwich?

5

What is the container for an article on a website?

More practice: on your own

1

Rewrite this dropped quotation as a full sandwich: "Most teens need eight to ten hours of sleep." Schools should start later. (Source: an invented health website by Dr. Amara Bello, no page numbers.)

2

Write an MLA entry for this (invented) source: an article called Ice Roads in a Warming North by Peter Kaye on the website Northern Report, published 3 Feb. 2025, at www.example.org/ice-roads.

3

A student writes: Green roofs can lower roof temperatures by 30 degrees. They got the fact from Singh and Moreau, page 47. What is missing, and how would you fix it?

4

Explain why patchwriting (changing a few words of a source and keeping its structure) counts as plagiarism even with a citation.

5

A quotation says: "The program reduced litter, although only in the downtown core." A student writes: The program "reduced litter..." Is this ellipsis fair? Explain.

Challenge

1

Write a short paragraph (4 to 5 sentences) that integrates one quotation and one paraphrase from two different (invented) sources on any topic, with correct in-text citations. Then write both Works Cited entries in order.

2

Your source is an online article with no author and no date. Explain how you would cite it in-text and in Works Cited, and what the missing information tells you about the source.

3

Explain the difference between argues and claims as signal verbs, and write one sentence using each correctly about the same source.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which in-text citation is correct MLA?

2.

When should you usually paraphrase rather than quote?

3.

In the quotation sandwich, the bottom bun is:

4.

Which title belongs in italics?

5.

Works Cited entries are arranged:

6.

Which is plagiarism?

7.

A source has no author. The in-text citation uses:

For parents and teachers

Big idea: This lesson finishes expectation 1.3 (selecting and using information to support ideas) and starts 1.5 (checking that information is accurate and complete). Proper citation is also central to academic honesty in every high school course.

How to help: ask your teen to point to where each borrowed idea is cited. Ask Is this your idea or the source's? Check that the school's policy on AI tools is being followed; most teachers state it in the course outline.

Common difficulties:

  • "Dropped" quotations with no introduction or explanation.
  • Thinking paraphrases do not need citations.
  • Commas in the wrong places in (Name page) and Works Cited entries.
  • Mixing up italics (whole works) and quotation marks (parts of works).
  • Patchwriting: changing a few words and keeping the source's sentence structure.

Free online MLA guides from university writing centres can help with unusual source types.