Basic in-text citation rules
In MLA style, referring to the
works of others in your text is done by using what is known as parenthetical citation. This method
involves placing relevant source information in parentheses after a quote or a
paraphrase.
General Guidelines
• The
source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1.) upon the
source medium (e.g. Print, Web, DVD) and (2.) upon the source’s entry on the
Works Cited (bibliography) page.
• Any
source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source
information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or
phrase you provide to your readers in the text, must be the first thing that
appears on the left hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited
List.
In-text citations: Author-page style
MLA format follows the
author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name
and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must
appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited
page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in
parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s)
should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For
example:
Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a
"spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
Wordsworth extensively explored
the role of emotion in the creative process (263).
Both citations in the examples
above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the
sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If
readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works
Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following
information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. London: Oxford UP,
1967. Print.
In-text citations for print sources with known
author
For Print sources like books,
magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or
phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the
signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the
parenthetical citation.
Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as
"symbol-using animals" (3). Human beings have been described as
"symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).
These examples must correspond to
an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on
the left-hand margin of an entry in the Works Cited:
Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method.
Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. Print.
In-text citations for print sources by a
corporate author
When a source has a corporate
author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the
page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g.,
nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of
reading with overly long parenthetical citations.
In-text citations for print sources with no
known author
When a source has no known
author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the
title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize
it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web
sites) and provide a page number.
We see so many global warming
hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily
accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study
environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming" 6).
In this example, since the reader
does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title of the article
appears in the parenthetical citation which corresponds to the full name of the
article which appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry in
the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the
signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader
directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears
as follows:
"The Impact of Global
Warming in North America." Global
Warming: Early Signs. 1999. Web. 23 Mar. 2009.
We'll learn how to make a Works
Cited page in a bit, but right now it's important to know that parenthetical
citations and Works Cited pages allow readers to know which sources you
consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your
interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.
Author-page citation for classic and literary
works with multiple editions
Page numbers are always required,
but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a
different edition of a classic work like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto. In such cases, give the page number of
your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of
course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for
volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or
paragraph (par.). For example:
Marx and Engels described human
history as marked by class struggles (79; ch. 1).
Citing authors with same last names
Sometimes more information is
necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance,
if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first
initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials)
in your citation. For example:
Although some medical ethicists
claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12), others note
that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (A. Miller
46).
Citing a work by multiple authors
For a source with three or fewer
authors, list the authors' last names in the text or in the parenthetical
citation:
Smith, Yang, and Moore argue that
tougher gun control is not needed in the United States (76). The authors state
"Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second Amendment
rights" (Smith, Yang, and Moore 76).
For a source with more than three
authors, use the work's bibliographic information as a guide for your citation.
Provide the first author's last name followed by et al. or list all the last
names.
Jones et al. counter Smith, Yang,
and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in
America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).
Or
Legal experts counter Smith,
Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike in gun violence in
America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (Jones et al. 4).
Or
Jones, Driscoll, Ackerson, and
Bell counter Smith, Yang, and Moore's argument by noting that the current spike
in gun violence in America compels law makers to adjust gun laws (4).
Citing multiple works by the same author
If you cite more than one work by a particular author,
include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to
distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short
titles of articles in quotation marks.
Citing
two articles by the same author:
Lightenor has argued that
computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38),
though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure to computer games does
lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year
("Hand-Eye Development" 17).
Citing
two books by the same author:
Murray states that writing is
"a process" that "varies with our thinking style" (Write to Learn 6). Additionally, Murray
argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from
the mind of one person into the mind of another" (A Writer Teaches Writing 3).
Additionally, if the author's
name is not mentioned in the sentence, you would format your citation with the
author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work,
followed, when appropriate, by page numbers:
Visual studies, because it is
such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual
Studies" 63).
Citing multivolume works
If you cite from different
volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a
colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you
only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)
. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).
Citing the Bible
In your first parenthetical
citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or
italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by
book (do not italicize or underline), chapter and verse. For example:
Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living
creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10).
If future references employ the
same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse
in the parenthetical citation.
Citing indirect sources
Sometimes you may have to use an
indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited in another source. For
such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you
actually consulted. For example:
Ravitch argues that high schools
are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that
well" (qtd. in Weisman 259).
Note that, in most cases, a
responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than
citing an indirect source.
Citing non-print or sources from the Internet
With more and more scholarly work
being posted on the Internet, you may have to cite research you have completed
in virtual environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used
for scholarly work, some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research.
When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources,
remember that your citation must reference the source in your Works Cited.
Sometimes writers are confused
with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the
absence of page numbers, but often, these sorts of entries do not require any
sort of parenthetical citation at all. For electronic and Internet sources,
follow the following guidelines:
• Include
in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that
corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film
name).
• You
do not need to give paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web
browser’s print preview function.
• Unless
you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader
to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial
URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name,
like CNN.com or Forbes.com as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or
http://www.forbes.com.
Miscellaneous non-print sources
Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo
stars Herzog's long-time film partner, Klaus Kinski. During the shooting of Fitzcarraldo, Herzog and Kinski were
often at odds, but their explosive relationship fostered a memorable and
influential film.
During the presentation, Jane Yates stated that invention
and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric that need more attention.
In the two examples above
“Herzog” from the first entry and “Yates” from the second lead the reader to
the first item each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:
Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo. Perf. Klaus Kinski.
Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982. Film.
Yates, Jane. "Invention in
Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and
Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Presentation.
Electronic sources
One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo is "...a beautiful and terrifying critique of
obsession and colonialism" (Garcia, “Herzog: a Life”).
The Purdue OWL is accessed by millions of users every year. Its
"MLA Formatting and Style Guide" is one of the most popular resources
(Stolley et al.).
In the first example, the writer
has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from
the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s
last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead
the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below). In the
second example, “Stolley et al.” in the parenthetical citation gives the reader
an author name followed by the abbreviation “et al.,” meaning, “and others,”
for the article “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” Both corresponding Works
Cited entries are as follows:
Garcia, Elizabeth. "Herzog:
a Life." Online Film Critics Corner.
The Film School of New Hampshire, 2 May 2002. Web. 8 Jan. 2009.
Stolley, Karl, et al. "MLA
Formatting and Style Guide." The OWL at Purdue. 10 May 2006. Purdue
University Writing Lab. 12 May 2006.
Multiple citations
To cite multiple sources in the
same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semicolon:
. . . as has been discussed
elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).
When a citation is not needed
Common sense and ethics should
determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources
for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. Remember,
this is a rhetorical choice, based on audience. If you're writing for an expert
audience of a scholarly journal, for example, they'll have different
expectations of what constitutes common knowledge.
MLA Formatting Quotations
When you directly quote the works
of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on
their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into
your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced.
Short quotations
To indicate short quotations
(fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text,
enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and
specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the
text, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation
marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the
parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear
within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after
the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
For example, when quoting short
passages of prose, use the following examples:
According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of
personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.
According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express
"profound aspects of personality" (184). Is it possible that dreams
may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?
When short (fewer than three
lines of verse) quotations from poetry, mark breaks in short quotations of
verse with a slash, ( / ), at the end of each line of verse (a space should
precede and follow the slash).
Cullen concludes, "Of all
the things that happened there / That's all I remember" (11-12).
Long quotations
For quotations that are more than
four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a
free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a
new line, with the entire quote indented one
inch from the left margin; maintain double-spacing. Only indent the first
line of the quotation by an additional quarter inch if you are citing multiple
paragraphs. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain
original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your
essay.)
For example, when citing more
than four lines of prose, use the following examples:
Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him
throughout her narration:
They entirely refused to have it
in bed with them, or even in their room, and I had no more sense, so, I put it
on the landing of the stairs, hoping it would be gone on the morrow. By chance,
or else attracted by hearing his voice, it crept to Mr. Earnshaw's door, and
there he found it on quitting his chamber. Inquiries were made as to how it got
there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and
inhumanity was sent out of the house. (Bronte 78)
When citing long sections (more
than three lines) of poetry, keep formatting as close to the original as
possible.
In his poem "My Papa's Waltz," Theodore Roethke
explores his childhood with his father:
The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy. We Romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself. (quoted
in Shrodes, Finestone, Shugrue 202)
When citing two or more
paragraphs, use block quotation format, even if the passage from the paragraphs
is less than four lines. Indent the first line of each quoted paragraph an
extra quarter inch.
In "American Origins of the
Writing-across-the-Curriculum Movement," David Russell argues, Writing has been an issue in American
secondary and higher education since papers and examinations came into wide use
in the 1870s, eventually driving out formal recitation and oral examination. .
. .
From its birth in the late nineteenth century, progressive education has
wrestled with the conflict within industrial society between pressure to
increase specialization of knowledge and of professional work (upholding
disciplinary standards) and pressure to integrate more fully an ever-widerning
number of citizens into intellectually meaningful activity within mass society
(promoting social equity). . . . (3)
Adding or omitting words in quotations
If you add a word or words in a
quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are
not part of the original text.
Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay
on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends]
make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).
If you omit a word or words from
a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipsis
marks, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For
example:
In an essay on urban legends, Jan
Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning
every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of
details occurs" (78).
Please note that brackets are not
needed around ellipses unless adding brackets would clarify your use of
ellipses.
When omitting words from poetry
quotations, use a standard three-period ellipses; however, when omitting one or
more full lines of poetry, space several periods to about the length of a
complete line in the poem:
These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;
And passing even into my purer mind,
With tranquil restoration . . .
(22-24, 28-30)
MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format
According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.
Basic rules
• Begin
your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It
should have the same one-inch margins and last name, page number header as the
rest of your paper.
• Label
the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in
quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.
• Double
space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Indent
the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging
indent.
• List
page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal
article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your
Works Cited page as 225-50. Note that MLA style uses a hyphen in a span of
pages. Additional basic rules new to MLA
2009
New to MLA 2009:
• For
every entry, you must determine the Medium of Publication. Most entries will
likely be listed as Print or Web sources, but other possibilities may include
Film, CD-ROM, or
DVD.
• Writers
are no longer required to provide
URLs for Web entries. However, if your instructor or publisher insists on them,
include them in angle brackets after the entry and end with a period. For long
URLs, break lines only at slashes.
• If
you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print
form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online
database name in italics. You do not need to provide subscription information
in addition to the database name.
Capitalization and punctuation
• Capitalize
each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles
(the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the
title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind,
The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
• New to MLA 2009: Use italics (instead
of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation
marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)
Listing author names
Entries are listed alphabetically
by the author's last name (or, for entire edited collections, editor names).
Author names are written last name first; middle names or middle initials
follow the first name:
Burke, Kenneth Levy, David M.
Wallace, David Foster
Do not list titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA,
DDS, etc.) with names. A book listing an author named "John Bigbrain,
PhD" appears simply as "Bigbrain, John"; do, however, include
suffixes like "Jr." or "II." Putting it all together, a
work by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be cited as "King, Martin
Luther, Jr." Here the suffix following the first or middle name and a
comma.
More than one work by an author
If you have cited more than one
work by a particular author, order the entries alphabetically by title, and use
three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first:
Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. [...]
---. A
Rhetoric of Motives. [...]
When an author or collection
editor appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a
group, list solo-author entries first:
Heller, Steven, ed. The Education of an E-Designer.
Heller, Steven, and Karen Pomeroy. Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic
Design.
Work with no known author
Alphabetize works with no known
author by their title; use a shortened version of the title in the
parenthetical citations in your paper. In this case, Boring Postcards USA has
no known author:
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulations. [...]
Boring
Postcards USA. [...]
Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. [...]
MLA Works Cited Page: Books
Basic Format
The author’s name or a book with
a single author's name appears in last name, first name format. The basic form
for a book citation is:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication:
Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.
Book with One Author
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York:
Penguin, 1987. Print.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver:
MacMurray, 1999. Print.
Book with More Than One Author
The first given name appears in
last name, first name format; subsequent author names appear in first name last
name format.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal
Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer
Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.
If there are more than three
authors, you may choose to list only the first author followed by the phrase et
al. (Latin for "and others") in place of the subsequent authors'
names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear
on the title page. (Note that there is a period after “al” in “et al.” Also
note that there is never a period after the “et” in “et al.”).
Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications
for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Logan: Utah State UP, 2004.
Print.
or
Wysocki, Anne Frances, Johndan
Johnson-Eilola, Cynthia L. Selfe, and Geoffrey Sirc. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching
of Composition. Logan: Utah State UP, 2004. Print.
Two or More Books by the Same Author
List works alphabetically by
title. (Remember to ignore articles like A, An, and The.) Provide the author’s
name in last name, first name format for the first entry only. For each
subsequent entry by the same author, use three hyphens and a period.
Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York:
St. Martin's, 1997. Print.
---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois UP, 1993. Print.
Book by a Corporate Author or Organization
A corporate author may include a
commission, a committee, or a group that does not identify individual members
on the title page. List the names of corporate authors in the place where an
author’s name typically appears at the beginning of the entry.
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random,
1998. Print.
Book with No Author
List by title of the book.
Incorporate these entries alphabetically just as you would with works that
include an author name. For example, the following entry might appear between
entries of works written by Dean, Shaun and Forsythe, Jonathan.
Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993. Print.
Remember that for an in-text
(parenthetical) citation of a book with no author, provide the name of the work
in the signal phrase and the page number in parentheses. You may also use a
shortened version of the title of the book accompanied by the page number. For
more information see In-text Citations for Print Sources with No Known Author
section of In-text Citations: The Basics, which you can link to at the bottom
of this page.
A Translated Book
Cite as you would any other book.
Add "Trans."—the abbreviation for translated by—and follow with the
name(s) of the translator(s).
Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of
Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York:
Vintage-Random House, 1988. Print.
Republished Book
Books may be republished due to
popularity without becoming a new edition. New editions are typically revisions
of the original work. For books that originally appeared at an earlier date and
that have been republished at a later one, insert the original publication date
before the publication information. For books that are new editions (i.e.
different from the first or other editions of the book), see An Edition of a
Book below.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. 1990. New York:
Routledge, 1999. Print.
Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. New York:
Perennial-Harper, 1993. Print.
An Edition of a Book
There are two types of editions
in book publishing: a book that has been published more than once in different editions
and a book that is prepared by someone other than the author (typically an
editor).
A Subsequent Edition
Cite the book as you normally
would, but add the number of the edition after the title.
Crowley, Sharon, and Debra
Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for
Contemporary Students. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004. Print.
A Work Prepared by an Editor
Cite the book as you normally
would, but add the editor after the title.
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Ed. Margaret Smith. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
Anthology or Collection (e.g. Collection of
Essays)
To cite the entire anthology or
collection, list by editor(s) followed by a comma and "ed." or, for
multiple editors, "eds" (for edited by). This sort of entry is
somewhat rare. If you are citing a particular piece within an anthology or
collection (more common), see A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection
below.
Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite
Helmers, eds. Defining Visual Rhetorics.
Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004. Print.
Peterson, Nancy J., ed. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical
Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. Print.
A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection
Works may include an essay in an
edited collection or anthology, or a chapter of a book. The basic form is for
this sort of citation is as follows:
Lastname, First name. "Title
of Essay." Title of Collection.
Ed. Editor's Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of
entry. Medium of Publication.
Some examples:
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me:
Engaging Reluctant Writers." A
Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth:
Heinemann, 2000. 24-34. Print.
Swanson, Gunnar. "Graphic
Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and The
'Real World.'" The Education of a
Graphic Designer. Ed. Steven Heller. New York: Allworth Press, 1998. 13-24.
Print.
Note on Cross-referencing Several
Items from One Anthology: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited
collection, MLA indicates you may
cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the
publishing information for each separate essay. You should consider this option
if you have several references from a single text. To do so, include a separate
entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name as below:
Rose, Shirley K., and Irwin
Weiser, eds. The Writing Program
Administrator as Researcher. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1999. Print.
Then, for each individual essay
from the collection, list the author's name in last name, first name format,
the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page range:
L'Eplattenier, Barbara.
"Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on
WPAs." Rose and Weiser 131-40.
Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the
WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser 15367.
Please note: When
cross-referencing items in the works cited list, alphabetical order should be
maintained for the entire list.
Poem
or Short Story Examples:
Burns, Robert. "Red, Red
Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems. Ed.
Philip Smith. New York: Dover, 1995. 26. Print.
Kincaid, Jamaica.
"Girl." The Vintage Book of
Contemporary American Short Stories. Ed. Tobias Wolff. New York: Vintage,
1994. 306-07. Print.
If the specific literary work is
part of the author's own collection (all of the works have the same author),
then there will be no editor to reference:
Whitman, Walt. "I Sing the
Body Electric." Selected Poems.
New York: Dover, 1991. 12-19. Print.
Carter, Angela. "The Tiger's
Bride." Burning Your Boats: The
Collected Stories. New York: Penguin, 1995. 154-69. Print.
Article in a Reference Book (e.g. Encyclopedias,
Dictionaries)
For entries in encyclopedias,
dictionaries, and other reference works, cite the piece as you would any other
work in a collection but do not include the publisher information. Also, if the
reference book is organized alphabetically, as most are, do not list the volume
or the page number of the article or item.
"Ideology." The American Heritage Dictionary. 3rd
ed. 1997. Print.
A Multivolume Work
When citing only one volume of a
multivolume work, include the volume number after the work's title, or after
the work's editor or translator.
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Trans. H. E. Butler. Vol. 2. Cambridge:
Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980. Print.
When citing more than one volume
of a multivolume work, cite the total number of volumes in the work. Also, be
sure in your in-text citation to provide both the volume number and page
number(s). (See Citing Multivolume Works on the In-Text Citations – The Basics
page, which you can access by following the appropriate link at the bottom of
this page.)
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Trans. H. E. Butler. 4 vols. Cambridge:
Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980. Print.
If the volume you are using has
its own title, cite the book without referring to the other volumes as if it
were an independent publication.
Churchill, Winston S. The Age of Revolution. New York: Dodd,
1957. Print.
An Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword
When citing an introduction, a
preface, a foreword, or an afterword, write the name of the author(s) of the
piece you are citing. Then give the name of the part being cited, which should
not be italicized or enclosed in quotation marks; in italics, provide the name
of the work and the name of the author of the
introduction/preface/forward/afterward. Finish the citation with the details of
publication, page range, and item type (e.g., print, web, etc.).
Farrell, Thomas B. Introduction. Norms of Rhetorical Culture. By Farrell.
New Haven: Yale UP, 1993. 1-13. Print.
If the writer of the piece is different from the author of the complete
work, then write the full name of the principal work's author after the
word "By." For example, if you were to cite Hugh Dalziel Duncan’s
introduction of Kenneth Burke’s book Permanence and Change, you would write the
entry as follows:
Duncan, Hugh Dalziel.
Introduction. Permanence and Change: An
Anatomy of Purpose. By Kenneth Burke. 1935. 3rd ed. Berkeley: U of California
P, 1984. xiii-xliv. Print.
Other
Print/Book Sources
Certain book sources are handled
in a special way by MLA style.
The Bible
Give the name of the specific
edition you are using, any editor(s) associated with it, followed by the
publication information. Remember that your in-text (parenthetical citation)
should include the name of the specific edition of the Bible, followed by an
abbreviation of the book, the chapter and verse(s). (See Citing the Bible on In-Text Citations: The Basics.)
The New Jerusalem Bible. Ed. Susan Jones. New York: Doubleday,
1985. Print.
A Government Publication
Cite the author of the
publication if the author is identified. Otherwise, start with the name of the
national government, followed by the agency (including any subdivisions or
agencies) that serves as the organizational author. For congressional
documents, be sure to include the number of the Congress and the session when
the hearing was held or resolution passed. US government documents are
typically published by the Government Printing Office, which MLA abbreviates as
GPO.
United States. Cong. Senate.
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearing
on the Geopolitics of Oil. 110th Cong., 1st sess. Washington: GPO, 2007.
Print.
United States. Government Accountability
Office. Climate Change: EPA and DOE
Should Do More to Encourage Progress Under Two Voluntary Programs.
Washington: GPO, 2006. Print.
A Pamphlet
Cite the title and publication
information for the pamphlet just as you would a book without an author.
Pamphlets and promotional materials commonly feature corporate authors
(commissions, committees, or other groups that does not provide individual
group member names). If the pamphlet you are citing has no author, cite as
directed below. If your pamphlet has an author or a corporate author, put the
name of the author (last name, first name format) or corporate author in the
place where the author name typically appears at the beginning of the entry.
(See also Books by a Corporate Author or Organization above.)
Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive System. Washington:
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006. Print.
Your Rights Under California Welfare Programs. Sacramento:
California Dept. of Social Services, 2007. Print.
Dissertations and Master's Theses
Dissertations and master's theses
may be used as sources whether published or not. Cite the work as you would a
book, but include the designation Diss. (or MA/MS thesis) followed by the
degree-granting school and the year the degree was awarded.
If the dissertation is published,
italicize the title and include the publication date. You may also include the
University Microfilms International (UMI) order number if you choose:
Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI
Comprehensive Campaign. Diss. Purdue University, 2002. Ann Arbor: UMI,
2004. Print.
Bile, Jeffrey. Ecology, Feminism, and a Revised Critical
Rhetoric: Toward a Dialectical Partnership. Diss. Ohio University, 2005.
Ann Arbor: UMI, 2006. AAT 3191701. Print.
If the work is not published, put
the title in quotation marks and end with the date the degree was awarded:
Graban, Tarez Samra.
"Towards a Feminine Ironic: Understanding Irony in the Oppositional
Discourse of Women from the Early Modern and Modern Periods." Diss. Purdue
University, 2006. Print.
Stolley, Karl. "Toward a Conception of Religion as a
Discursive Formation: Implications for Postmodern Composition Theory." MA
thesis. Purdue University, 2002. Print.
MLA Works Cited: Periodicals
Periodicals (e.g. magazines, newspapers, and scholarly
journals) that appear in print require the same medium of publication
designator—Print—as books, but the MLA Style method for citing these materials
and the items required for these entries are quite different from MLA book
citations.
For more information on citing periodicals, consult “Citing Periodical Print Publications” in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition (sec. 5.4, 136-48), or the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 3rd edition (sec. 6.5, 174-85).
Article in a Magazine
Cite by listing the article's
author, putting the title of the article in quotations marks, and italicizing
the periodical title. Follow with the date of publication. Remember to
abbreviate the month. The basic format is as follows:
Author(s). "Title of
Article." Title of Periodical
Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.
Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes
a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov.
2000: 70-71. Print.
Buchman, Dana. "A Special
Education." Good Housekeeping
Mar. 2006: 143-48. Print.
Article in a Newspaper
Cite a newspaper article as you
would a magazine article, but note the different pagination in a newspaper. If
there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late
edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (e.g., 17 May
1987, late ed.).
Brubaker, Bill. "New Health
Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post 24 May 2007: LZ01. Print.
Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of
Eating." New York Times 21 May
2007 late ed.: A1. Print.
If the newspaper is a less
well-known or local publication, include the city name and state in brackets
after the title of the newspaper.
Behre, Robert. "Presidential
Hopefuls Get Final Crack at Core of S.C. Democrats." Post and Courier [Charleston, SC] 29 Apr. 2007: A11. Print.
Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent [West Lafayette, IN] 5 Dec. 2000: 20. Print.
A Review
To cite a review, include the
title of the review (if available), then the abbreviation "Rev. of"
for Review of and provide the title of the work (in italics for books, plays,
and films; in quotation marks for articles, poems, and short stories). Finally,
provide performance and/or publication information.
Review Author. "Title of Review (if there is
one)." Rev. of Performance Title, by
Author/Director/Artist. Title of Periodical day month year:
page. Medium of publication.
Seitz, Matt Zoller. "Life in
the Sprawling Suburbs, If You Can Really Call It Living." Rev. of Radiant City, dir. Gary Burns and Jim
Brown. New York Times 30 May 2007
late ed.: E1. Print.
Weiller, K. H. Rev. of Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical
Perspectives and Media Representations, ed. Linda K. Fuller. Choice Apr. 2007: 1377. Print.
An Editorial & Letter to the Editor
Cite as you would any article in
a periodical, but include the designators "Editorial" or
"Letter" to identify the type of work it is.
"Of Mines and Men."
Editorial. Wall Street Journal east.
ed. 24 Oct. 2003: A14. Print.
Hamer, John. Letter. American Journalism Review Dec. 2006/Jan.
2007: 7. Print.
Anonymous Articles
Cite the article title first, and
finish the citation as you would any other for that kind of periodical.
"Business: Global Warming's
Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland." The
Economist 26 May 2007: 82. Print.
"Aging; Women Expect to Care
for Aging Parents but Seldom Prepare." Women's
Health Weekly 10 May 2007: 18. Print.
An Article in a Scholarly Journal
In previous years, MLA required
that researchers determine whether or not a scholarly journal employed
continuous pagination (page numbers began at page one in the first issue of the
years and page numbers took up where they left off in subsequent ones) or
non-continuous pagination (page numbers begin at page one in every subsequent
issue) in order to determine whether or not to include issue numbers in
bibliographic entries. The MLA Handbook
for Writers of Research Papers 7th edition (2009) eliminates this step.
Always provide issue numbers, when available.
Author(s). "Title of
Article." Title of Journal
Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Medium of publication.
Bagchi, Alaknanda.
"Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature 15.1 (1996): 41-50. Print.
Duvall, John N. "The
(Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53. Print.
An Article in a Special Issue of a Scholarly
Journal
When an article appears in a special issue of a journal, cite the name of the special issue in the entry’s title space, in italics, and end with a period. Add the descriptor “Spec. issue of” and include the name of the journal, also in italics, followed by the rest of the information required for a standard scholarly journal citation.
Web entries should follow a
similar format.
Burgess, Anthony. “Politics in the Novels of Graham
Greene.” Literature and Society. Spec.
issue of Journal of Contemporary History 2.2
(1967): 93-99. Print.
Case, Sue-Ellen. “Eve's Apple, or Women's Narrative Bytes.”
Technocriticism and Hypernarrative.
Spec. issue of Modern Fiction Studies
43.3 (1997): 631-650. Web. 10 Feb. 2010.
MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web
Publications)
MLA lists electronic sources as Web Publications. Thus, when including
the medium of publication for electronic sources, list the medium as Web.
It is always a good idea to
maintain personal copies of electronic information, when possible. It is good
practice to print or save Web pages or, better, using a program like Adobe
Acrobat, to keep your own copies for future reference. Most Web browsers will
include URL/electronic address information when you print, which makes later
reference easy. Also, you might use the Bookmark function in your Web browser
in order to return to documents more easily.
Important Note on the Use of URLs in MLA
MLA no longer requires the use of
URLs in MLA citations. Because Web addresses are not static (i.e., they change
often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the Web
(e.g., on multiple databases), MLA explains that most readers can find
electronic sources via title or author searches in Internet Search Engines.
For instructors or editors who still wish to require the use of URLs,
MLA suggests that the URL appear in angle brackets after the date of access.
Break URLs only after slashes.
Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. S. H. Butcher. The
Internet Classics Archive. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. ‹http://classics.mit.edu/›.
Abbreviations Commonly Used with Electronic
Sources
If publishing information is
unavailable for entries that require publication information such as publisher
(or sponsor) names and publishing dates, MLA requires the use of special
abbreviations to indicate that this information is not available. Use n.p. to indicate that neither a
publisher nor a sponsor name has been provided. Use n.d. when the Web page does not provide a publication date.
When an entry requires that you
provide a page but no pages are provided in the source (as in the case of an
online-only scholarly journal or a work that appears in an online-only anthology),
use the abbreviation n. pag.
Basic Style for Citations of Electronic Sources
(Including Online Databases)
Here are some common features you
should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not every
Web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as
much of the following information as possible both for your citations and for
your research notes:
• Author
and/or editor names (if available)
• Article
name in quotation marks (if applicable)
• Title
of the Website, project, or book in italics. (Remember that some Print
publications have Web publications with slightly different names. They may, for
example, include the additional information or otherwise modified information,
like domain names [e.g. .com or .net].)
• Any
version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or
issue numbers.
• Publisher
information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
• Take
note of any page numbers (if available).
• Medium
of publication.
• Date
you accessed the material.
• URL
(if required, or for your own personal reference; MLA does not require a URL).
Citing an Entire Web Site
It is necessary to list your date
of access because web postings are often updated, and information available on
one date may no longer be available later. If a URL is required or you chose to
include one, be sure to include the complete address for the site. (Note: The
following examples do not include a URL because MLA no longer requires a URL to
be included.)
Remember to use n.p. if no publisher name is available
and n.d. if no publishing date is
given.
Editor, author, or compiler name
(if available). Name of Site. Version
number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or
publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Medium of publication.
Date of access.
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue
and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.
Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory.
Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10 May 2006.
Course or Department Websites
Give the instructor name. Then
list the title of the course (or the school catalog designation for the course)
in italics. Give appropriate department and school names as well, following the
course title. Remember to use n.d. if no publishing date is given.
Felluga, Dino. Survey of the Literature of England.
Purdue U, Aug. 2006. Web. 31 May 2007.
English Department. Purdue U, 20 Apr. 2009. Web. 14 May 2009.
A Page on a Web Site
For an individual page on a Web
site, list the author or alias if known, followed by the information covered
above for entire Web sites. Remember to use n.p.
if no publisher name is available and n.d.
if no publishing date is given.
"Athelete's Foot - Topic Overview." WebMD. WebMD, 25 September 2014. Web. 6 July 2015.
Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 6 July 2015.
An Image (Including a Painting, Sculpture, or
Photograph)
Provide the artist's name, the
work of art italicized, the date of creation, the institution and city where
the work is housed. Follow this initial entry with the name of the Website in
italics, the medium of publication, and the date of access.
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo
Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo
National del Prado. Web. 22 May 2006.
Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive. Web. 22 May 2006.
If the work is cited on the web
only, then provide the name of the artist, the title of the work, the medium of
the work, and then follow the citation format for a website. If the work is
posted via a username, use that username for the author.
brandychloe. "Great Horned
Owl Family." Photograph. Webshots.
American Greetings, 22 May 2006. Web. 5 Nov. 2009.
An Article in a Web Magazine
Provide the author name, article
name in quotation marks, title of the Web magazine in italics, publisher name,
publication date, medium of publication, and the date of access. Remember to
use n.p. if no publisher name is
available and n.d. if no publishing
date is given.
Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on
Writing the Living Web." A List
Apart: For People Who Make Websites. A List Apart Mag., 16 Aug. 2002. Web.
4 May 2009.
An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal
For all online scholarly
journals, provide the author(s) name(s), the name of the article in quotation
marks, the title of the publication in italics, all volume and issue numbers,
and the year of publication.
Article in an Online-only Scholarly Journal
MLA requires a page range for
articles that appear in Scholarly Journals. If the journal you are citing
appears exclusively in an online format (i.e. there is no corresponding print
publication) that does not make use of page numbers, use the abbreviation n. pag. to denote that there is no
pagination for the publication.
Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy:
Current Conditions and Future
Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal 6.2 (2008): n. pag. Web. 20 May 2009.
Article in an Online Scholarly Journal That Also
Appears in Print
Cite articles in online scholarly
journals that also appear in print as you would a scholarly journal in print,
including the page range of the article. Provide the medium of publication that
you used (in this case, Web) and the
date of access.
Wheelis, Mark.
"Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and
Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging
Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 595-600. Web. 8 Feb. 2009.
An Article from an Online Database (or Other
Electronic Subscription Service)
Cite articles from online
databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect) and other
subscription services just as you would print sources. Since these articles
usually come from periodicals, be sure to consult the appropriate sections of
the Works Cited: Periodicals page, which you can access via its link at the
bottom of this page. In addition to this information, provide the title of the
database italicized, the medium of publication, and the date of access.
Note: Previous
editions of the MLA Style Manual required information about the subscribing
institution (name and location). This information is no longer required by MLA.
Junge, Wolfgang, and Nathan Nelson. “Nature's Rotary
Electromotors.” Science 29 Apr. 2005:
642-44. Science Online. Web. 5 Mar.
2009.
Langhamer, Claire. “Love and
Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal 50.1 (2007): 173-96. ProQuest. Web. 27 May 2009.
E-mail (including E-mail Interviews)
Give the author of the message,
followed by the subject line in quotation marks. State to whom to message was
sent, the date the message was sent, and the medium of publication.
Kunka, Andrew. "Re:
Modernist Literature." Message to the author. 15 Nov. 2000. E-mail.
Neyhart, David. "Re: Online
Tutoring." Message to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000. E-mail.
A Listserv, Discussion Group, or Blog Posting
Cite Web postings as you would a standard Web entry.
Provide the author of the work, the title of the posting in quotation marks,
the Web site name in italics, the publisher, and the posting date. Follow with
the medium of publication and the date of access. Include screen names as
author names when author name is not known. If both names are known, place the
author’s name in brackets. Remember if the publisher of the site is unknown,
use the abbreviation n.p.
Editor, screen name, author, or
compiler name (if available). “Posting Title.” Name of Site. Version number (if available). Name of
institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher).
Medium of publication. Date of access.
Salmar1515 [Sal Hernandez]. “Re:
Best Strategy: Fenced Pastures vs. Max Number of Rooms?” BoardGameGeek. BoardGameGeek, 29 Sept. 2008. Web. 5 Apr. 2009.
A Tweet
MLA posted guidelines on their website for
how to cite a tweet on a Works Cited page. Begin with the user's name (Last
Name, First Name) followed by his/her Twitter username in parentheses. Insert a
period outside the parentheses. Next, place the tweet in its entirety in
quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations. Include
the date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date
and time with a comma and end with a period. Include the word "Tweet"
afterwards and end with a period.
Brokaw, Tom (tombrokaw). "SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign." 22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m. Tweet.
Purdue Writing Lab (PurdueWLab). "Spring break is
around the corner, and all our locations will be open next week." 5 Mar.
2012, 12:58 p.m. Tweet.
YouTube Videos
The MLA does not currently
prescribe a citation style for YouTube videos.
Based on MLA standards for other media formats, we feel that the following
format is the most acceptable for citing YouTube videos:
Author’s Name or Poster’s Username. “Title of Image or
Video.” Media Type
Text. Name of Website.
Name of Website’s Publisher, date of posting. Medium. date retrieved.
Here is an example of what that looks like:
Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.
