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Film Studies: write your paper, cite your sources

Looking for resources on film studies topics? Use this guide to get started.

What is MLA style?

MLA style is used to cite sources within film studies, the language arts, cultural studies, and other humanities disciplines. MLA style is a standard for the formatting of research papers, including the formatting of in-text citations and the list of sources used. 

Film and video are also increasingly studied in social science disciplines where APA style may be required.

Why do we cite?

  • to distinguish previous from new thought
  • to give credit to the person whose ideas you used
  • to respect intellectual property
  • to help a reader locate the source(s) you used
  • to show that you have investigated your topic well
  • to avoid plagiarism

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own, without their consent or acknowledgment. You must cite the ideas, information, arguments, phrases or any other intellectual or creative output by another person.

Examples of plagiarism:

  • Copying sentences, paragraphs, data or visuals without citing their source
  • Quoting material without proper use of quotation marks (even if otherwise cited appropriately)
  • Paraphrasing or summarizing information from a source without acknowledgement;
  • Paying someone for writing the assignment
  • Listing a source in the bibliography/reference list that was not cited in the assignment

MLA formatting & citation

citing video, audio, and images in MLA

Just as one would cite an author of a written source, one must also cite video, audio, or images that are used in an essay or presentation. This requires citing a specific website even if content was initially located using a Google search; the source website must be cited, not the Google results page. See the links below for information on citing video, audio, and images, and for information on formatting labels and captions.

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