MLA Citations

Editor's Notes

• #3: ･Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper･Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman). Whatever font you choose, MLA recommends that the regular and italics type styles contrast enough that they are recognizable one from another. The font size should be 12 pt･Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor).･Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides･Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch from the left margin. MLA recommends that you use the Tab key as opposed to pushing the Space Bar five times.
• #4: Basic In-Text Citation RulesIn 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ﾕ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.
• #5: In-Text Citations: Author-Page StyleMLA 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.The both citations in the in-text examples on this slide, (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 information in the corresponding Works Cited entry also shown on this slide. Reduce font size on slide to allow breathing room and space. Also, use a different font for the sample text so instructions look different from the excerpt.
• #6: In-text Citations for Print Sources with Known AuthorFor 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. 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 (as noted in the corresponding Works Cited entry on this slide). See comments from previous slide.
• #7: In-text Citations for Print Sources with No Known AuthorWhen 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 (e.g. articles) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire websites) and provide a page number.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. See comments from previous slide.
• #8: 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 five spaces so that you 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.Additional Basic Rules 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, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle･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 NamesEntries are listed by author name (or, for entire edited collections, editor names). Author names are written last name first; middle names or middle initials follow the first name.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.," with the suffix following the first or middle name and a comma.More than One Work by an AuthorIf 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.Work with No Known AuthorAlphabetize works with no known author by their title; use a shortened version of the title in the parenthetical citations in your paper.
• #9: Works Cited Page: BooksWhen you are gathering book sources, be sure to make note of the following bibliographic items: author name(s), book title, publication date, publisher, place of publication. The medium of publication for all “hard copy” books is Print.Book with More Than One AuthorThe first given name appears in last name, first name format; subsequent author names appear in first name last name format. 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.”).Two or More Books by the Same AuthorList works alphabetically by title. (Remember to ignore articles like A, An, and The.) Provide the authorﾕ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.There are many other possible factors that may arise when citing books. For a more complete list of rules and examples see the OWL’s “MLA 2009 Works Cited Page: Books” at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/.
• #10: 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.Citing an Entire Web SiteIt 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. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Remember to use n.p. if no publisher name is available and n.d. if not publishing date is given.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 MLAMLA 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 that 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. See previous slide comment.There are many other possible kinds of sources that can be cited from the Internet. For a more thorough list of examples, see the OWL’s “MLA 2009 Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)” at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/
• #11: And here are some examples.