Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The Endicott College Writing Center presents...
MLA: How to cite a scholarly journal article from a database
Lets begin by trying to find an article to include in our paper.
From the Endicott College website, find the "Academics" tab, and then the "Diane M. Halle Library" link under "Academic Resources."
From the library webpage, find the "Search Library Databases" link.
Now, the library subscribes to numerous databases that offer a wealth of information for various fields and disciplines.
For our purposes here, let's look at the "Sage Premier" database.
Now, let’s say that I was interested in creativity and how creativity plays a role in writing or the writing process.
For some of my key words, I might include something like "Creativity" and "Writing," just to do a general search, and then click "Go."
So here’s some of my search results and I can scroll through here and see what articles might be of interest to me,
and the “Creative Participation in the Essay Writing Process” has caught my eye.
Now, the information highlighted here is the information you will eventually need for your works cited page,
as well as some information for your in text citations,
but let’s say I wanted to read the article first.
Here I have a "Full Text PDF" that I can click on, and essentially this is how the article originally appeared in print,
but it’s been scanned as a PDF and uploaded to the database.
Now, I have information on the very first page that again can go in the works cited page,
but it’s also located here in this column.
Say I wanted to directly quote some information from that source that I found, and I wanted to use the author’s names in the sentence.
Here I include the authors’ names, utilize the quotation, and then directly after the quotation I include the page number in parentheses.
Now say I wanted to directly quote, but not mention the authors' names in the sentence.
In this case, after the quotation, I include the authors’ last names and the page number where that quotation came from (both in parentheses).
If I wanted to paraphrase information and mention the authors’ names in the sentence,
again I’d include the author’s names, and then after paraphrasing the information I would include the page number.
Now again, the page number directs the reader to where you’re paraphrasing information from in the context of that text or that source.
Now below, say I wanted to paraphrase and not mention the authors’ names in the sentence.
Again, I’d paraphrase the information and include the authors’ last names,
and the page number where that information is coming from in parentheses and followed by a period.
Now let's look at what needs to be included on your Works Cited page.
For multiple authors, make sure you have the first author’s last name first, followed by first name,
and then the second (and any subsequent authors) having their first name, followed by last name, and then a period.
Also, make sure you have the title of the article in quotations, followed by a period;
the journal title, italicized;
CORRECTION: the volume and issue number;
the year of publication in parentheses, followed by a period;
the page numbers, followed by a period;
the database, italicized, followed by a period;
the medium, in this case the Web, followed by a period;
and then the date it was accessed, with day first, followed by month and then year, and a period.
Also, make sure to indent your second and any subsequent lines of each individual entry on your Works Cited page.
And also, double-check your punctuation and spacing, as well as capitalization, on your Works Cited
This has been a presentation of Endicott College Writing Center.
For more information about scheduling an appointment, please visit our website today.