The Division of Language and Arts comprises five departments: Art and Design, English, Language Studies, Music, and Theater Arts.  The student writing required in the courses offered in these departments varies, but all of these disciplines come under the umbrella heading of "humanities," as far as academic writing is concerned, and scholars in these fields follow Modern Languages Association (MLA) style for formal writing. 

In MLA style, short (four lines or fewer) quoted passages are in quotation marks, and longer quoted passages are indented one inch from the left margin.  Secondary source material, whether quoted or paraphrased, is led in with an introduction of the source followed by a parenthetical reference which locates the quoted or paraphrased passage in the source.  Together, the lead in and the parenthetical reference direct the reader to the complete publication information for the source alphabetized in a Works Cited page.

• Lead in: introductory information syntactically connected to the quoted or paraphrased material which usually serves as a link to the alphabetically listed publication information for the source in the Works Cited page.
• Parenthetical reference: parenthesized information about the location of the information in the source and, if the author identified in the lead in is not the same as the name listed first in the Works Cited page entry, the editor or author listed there.  Parenthetical references are located directly following the quoted or paraphrased passage at a convenient break.  Additional editorial commentary, such as the translation of the Bible one is quoting from, may also be included in the parenthetical reference.
• Works Cited Page: a list of the publication information for secondary sources used—that is, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized—in your paper.  A Works Cited page is not to be confused with a "bibliography," which lists works on a given subject which may or may not have been overtly used in the paper.  Each entry in a Work Cited page follows a basic format:
       Author's Last Name, Author's First Name.  Title of Work.  Place
            of Publication: Publisher, latest copyright year. 
  Variations on this basic format (more than one author, a work in an anthology, or an online source, for example) are detailed in the latest edition of The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.  Use the MLA Handbook index to locate the variation and find specific directions plus examples of actual entries.

For thoughtful overview of how MLA style works, check out "Documenting Internet Sources in MLA Style," by Andrew Harnack of Eastern Kentucky University.  For details on how to formulate your own Works Cited page entries correctly in MLA style, visit the reference librarian's desk or buy a copy of the MLA Handbook at the JBU Bookstore.