MLA Citation Style

MLA Citation Style MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition http://www.liu.edu/cwis/CWP/library/workshop/citmla.htm Follow these color codes: Author(s) Title of Book Title of Article Title of Periodical Volume Place of Publication Publisher Date Other Information Pages

Book   Okuda, Michael, and Denise Okuda. Star Trek Chronology: The History      of the Future. New York: Pocket, 1993.   Journal Article   Wilcox, Rhonda V. "Shifting Roles and Synthetic Women in Star      Trek: The Next Generation." Studies in Popular Culture 13.2 (1991):      53-65.   Newspaper or Magazine Article   Di Rado, Alicia. "Trekking through College: Classes Explore Modern      Society Using the World of Star Trek." Los Angeles Times 15 Mar.      1995: A3.   Book Article or Chapter   James, Nancy E. "Two Sides of Paradise: The Eden Myth According to      Kirk and Spock." Spectrum of the Fantastic. Ed. Donald Palumbo.      Westport: Greenwood, 1988. 219-223.   Encyclopedia Article   (well known reference books)   Sturgeon, Theodore. "Science Fiction." The Encyclopedia Americana.      International ed. 1995.   Encyclopedia Article   (less familiar reference books)   Horn, Maurice. "Flash Gordon." The World Encyclopedia of Comics.      Ed. Maurice Horn. 2 vols. New York: Chelsea, 1976.   Gale Reference Book   (and other books featuring reprinted articles)   Shayon, Robert Lewis. "The Interplanetary Spock." Saturday Review       17 June 1967: 46. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed.      Sharon R. Gunton. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. 403.   ERIC Document Fuss-Reineck, Marilyn. Sibling Communication in Star Trek: The Next      Generation: Conflicts between Brothers. Miami: Speech      Communication Assn., 1993. ERIC Document Reproduction Service      ED364932.   Website   Lynch, Tim. "DSN Trials and Tribble-ations Review." Psi Phi: Bradley's      Science Fiction Club. 1996. Bradley University. 8 Oct. 1997 <http://      www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/503r.html>.   Newspaper or Magazine Article on the Internet   Andreadis, Athena. "The Enterprise Finds Twin Earths Everywhere It      Goes, But Future Colonizers of Distant Planets Won't Be So Lucky."      Astronomy Jan. 1999: 64- . Academic Universe. Lexis-Nexis. B.      Davis Schwartz Memorial Lib., Brookville, NY. 7 Feb. 1999 <http://      web.lexis-nexis.com/universe>.   Literature Resource Center   Shayon, Robert Lewis. "The Interplanetary Spock." Saturday Review       17 June 1967: 46. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed.      Sharon R. Gunton. Vol. 17. Detroit: Gale Research, 1981. 403.      Literature Resource Center. Gale Group. B. Davis Schwartz      Memorial Lib., Brookville, NY. 16 Oct. 2001 <http://      infotrac.galegroup.com/menu>.

Notes Arrange the items on your reference list alphabetically by author, interfiling books, articles, etc. Doublespace all lines. Indent the second and following lines 5 spaces (or one half inch). If no author is given, start with the title. Abbreviate the names of all months except May, June, and July. If the paging of a magazine or newspaper article is continued elswhere in the issue, include only the first page followed by a plus sign (ex. 25+.). If the encyclopedia does not arrange its articles alphabetically, treat the encyclopedia article as if it were a book article. Specific volume and page numbers are cited in the text, not in the list of references. Gale Reference Book: cite the original source being reprinted as shown under Book, Journal Article, Newspaper or Magazine Article, etc. The example shows a Magazine Article. Then include the citation information for the reference book. Websites: include the title of the web page, the name of the entire web site, the organization that posted it (this may be the same as the name of the website). Also include the full date the page was created or last updated (day, month, year if available) and the date you looked at it. Internet Magazine Articles: Include: The name of the database (underlined) and the company that created it and its home webpage; The full date of the article (day, month, year if available) and the date you looked at it; If you are citing a journal instead of a magazine, include the volume (and issue number) and date as shown under the Journal Style above. The library or other organization (and its location) that provided you with access to the database. As for page numbers, different databases will provide different information. Include the range of pages (ex. 25-28.); or the starting page followed by a hyphen, a blank space, and a period (ex. 64- .); or the total number of pages or paragraphs (ex. 12 pp. or 33 pars.). If no page information is given, then leave it out. The rules concerning a title within a title are not displayed here for purposes of clarity. See the printed version of the manual for details. For documents and situations not listed here, see the printed version of the manual.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html#Works-Cited

Your Works Cited List

The works cited list should appear at the end of your essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and be able to read any sources you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the essay must appear in your works-cited list; likewise, each entry in the works-cited list must be cited in your text. Preparing your works cited list using MLA style is covered in chapter six of the MLA Style Manual, and chapter four of the Handbook for Writing Research Papers. Here are some guidelines for preparing your works cited list.

List Format

• Begin your works cited list on a separate page from the text of the essay under the label Works Cited (with no quotation marks, underlining, etc.), which should be centered at the top of the page.
• Make the first line of each entry in your list flush left with the margin. Subsequent lines in each entry should be indented one-half inch. This is known as a hanging indent.
• Double space all entries, with no skipped spaces between entries.
• Keep in mind that underlining and italics are equivalent; you should select one or the other to use throughout your essay.
• Alphabetize the list of works cited by the first word in each entry (usually the author's last name),

Basic Rules for Citations

• Authors' names are inverted (last name first); if a work has more than one author, invert only the first author's name, follow it with a comma, then continue listing the rest of the authors.
• If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order them alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first.
• When an author appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first.
• If no author is given for a particular work, alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
• Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc. This rule does not apply to articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle.
• Underline or italicize titles of books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and films.
• Use quotation marks around the titles of articles in journals, magazines, and newspapers. Also use quotation marks for the titles of short stories, book chapters, poems, and songs.
• List page numbers 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.
• 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 provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access). For more about this, see our discussion of electronic sources.

For more about formatting your works cited page, visit MLA List of Works Cited (from Research and Documentation Online), view a Sample Works Cited Page (from A Research Guide for Students), or visit some of the links in our additional resources section.

Basic Forms for Sources in Print

The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of print source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.

Books

Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Book with one author

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.

Two books by the same author

(After the first listing of the author's name, use three hyphens and a period for the author's name. List books alphabetically.)

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.

---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993.

Book with more than one author

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.

If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.

Book with a corporate author

American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.

Book or article with no author named

Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993.

"Cigarette Sales Fall 30% as California Tax Rises." New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17.

For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Encyclopedia 235) and ("Cigarette" A17).

Anthology or collection

Peterson, Nancy J., ed. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

A part of a book (such as an essay in a collection)

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.

Essay in a collection

Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34.

Cross-referencing: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited collection, you should cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. To do so, include a separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name. For individual essays from that collection, simply list the author's name, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page numbers. For example:

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 153-167.

Rose, Shirley K, and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.

Article from a reference book

"Jamaica." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1999 ed.

An article in a periodical (such as a newspaper or magazine)

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Source Day Month Year: pages.

When citing the date, list day before month; use a three-letter abbreviation of the month (e.g. Jan., Mar., Aug.). 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.).

Magazine or newspaper article

Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.

Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent 5 Dec. 2000: 20.

An article in a scholarly journal

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Vol (Year): pages.

"Vol" indicates the volume number of the journal. If the journal uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume, only volume and year are needed, e.g. Modern Fiction Studies 40 (1998): 251-81. If each issue of the journal begins on page 1, however, you must also provide the issue number following the volume, e.g. Mosaic 19.3 (1986): 33-49.

Essay in a journal with continuous pagination

Allen, Emily. "Staging Identity: Frances Burney's Allegory of Genre." Eighteenth-Century Studies 31 (1998): 433-51.

Essay in a journal that pages each issue separately

Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53.

The Bible (specific editions)

The New Jerusalem Bible. Susan Jones, gen. ed. New York: Doubleday, 1985.

For more about citing print sources in your works cited page, visit Works Cited in MLA Style (from A Research Guide for Students), an MLA List of Works Cited (from Research and Documentation Online), view a Sample Works Cited Page (from A Research Guide for Students), or visit some of the links in our additional resources section.

The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of electronic source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.

If no author is given for a web page or electronic source, start with and alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.

A web site

Author(s). Name of Page. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. Date of Access <electronic address>.

It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.

Web site examples

Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue University. 15 Nov. 2000 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7Efelluga/theory2.html>. Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 10 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.

An article on a web site

It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.

Author(s)."Article Title." Name of web site. Date of posting/revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with site. Date of access <electronic address>.

Article on a web site

Poland, Dave. "The Hot Button." Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <http://www.roughcut.com>.

"Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 6 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.eduhandouts/research/r_mla.html>.

An article in an online journal or magazine

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume. Issue (Year): Pages/Paragraphs. Date of Access <electronic address>.

Some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; include them if available. This format is also appropriate to online magazines; as with a print version, you should provide a complete publication date rather than volume and issue number.

Online journal article

Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 33 pars. 5 Dec. 2000 <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm>.

An Online Image or Series of Images

Artist if available. "Description or title of image." Date of image. Online image. Title of larger site. Date of download. <electronic address>.

Smith, Greg. "Rhesus Monkeys in the Zoo." No date. Online image. Monkey Picture Gallery. 3 May 2003. <http://monkeys.online.org/rhesus.jpg>.

E-mail (or other personal communications)

Author. "Title of the message (if any)" E-mail to person's name. Date of the message.

This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."

E-mail to you

Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2000.

Email communication between two parties, not including the author

Neyhart, David. "Re: Online Tutoring." E-mail to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000.

A listserv posting

Author. "Title of Posting." Online posting. Date when material was posted (for example: 18 Mar. 1998). Name of listserv. Date of access <electronic address for retrieval>.

Online Posting

Karper, Erin. "Welcome!" Online posting. 23 Oct. 2000. Professional Writing Bulletin Board. 12 Nov. 2000 <http://linnell.english.purdue.edu/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000001.html>.

An article or publication retrieved from an electronic database

If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database that your library subscribes to, you should provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access).

Provide the following information in your citation:

• Author's name (if not available, use the article title as the first part of the citation)
   
• Article Title
   
• Publication Name
   
• Publication Date
   
• Page Number/Range
   
• Database Name
   
• Service Name
   
• Name of the library where service was accessed
   
• Name of the town/city where service was accessed
   
• Date of Access
   
• URL of the service (but not the whole URL for the article, since those are very long and won't be able to be re-used by someone trying to retrieve the information)

The generic citation form would look like this:

Author. "Title of Article." Publication Name Volume Number (if necessary) Publication Date: page number-page number. Database name. Service name. Library Name, City, State. Date of access <electronic address of the database>.

Here's an example:
 

Smith, Martin. "World Domination for Dummies." Journal of Despotry Feb. 2000: 66-72. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group Databases. Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, IN. 19 February 2003 <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Article in a reference database on CD-ROM

"World War II." Encarta. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 1999.

Article from a periodically published database on CD-ROM

Reed, William. "Whites and the Entertainment Industry." Tennessee Tribune 25 Dec. 1996: 28. Ethnic NewsWatch. CD-ROM. Data Technologies. Feb. 1997.

For more about citing electronic sources, check out MLA Documentation: Citing Electronic Sources (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center), Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Internet Sources (from Bedford St. Martin's Online!), MLA Style: Electronic Formats (from Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey), and Citing Electronic Sources-- MLA (from Middlebury College). The Gale Group also has a page about how to cite publications retrieved from their databases in MLA format that includes examples of different kinds of publications.

Other Types of Sources

The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of other source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter four. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.

Government publication

United States Dept. of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health. Washington: GPO, 2000.

Pamphlet

Office of the Dean of Students. Resources for Success: Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, 2000.

Interview that you conducted

Purdue, Pete. Personal Interview. 1 Dec. 2000.

A lecture or a speech

To cite a lecture or a speech, "give the speaker's name, the title of the lecture or speech (if known) in quotation marks, the meeting and the sponsoring organization (if applicable), the location [including place and city, if available], and the date. If there is no title, use an appropriate descriptive label (e.g., Lecture, Address, Keynote speech), neither underlined nor enclosed in quotation marks" (MLA Handbook, 206).

Harris, Muriel. "Writing Labs: A Short History." 2003 Writing Center Conference. National Writing Centers Association. La Swank Hotel, Seattle. 28 March 2003.

Advertisement

Lufthansa. Advertisement. Time 20 Nov. 2000: 151.

Television or radio program

"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox. WXIA, Atlanta. 19 Jul. 1998.

Sound recording

U2. All That You Can't Leave Behind. Interscope, 2000.

Film

The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro. Polygram, 1995.

TV Advertisement

Staples. Advertisement. CBS. 3 Dec. 2000.