A Guide to MLA Style Documentation in Research Papers
A Guide to MLA Style Documentation in Research Papers
One of the most common documentation styles used in the United States is the style developed by the Modern Language Association of America as presented in the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. This handbook offers complete guidelines for the basic format of your paper as well as formatting for documentation of sources in the body of the paper as well as the “Works Cited” page. This updated edition reflects how digital publication has changed the way writers and researchers document sources. This new edition includes significant shifts in the approach to source documentation in academic writing. While earlier editions emphasized following specific guidelines for formatting, the eighth edition focuses on the practice and process of scholarly documentation. The logic is basic: a style guide should offer a method that is widely applicable. Instead of insisting that writers follow strict citation formulas, this handbook outlines the principles of MLA documentation and explains how writers can use them in many different situations.
This handout outlines citation styles for the most commonly used types of sources. If you have questions or concerns about proper page formatting, if you have a source not illustrated here, or if you aren’t sure how the Core Elements relate to your source, consult the MLA Handbook (LB2369.G53 2016) on the Ready Reference Shelf in the Reference Alcove or at the Circulation Desk.
If you still aren’t sure how this system works, don’t hesitate to consult the Tutors in the Academic Resource Center (ARC) located on the ground floor of the Henry Givens Jr. building.
Avoid plagiarism which is defined as using someone else’s ideas or way of phrasing an idea and presenting it as your own. This is intellectual theft and is morally and ethically wrong. Failure to properly credit the original works can lead to a charge of plagiarism, resulting in not just a failing grade for that assignment, but a failing grade in the class, and even a disciplinary action by the university.
Points to Remember
• MLA uses an author/page style of in-text source recognition, or note.
• A Works Cited list must appear at the end of your paper. All sources cited in text must be included.
• List the works cited using the author’s name, last name first, as it appears on the title page. If there is no author, list the work by title.
• Works Cited information must be accurate and should include the author, title of the work, publisher, year, and web address if it is an online source.
• Arrange the list alphabetically, letter by letter, word by word. “Brown, John” comes before “Browning, Robert” because “Brown” is a complete word, even though “i” comes before “j” alphabetically. Arrangement has nothing to do with the format of the work being cited (i.e. book and journal articles are arranged together not separately).
• If the author’s name is unknown the title of the work appears first, and is alphabetized in the list by the first significant word in the title (disregard A, An and The).
• A hanging indentation (first line flush to the left margin and all successive lines of a reference indented one tab) is used at the beginning of each entry.
• Each entry is double spaced, with a double space between each entry.
• Capitalize all significant words in a title.
• Titles of books, journals, etc. (containers) are in italics. Titles of articles or essays, encyclopedia or dictionary entries, etc. within a container are in regular font surrounded by quotation marks.
• If the source was accessed in a database on the web, give the name of the database and the web address without “http://”), as well as the date accessed.
• Watch your punctuation. Follow the punctuation in this guide or check the MLA Handbook to be sure you are placing commas, periods, colons and brackets in the proper places.
• Legal and sacred texts have their own citation styles. Consult the handbook for these.
• A sample Works Cited list appears on page 11 as illustration.
• The final three pages of this guide are worksheets to help figure out the core elements of the source.
Core Elements of the Works Cited Citations
The approach to these citations focuses on digital access rather than print or analog, to which we are currently accustomed. Therefore, the parts of a citation are now referred to as “the core elements.” They are as follows:
Author: This element can also be the editor, compiler of a collection of essays, short stories, or articles, or the translator(s) of a work, if the focus is on the work of the translator rather than the original work. When citing a work of media, such as a video, movie, TV show, or musical recording, the Author will depend on the focus of the paper. If you are focusing on a performer, the Author could be that person. If it is the creator of the piece (producer/director, or composer) then that person would be the Author. Give as it appears in the source, placing the last name first. Leave out titles and degrees that precede or follow the name but include suffixes such as Jr. or VI. If more than one author, editor, etc. is given, give the second author’s name in the normal order. If there are more than two authors, only give the first author’s name as described above, followed by a comma and the phrase, “et al.”; which means “and others”.
Title of Source: Italics should be used for the title of any book, television or radio program, or movie.
Capitalize the first letter of all significant words in the title and subtitle.
If the source is an essay, short story, article, or selection from any form of media, the title
should be in regular font and placed between quotation marks. Again, capitalize all
significant words in the title and subtitle.
Title of Container: If the source is an essay, short story, article, or selection from any form of media
it was probably found in a collection, anthology, magazine or journal, newspaper, database,
album, etc. These are the containers of the source. The title of the container is treated like
the title of any book. (See Title of Source above). Databases such as Ebscohost are
considered containers.
If your source has no such container, then leave this out. You can’t cite what doesn’t
exist.
Other Contributors: Anyone who is given credit for the work they did on the final
product that is the source. These are indicated by the following terms: edited by, adapted by,
illustrated by, directed by, narrated by, performance by (or performer), or translated by. If
the introduction to the work has affected the research, then include this person as another
contributor as well. Adaptations and translators are very important to indicate any
differences between the original work and the one studied.
Version: The edition of a book, whether it is abridged (shortened) or not. For media this
includes a director’s cut or recording master, blu-ray, digital version (version 1.3.1 of an
online source), etc.
Number: The volume of a set. For magazines and journals, the volume is usually broken
into issues.
Publisher: The company responsible for the production of the source. This is not
necessary for self-published books, a web source with a title that is essentially the same as
the name of its publisher, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. For books this is usually on
the front or back of the title page. On CDs, DVDs, etc., this is usually on the label or the back
of the container. Get help if it is in Roman numerals. If two or more such companies
are listed and appear to be equally responsible, list all, separated with slashes (/). Drop any
beginning articles (A, An, The), descriptive words (Publishers, Books, House, etc.), and
business abbreviations (Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd.) as well as first names or initials if the name is
that of a person (W.W. Norton, Henry Holt, etc.) If the publisher is a University press,
abbreviate “U” for university and “P” for press (U of Missouri P). Place of publication is no
longer required.
Publication Date: In the case of print books, the publication date is on either the front or
back of the title page. For an article in a print magazine, journal, or newspaper, the date is
usually given on the cover or table of contents page. If that article was accessed through a
database such as Ebscohost, the date is also given in the citation to the article. For an online
journal, web site, etc., the date of access is acceptable. Either the date of original publication
or the date the source was used online is acceptable. Get help if the date is in Roman
numerals.
Location: This is the volume, issue, disc, selection on the disc, web site or database. This
also includes the pages of an article in a print magazine or journal. These will be given in
the citation if the article is accessed through a database like Ebscohost. Give the full web
address if the source is accessed online, but the “http://” can be skipped.
There are three worksheets for these Core Elements attached at the end of the document for your use.
Works Cited
Books, Magazines, Journals, and Other Media
MLA Part 1; pp. 19-53
Author and Title of Source: Give as it appears in the book, placing the last name first. Leave out titles and degrees that precede or follow the name but include suffixes such as Jr. or VI. Please note that in all of the examples given for Author, the Title of Source is given in italics. If a title occurs within a title, the included title is not italicized.
* Title within a Title:
Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Expanded ed. U of Pennsylvania P, 1997.
* One author:
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. U of Chicago P, 1958.
If author credit is going to an editor, compiler, translator, etc. give the author credit to this entity, followed by their role.
* Editor, etc. as author:
Nunberg, Geoffrey, editor. The Future of the Book. U. of California P, 1996.
If two authors, editors, etc. are given, start with the first author, last name first, followed by a comma, and the second author’s name as given in the source.
* Two authors (translators as authors if discussing the translation):
Pevear, Richard, and Larissa Volokovsky, translators. Crime and Punishment. By Feodor
Dosotoevsky. Vintage ebooks, 1993.
If three or more are listed, give the first name, last name first, and follow that with the phrase et. al.
* Three or more authors: (name first author listed)
Kadis, Adler, L., et al. A Practicum of Group Psychotherapy. Harper, 1963.
* Media [study of the work of the director]:
Brooks, Mel, director. “The Twelve Chairs.” The Mel Brooks Collection. 20th Century Fox, 2012.
This citation represents a study of the work of the director. If it is a study of the work of a performer it would look like this:
* Media [study of the work of a performer]:
DeLuise, Dom, performer. “The Twelve Chairs.” The Mel Brooks Collection. 20th Century Fox,
2012.
If there is no author credited, the title of the source appears as the first element of the citation.
* Anonymous source:
The Eye of the Moon. O’Mara, 2009.
* Anonymous source with a translator and/or editor:
Beowulf. Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson,
2004.
If the source has no recognizable author but is the product of an agency, government, or corporation, this entity is credited as the Author. If the name of the organization is included in the title, the source appears as the first entry in the citation.
* Corporate Author:
United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and
Francis, 1991.
* Corporate Author given in the title:
The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine. Random, 1989.
Title of Container: If the source was contained in a collection, journal, magazine, newspaper, or found in a database such as Ebscohost, those things are considered to be containers. The title of the source used should be enclosed in quotation marks, in the standard font used for the paper. The Title of the Container should be in italics.
* An edited collection or anthology:
Bradly, Thomas, et al., editors. The American Tradition in Literature. Grosset, 1987.
pp. 52-73.
* Magazine or Journal as a container:
Perry, Patrick. “Pancreatic Cancer—Family Ties.” Saturday Evening Post, vol. 273, no. 6,
Nov./Dec. 2001, pp. 36+.
If this was actually found in a database (it is in Ebscohost), the citation would include this information, as well as the web address:
* Database as container:
Perry, Patrick. “Pancreatic Cancer—Family Ties.” Saturday Evening Post, vol. 273, no. 6,
Nov./Dec. 2001, 36+. Ebscohost.
=7536cd71-4b9d-4f3e-ba70-a939410e9eb%40sessionmgr101&vid=2&hid=
116&bquery= pancreatic+cancer+family+ties&bdata=JmRiPWFma CZ0eXBlPTAmc2l0ZT
1laG9zdC1saXZl.
* Media with a collection as container [study of the work of the director]:
Brooks, Mel, director. “The Twelve Chairs.” The Mel Brooks Collection. Twentieth Century Fox,
2012.
This citation represents a study of the work of the director. If it is a study of the work of a performer it would look like this:
* Media with a collection as container [study of the work of a performer]
DeLuise, Dom, performer. “The Twelve Chairs.” The Mel Brooks Collection. Twentieth Century
Fox, 2012.
* Anonymous article:
“A Traffic Ban Drives Rome Crazy.” Newsweek 16 Mar. Vol. no.11, 1987, pp. 47+.
Other Contributors: If the work is authored, but also edited, compiled, translated, etc. These contributors are also recognized if they are listed on the title page, following the rules for multiple authors above. If there is a recognized introduction on the title page, list this only if that introduction contributed to the research.
* An authored essay or article in a collection or anthology:
Lazard, Naomi. “In answer to Your Query.” The Norton Book of Light Verse. Ed. Russell Baker.
Norton, 1986, pp. 52-73.
Version: If more than one edition has been published of the source, or more than one format is available, this becomes an important element. Books, movies, television episodes, etc. can be edited, revised, or abridged.
* Various samples of versions:
The Bible. The Authorized King James Version. Oxford UP, 1998.
Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP, 2007.
Scott, Ridley, director. Blade Runner. 1982. Performance by Harrison Ford, director’s cut,
Warner Bros., 1992.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello. Edited by Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine, version 1.3.1, Luminary Digital Media, 2013.
Number: Journals and magazines tend to have volume and issue numbers. Volumes tend to follow a twelve month cycle, then each issue has a number within the volume. Some professional journals use the seasons (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall) if they are issued quarterly.
Multivolume book sets also tend to number each volume. Television programs have episodes within each season. Each season has a number, as well as each episode.
* A multivolume work:
Churchill, Winston S. “The Age of Revolution.” Dodd, 1957. Vol. 3 of A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, pp. 1956-58.
* Journal or Magazine numbering:
Feeney, Nolan. “Terry Pratchett.” Time. Vol. 185, issue 11, 30 Mar. 2015, p. 26.
Publisher: The entity responsible for the production of the source. This is not
necessary for self-published books, a web site whose title is essentially the same as the name
of its publisher, magazines, journals, newspapers, etc. For books this is usually on the front
or back of the title page. On CDs, DVDs, etc. this is usually on the label or the back of the
container. If two or more such companies are listed and appear to be equally responsible, list all, separated with slashes (/). Drop any beginning articles (A, An, The), descriptive words (Publishers, Books, House, etc.), and business abbreviations (Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd.) as well as first names or initials if the name is that of a person (W.W. Norton, Henry Holt, etc.) If the publisher is a University press, abbreviate “U” for university and “P” for press (U of Missouri P).
* University Press:
Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, 2011.
* Commercial Press:
Leslie, Ian. Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It. Basic Books,
2014.
* Commercial Press using a Personal Name:
Safina, Carl. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel. Holt, 2015.
Publication Date: Please refer to the examples already given to see how the publication date is cited. In the case of print books, the publication date is on either the front or
back of the title page. For an article in a print magazine, journal, or newspaper, the date is
usually given on the cover or table of contents page. Months with more than four letters in them are abbreviated. If that article was accessed through a database such as Ebscohost, use the date given in the citation of the article, but be sure to indicate the container (Ebscohost) and the web address. For an online journal, web site, etc., the date of access is acceptable. If there is more than one date given, use the one that is most relevant to the research. Many books show the dates of the various printings or editions. Use the most recent date given; it refers to the book in hand. Get help if the date is in Roman numerals. This can occur in older books, and often on DVDs and some CDs. Dates can get complicated. Look closely at all the examples given throughout the guide for clarification. The example immediately below explores how potentially complicated this can get.
* Source from a DVD Television Series Collection:
“Hush” 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Complete Fourth Season, created by Joss Whedon,
performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Episode 10, Twentieth Century Fox,
2003, disc 3.
Note that there are two (2) dates included here; the date the episode aired originally, and the date the DVD set was released. The source is the container title of the DVD set.
Location: This is the volume, issue, disc, selection on the disc, web site or database. This
also includes the pages an article is on in a print magazine or journal. These will be given in
the citation if the article is accessed through a database like Ebscohost. Give the full web
address if the source is accessed online, but the “http://” can be skipped. Most of the examples already given show this information in the correct form. Below are examples of sources that have not been included above.
* Source from an Online Journal:
Hollmichel, Stefanie. “The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print.” So Many
Books, 25 April, 2013, 2015/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-
between-digital-and-print/.
* Source from an Online Video:
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Unaired Pilot 1996.” YouTube, uploaded by Brian Stowe, 28 Jan,
2012, watch?v=WR3J-b7QXXw.
* Source from a Music CD:
Lennon, John and Paul McCartney, composers. “The Long and Winding Road.” Let It Be,
performance by The Beatles, selection 10, Capitol, 2009.
* Source from a DVD Television Series Collection:
“Hush” 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Complete Fourth Season, created by Joss Whedon,
performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Episode 10, Twentieth Century Fox,
2003, disc 3.
This example is repeated because it fully describes the location of the source referred
to.
Optional Elements: These elements may be added if they are important to the use of the source. This is not all the elements that could be included. When in doubt, include it.
* Date of Original Publication:
If a source has been republished consider giving the original date of publication if that will give additional insight to that work’s relationship to other works used in the research. The date of the original publication is placed immediately after the title of the source.
Franklin, Benjamin. “Emigration to America.” 1782. The Faber Book of America, edited by
Christopher Ricks and William L. Vance, Faber and Faber, 1992, pp. 24-26.
* City of Publication:
The location of the publisher of a book is no longer important in most cases. This may be important for any book or journal if the publisher is unfamiliar and located outside the U.S.
If the source was published before 1900, that is probably the only location of that publishing house, so it identifies the exact publishing house responsible. In many cases, only the city is given anyway.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret. Translated
by John Oxenford, new ed., London, 1875.
In some cases, a book is published under one title in one country, and another title in another country; sometimes with changes in spelling and vocabulary. If the version used is not the more common one (British version in the U.S., for example), giving the City of Publication will help readers understand the source.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. London, Bloomsbury, 1997.
[NOTE: This is the British title for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.]
* Date of Access:
Many online sources can be changed, removed from the site, or the site removed from the web without any advance warning. Date of Access may be important to indicate that this was the information that was available at the time it was accessed.
“Under the Gun.” Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16 July 2013. Hulu,
watch/511318. Accessed 23 July, 2013.
Annotated Citations
Simply add a sentence or two describing or evaluating the source to your standard citation for the type of source:
Thompson, Stith. The Folktale. Dryden, 1946. A comprehensive survey of the
most popular folktales, including their histories and their uses in literary works.
Approved Abbreviations
Abbreviations are used in Works Cited lists to save space, but they must be clearly understandable. Below are the basic rules for abbreviations. Remember, abbreviations are inappropriate within the text of the paper.
* Do not use punctuation or spaces after letters for abbreviations made up mostly from capital letters:
US, BC, NJ, CD, DVD, PhD
* Initials in the name of a person are followed by a period and a space unless the name is reduced to only the initials:
J. R. R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, JFK, FDR
* Abbreviations ending in lower case letters are followed by a period:
Ed., pp., vol.
* In abbreviations of all lower case letters where each letter represents a word, follow each letter with a period, with no spaces:
a.m., e.g., i.e.
* Months with more than four letters are abbreviated in the Works Cited list:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
For more information on abbreviations, approved formats, and when they are acceptable, see pages 95-101.
Works Cited
Arendt, Hannah. The Human Condition. U of Chicago P, 1958.
Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Secret Garden. 1911. Read by Helena Bonham Carter.
Penguin-High Bridge, 1993.
Churchill, Winston S. The Age of Revolution. Dodd, 1957. Vol. 3 of A History of the
English-Speaking Peoples. 4 vols. 1956-58.
Cardona, Claire. “11 Officers Shot, 4 Dead, 1 Person In Custody After Shots Fired During
Downtown Dallas Rally.” The Courier-Tribune, Ashboro, NC, 8 July, 2016.
infoweb.resources/doc/nb/news/15DFD36698297C60?p=NewsBank, 9 July, 2016.
“Under the Gun.” Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16 July 2013. Hulu,
watch/511318. Accessed 23 July, 2013.
Gould, Elaine. “Troubled Teens.” USA Today Dec. 1995: n. pag.
Stephenson, Richard, and Harry C. Bredemeier. The Analysis of Social Systems.
New York: Holt, 1962.
Tolson, Nancy. “Making Books Available: The Role of Early Libraries, Librarians and Booksellers
in the Promotion of African American Children’s Literature.” African American Review 32
(1998). Ebscohost. web.b.ehost/detail/detail?vid=4&sid=324a7ba6- 3741-47e7-95b6-335e20512ab9%40sessionmgr106&hid=125&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZW
hvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=512056&db=afh. 22 Sept. 2009.
“A Traffic Ban Drives Rome Crazy.” Newsweek 16 Mar. 1987: 47+.
Sample only
Citations in Text: Parenthetical Documentation
MLA pp. 54-58
When you refer directly to another person’s idea or quote a source in your paper you must refer to the source of the idea/quote. This reference must point clearly to the source in your Works Cited list. This reference is placed in parenthesis where a natural pause would occur, preferably at the end of a sentence, as near as possible to the idea/quote. The reference should contain the author’s last name and the inclusive pages where the idea/quote appears in the work. If the author’s name is in the text of your work, only the inclusive pages should appear in parenthesis. For more detail see the section of the Handbook cited above.
Examples
* Author’s name in text:
Tannen has argued this point (178-85)
* Author’s name in reference:
This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85)
* Two to three authors in text:
In the opinion of Jakobson and Waugh (210-15) this may not hold true and warrants further study.
* Two to three authors in reference:
Yet this phenomenon may not hold true, and warrants further study. (Jakobson and Waugh, 210-15)
* More than three authors in text:
According to Kadis et al., the comfort of each individual determines the flow of communication during the session. (87)
* More than three authors in reference:
The comfort of each individual determines the flow of communication during the session (Kadis et al., 87)
If the idea/quote comes from a work with a corporate or agency author it is usually much easier to include the agency name in the text, although you can put the full name in parenthesis.
* Corporate author in text:
In a study by the Public Agenda Foundation, it was apparent that by 1992 the American healthcare system needed to be seriously modified (4)
* Corporate author in reference:
By 1992 it was apparent that the American health care system needed to be seriously modified (Public Agenda Foundation, 4)
If the source doesn’t give an author, cite the title. This can be shortened, but always include the first word by which it is alphabetized in the Works Cited list. If the title is for a book, underline it. If it is an article in a periodical or an essay, story, etc. in a collection, place the title in quotes within the parenthesis.
* Title in text:
According to “Decade of the Spy”, international espionage was as prevalent as ever in the 1990s.
* Title in reference:
International espionage was as prevalent as ever in the 1990s. (“Decade”)
If you are referring to an entire work, whether it is print or non-print (electronic, video, audio, etc.), it is best to cite the work in text, avoiding the parenthesis.
* Title in text:
McRae’s The Literature of Science includes many examples of this trend.
If an electronic source has page or paragraph numbers, or distinctive slides, such as a PowerPoint presentation, cite the specific part of the work, just as you would a print source.
* Internet site document, no page or paragraph numbers
Most scholars agree that Nefertari was probably the daughter of a government minister named Backenkhos, but some scholars believe that she was a Nubian princess. (“Great Kings and Queens”)
Under certain circumstances a parenthetical reference may not be necessary. Do not assume this is the case. Consult your instructor.
Direct Quotations of Sources
MLA pp. 75-91
Try to quote only when absolutely necessary, then keep your quotations as short and to the point as possible. Quotations can be boring and distracting from the point of your work if you use too many of them. In prose, they should only be used if the page or paragraph can be referred to directly. Electronic sources should only be quoted if page or paragraph numbers are available, otherwise work the idea into the body of the text as shown in the example above. The rules for poetry and drama are illustrated following the rules for prose below.
* In quoting prose, if you have four lines of text or less and you require no special emphasis, put it in quotation marks and work it into your text:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dickens of the eighteenth century (3).
* Sometimes you may just want a phrase to express the idea:
For Charles Dickens the eighteenth century was both “the best of times” and “the worst of times” (3).
* If the quote comes from an electronic source with paragraph numbers rather
than page numbers, cite the paragraph:
“The debut of Julius Ceaser” according to Sohmer, “proclaimed Shakespeare’s Globe a theater of courage and ideas, a place where an audience must observe with the inner eye, listen with the inner ear.” (par. 44)
* If there is a quote within the quote, change the marks around the internal quote to single quotation marks:
He stated “The ‘placebo effect’ disappeared when behaviors were studied in this manner” (Smith, 276).
* If a quote is longer than four lines, end the line of your text with a colon, drop to the next line, tab once from the left margin, and type the quote, keeping the quote indented. Do not use quotation marks:
At the conclusion of Lord of the Flies, Ralph and the other boys realize the horror of their
actions:
The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for
the first time on the island; great shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench
his whole body. His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage
of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and
sob too. (186)
* If you quote more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional ¼ inch. If your quote begins in the middle of a paragraph, that first line stays at the first tab, while the beginning of the following paragraph indents ¼ inch.
The following rules for quoting poetry and drama emphasize the importance of maintaining their artistic forms.
* A single line of a poem may be quoted in text, or up to three lines if they are separated by a slash (/) with a space on either side. Enclose the quote with quotation marks. References in parenthesis are to the lines of the poem:
Bradstreet frames the poem with a sense of mortality: “All things within this fading world hath end” (1).
Reflecting on the “incident” in Baltimore, Cullen concludes “Of all the things that happened
there / That’s all that I remember” (11-12).
* If the quote is longer than three lines of verse, begin on a new line and indent one inch, unless the poem uses unusual spacing. As with prose, the longer quote does not use quotation marks, unless they appear in the original:
Elizabeth Bishop’s “In the Waiting Room” is rich in evocative detail:
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
lamps and magazines. (6-10)
The parenthetical reference is placed at the end of the last line unless it doesn’t fit, then it goes to the next line, flush to the right margin. If lines of the poem are too long to fit as they are intended, they can be taken to the next line an additional indented ¼ inch. If the lines will fit with a narrower margin on the left, you can make the margin narrower.
* For poetry with unusual spacing, try to reproduce it as accurately as possible. That spacing is part of the expression of the piece. If the quote begins in the middle of a line, start the quote in the location it occurs in the full line, not flush to the one inch indent:
I remember
he glanced at me in just that way, independent
and unabashed, the handsome sidelong look
that went around and about but never directly
met my eyes, for that would betray his soul.
he was not being sly, only careful. (43-48)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Some word processing programs will automatically capitalize the first lines in poetry, because that is the traditional, accepted style. Sometimes this function can be turned off in the software. If you don’t know how, ask for assistance from a lab supervisor or library technology staff.
* Quotes from drama require a dialogue format, starting with the usual 1 inch indent. The name of each speaking character is all caps when identifying the speaker (HAMLET) followed by a period, not a colon. If the character’s speech takes more than one line, indent additional lines another ¼ inch. Follow the spacing as it appears in the copy of the play you have at hand:
GONERIL. Hear me my Lord.
What need you five-and-twenty, ten or five,
To follow in a house where twice so many
Have a command to tend you?
REGAN. What need one?
LEAR. O, reason not the need! (2.4.254-58)
Parenthetical references refer to act (2), scene (4), and lines (254-58).
Use of the Ellipsis, Added Emphasis and Clarification Within a Quote
If you leave out a word, phrase or sentence(s), from a quoted passage, you must indicate this with an ellipsis, which is a series of three periods separated by one space between each (. . .). When an ellipsis comes at the end of a sentence, or indicates a break midsentence but continues with the beginning of another sentence, the ellipsis consists of four periods separated by one space each (. . . .). The following examples show how to do this under varying circumstances:
Examples
*If you leave out a phrase or word in the middle of a sentence:
In surveying various responses to plagues in the Middle Ages, Barbara Tuchman writes,
“Medical thinking . . . stressed air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation
or visible carriers. (101-02).
*If you end the quote with an ellipsis:
In surveying various responses to plagues in the Middle Ages, Barbara Tuchman writes,
“Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influences, stressed air as the
communicator of disease . . . .” (101-02).
*If you leave out one or more sentences from a quote:
In discussing the historical relation between politics and the press, William L. Rivers
notes, “Presidential control reached its zenith under Andrew Jackson, the extent of
whose attention to the press even before he became a candidate is suggested by the fact
that he subscribed to twenty newspapers . . . . For a time, the United States Telegraph
and the Washington Globe were almost equally favored as party organs, and there were
fifty-seven journalists on the government payroll” (7).
*If you jump from the middle of one sentence to the beginning of another:
In discussing the historical relation between politics and the press, William L. Rivers
notes, “Presidential control reached its zenith under Andrew Jackson . . . . For a time,
the United States Telegraph and the Washington Globe were almost equally favored as
party organs, and there were fifty-seven journalists on the government payroll” (7).
*If you jump from the middle of one sentence to the middle of another:
In discussing the historical relation between politics and the press, William L. Rivers
notes that when presidential control “reached its zenith under Andrew Jackson, . . .
there were fifty-seven journalists on the government payroll” (7).
*If you think the quote is unclear due to sentence construction or grammar, or if a word in the quote is misspelled in the source, do not correct these perceived errors, but indicate that the quote is accurate from the source by placing the word “sic” in parenthesis:
Shaw admitted “Nothing can extinguish my interest in Shakespear” (sic).
*You can also add emphasis to make a point from within a quote by underlining a word or phrase within the quote and indicating that this is your emphasis:
Lincoln specifically advocated a government “for the people” (emphasis added).
*You can place a comment or explanation within the quote, using brackets:
He claimed he could provide “hundreds of examples [of court decisions] to illustrate the
historical tension between church and state.”
Milton’s Satan speaks of his “study [pursuit] of revenge.”
Basic Punctuation
*If a quote is formally introduced it is preceded by a colon, whether it is in text or set off:
Shelley held a bold view: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World” (794).
*If the quote is an integral part of the sentence structure, it should be preceded by no punctuation or a comma depending on the sentence structure:
Shelly thought poets “the unacknowledged legislators of the World” (794).
“Poets,” according to Shelley, “are the unacknowledged legislators of the World” (794).
*Most of us were taught to place punctuation within the quotation marks:
Joseph Conrad writes of the company manager in Heart of Darkness, “He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect.”
Under certain circumstances a quote may not require a parenthetical reference. Do not assume this is the case. Check with your instructor.
*If there is a parenthetical reference, do not place a period at the end of a quoted sentence. Close the quote, type the reference, and place the period after the reference:
Shelley held a bold view: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World” (794).
* Only expressive punctuation original to the quote (a question mark or exclamation point) should go inside the quotation marks. Follow this with the reference and a period:
He declared, “I believe taxation without representation is tyranny!” (32).
*If there are multiple quotation marks, punctuate within the mark:
“Read ‘Kubla Khan,’” he told me.
Most examples came from the 8th and earlier editions of the MLA Handbook, MLA Style Manual, or the Pattonville Student Writer Handbook by Barbara Brooks. Many thanks to Ms. Mary Pier, Ms. Nancy Popkin, and Ms. Najah Haqiqah for their assistance. Much of the text in this handout is also quoted directly from the many editions of the Handbook.
Rev. 7/2016 lo
MLA Core Elements
Proper punctuation following each element is given
AUTHOR._______________________________________________________________
TITLE OF SOURCE.______________________________________________________
TITLE OF CONTAINER, __________________________________________________
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS, ________________________________________________
VERSION, ______________________________________________________________
NUMBER, ______________________________________________________________
PUBLISHER, ____________________________________________________________
PUBLICATION DATE, __________________________________________________
LOCATION._____________________________________________________________
MLA Core Elements
Proper punctuation following each element is given
AUTHOR._______________________________________________________________
TITLE OF SOURCE.______________________________________________________
TITLE OF CONTAINER, __________________________________________________
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS, ________________________________________________
VERSION, ______________________________________________________________
NUMBER, ______________________________________________________________
PUBLISHER, ____________________________________________________________
PUBLICATION DATE, __________________________________________________
LOCATION._____________________________________________________________
MLA Core Elements
Proper punctuation following each element is given
AUTHOR._______________________________________________________________
TITLE OF SOURCE.______________________________________________________
TITLE OF CONTAINER, __________________________________________________
OTHER CONTRIBUTORS, ________________________________________________
VERSION, ______________________________________________________________
NUMBER, ______________________________________________________________
PUBLISHER, ____________________________________________________________
PUBLICATION DATE, __________________________________________________
LOCATION._____________________________________________________________
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