MLA RESOURCES
DOWNLOAD handout that covers all rules for First Page formatting and Works Cited page
General MLA Resources
- For a comprehensive explanation of MLA formatting and citation rules, visit the various pages at the OWL at Purdue's website: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/11/
- To help generate Works Cited page entries as well as remind you of in-text citations, access this MLA entry generator *Note: Make sure you're using the MLA section of the citation machine OR USE http://www.bibme.org/
On Citing Beowulf in MLA:
Slashes for Poetry and Verse
With poetry or plays written in verse, use uses a slash to show where each line ends in the poem. If there are three or less lines, the material appears within the body of the paragraph like any other short quote:
In Book Thirteen of The Odyssey, Homer writes, ". . . You must come from the other end of nowhere, / having to ask / what place this is" (301-03).
Note that in the example above, the numbers refer to lines, not page numbers. We quote articles and essays by page number, but poetry we cite by book and line number. We cite plays by act, scene, and line numbers.
For citing Beowulf specifically:
There’s no known author, so your citation will simply include the line number range.
If your citation goes beyond 3 lines, it should be written as a block quote, where you format it into your paper like you see it in print. Remember, block quotes are indented twice (10 spaces) and punctuation goes BEFORE the citation, unlike a traditional MLA citation.