This page is designed to help you succeed in the writing process for English research essays. See also the TWU writing resources page.

MLA Handbook

Find the MLA Handbook (9th edition, 2021) here.

Tutorials on Doing Research, Including MLA Style

https://lib.asu.edu/tutorials - Arizona State University

MLA 8th Style Guides Online

• MLA 8th Edition changes from the previous 7th edition - by Purdue OWL
• Guide by Purdue OWL 
• Guide by SFU Library 
• Guide by Concordia University 

MLA 8th Edition Sample Paper

Sample paper by Purdue OWL

Creating Computer Generated Citations:

Formatting Book Citations:

Use Library OneSearch to identify the book you want to cite.  Click on the blue icon to the right of the book reference and then choose Cite in the right column.  Note that computer generated citations are not always perfect.  Have a formatting guide (as above) available to check on accuracy of the formatting.

Formatting Article Citations:

• In any EBSCO database, if you click on an article title in your result list, there should be a Cite link on the right.  If there is no Cite link, click on the Save link and choose the citation style you want from the dropdown box on the right.
• While not always reliable, you can look up your article title (use quotation marks around it) in Google Scholar, then click on the Cite link below the article entry (it's a quotation marks symbol).
• A useful tool for creating citations is Citation Machine. You can look up your source and generate a citation in the format of your choice.  Once again, it may not be entirely reliable.  You can also fill in information manually and generate a citation.

If you are using EndNote to manage your references, see our EndNote Guide.  See the Downloads tab for information on downloading to EndNote from various databases.

• Annotated Bibliography Samples (Purdue University)
• How to Write Annotated Bibliographies (Memorial University)
• Writing an Annotated Bibliography (U of T)

Plagiarism is a significant problem in higher education. Here are some guides to help you:

• A brief Prezi presentation: http://prezi.com/dcbl-pnzuv9i/whats-the-big-deal-about-plagiarism/
• A more detailed Prezi presentation: https://prezi.com/od62fxnkbmxh/plagiarism-how-to-get-it-out-of-your-life/
• A detailed online presentation: http://bit.ly/1p00KX3
• Ten Types of Plagiarism: http://www.turnitin.com/assets/en_us/media/plagiarism_spectrum.php
• Download a handy one-page PDF summary of the infographic from: http://williambadke.com/Plagiarism_Spectrum_US_8.5x11.pdf