7th grade: Dude Project: Citing your sources

To cite the types of sources that you will use for this project you will need to choose MLA Advanced when you set up your project. If you set your project's citation level as something different, follow these instructions to change to Advanced. You will not lose any of your work.

1. Open Noodlebib from your Menlo Gmail account
2. Find your project but don't click on it
3. At the far right of your project title you will see the word "Option" and a down arrow. Click on Option.
4. You will see a list of actions. One of them is "Change Level." Click that option.
5. Change the blue radio button to "Advanced," then click the "Change Citation Level" button.

You are now in MLA Advanced and have many more options for the types of sources you can cite.

Don't worry - sometimes it's hard to find this information, and sometimes the information just isn't there. Before skipping a box in Noodlebib, be sure the information really isn't available. Here are some places you may find troublesome:

Author field: this is not a required field - leave it blank if you can't find the author.​

• Some books don't indicate a specific author. There may or may not be an editor listed - you can include the editor if available. Do not include long lists of editors.
• Most websites do not indicate an author.
• Do not use the words "Staff," "Unknown," "Anonymous," etc.

Publisher (books, websites): this is required but can be hard to determine on a website. 

• On a website, look at the bottom of the page for a copyright sign or the words "Published by" or "Sponsored by."
• If you skip this field you will see "n.p." in your citation. Go back and look for the publisher.

Publication date (websites): not absolutely required, but usually can be found somewhere.

• First look at the top of the article. Often there is a date just above the article text, particularly if there is also an author.
• Look at the bottom of the article - sometimes the date is at the end.
• If all else fails, use the copyright date at the very bottom of the page. If that date is a range, such as 2002 - 2016, use the most recent date (in this case it would be 2016).

DOI, Accession date (databases): you can leave these fields blank - we don't use these.

Citing a PDF that you found on a website. If you find a source that is a PDF document, it is most likely a research or technical report. 

1. Select Report (technical/research) from the drop-down menu.
2. Select the Website tab.
3. Was this first published in print? If so you will see a publisher, publication city and date near the beginning of the report. If not, you probably won't find a publication city. Choose "Original print" or "Epublication" - whichever seems more accurate.
4. Be sure to include the full url (ending in .pdf). 
5. Skip the DOI field.
6. Fill in as much of the remaining information as you can find. You will leave some fields blank which is ok.

N.p. and n.d.: If you see these in your citation there is some information missing. N.p. means no publisher or no publication city. N.d. means no date.

• Is your source a book? If so, you are missing the publisher, publication city and/or publication date. Go back to the book and find this information.
• Is your source a website? N.d. is acceptable for a website as long as the publication date really isn't shown. If you see n.p., you need to add the publisher/sponsor of the website.

A series of dashes before a title, in place of an author's name, like this:
----. "Why I Think the Dude Project is Awesome." Education Excellence. Atherton, CA: Menlo School, 2016.

• Those dashes are a normal part of an MLA citation. It shows that the author of this article is the same author as in the preceding citation.
• Hint: when you see dashes like this, check to be sure you haven't cited the same source twice.