MLA Citation Guide



MLA Citation Guide

This guide is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition (2009).  Parenthetical references are items referred to in the body of the paper. For additional examples, please refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, available in the reference collections of a good library.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) Style is widely used for identifying research sources. In MLA style you briefly credit sources with (parenthetical) citations in the text of your paper, and give the complete description of each source in your Works Cited list. The Works Cited list, or Bibliography, is a list of all the sources used in your paper, arranged alphabetically by author's last name, or when there is no author, by the first word of the title (except A, An or The). Please note: citations on the Works Cited page should be double-spaced. After the first line, citations should be indented 1/2 inch (five spaces). Also note that both in the Works Cited and in the text, the titles of books are put in italics while the titles of articles are set off with “quotation marks.”

For example:

In the text of your paper:

The first gambling Web site appeared in 1995, and online gambling has since become the most lucrative Internet business (Will 92).

or,

George Will reported that in 2002 Internet gambling surpassed pornography to become the Internet's most lucrative business (92).

In your Works Cited list:

Will, George F. "Electronic Morphine." Newsweek 25 Nov. 2002: 92.

 Book (One Author)

Works Cited:

 Hockney, David. Secret Knowledge: Recovering the Lost Techniques of the
 Old Masters. New York: Viking Studio, 2001. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(Hockney 32)

 

Book (Two to Three Authors)

Works Cited:

 Anthony, William, Walter E. Wheatley, and P.E. Smyth. Envisionary
 Management: A Guide for Human Resource Professionals in
 Management Training and Development. New York: Quorum, 1988. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(William et. al. 128)

 Book (Corporate Author)

Works Cited:

 American Medical Association. Genetic Engineering: A Case for Caution.
 New York: Random, 1996. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(American Medical Association 19)

 Book (Anthology)

Works Cited: 

Marshall, Denise. "Slaying the Angel and the Patriarch: The Grinning Wolf."
 Last Laughs: Perspectives on Women and Comedy. Ed. Regina Barreca.
 New York: Gordon and Breach, 1988. 149-77. Print.




Parenthetical: (Marshall 150)

Scholarly Journal Article (One Author)

Works Cited: 

Myerson, Joel. "A Calendar of Transcendental Club Meetings."
     American Literature 44 (1972): 197-207. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(Myerson 199)

 Scholarly Journal Article (Two Authors)

Works Cited:

 Brown, Cecelia M., and Lina Ortega. "Information-Seeking
     Behavior of Physical Science Librarians: Research and Practice."
 College & Research Libraries 66 (2005): 231-247. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(Brown and Ortega 237)

Magazine Article (One Author)

Works Cited:

 Cook, Mariana. "Cousin Kay." Victoria Nov. 2001: 27-28. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(Cook 28)

 Newspaper Article

Works Cited:

 Smith, James P. "Build it and They Will Come." New York Times 2 May 1987,
 late ed.: C2+. Print. (“Print” means in the actual paper edition rather than on-line.)

Parenthetical: 

(Smith C2)

Encyclopedia Article

Works Cited:

 "Magna Carta." The New Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th ed. 1998. Print.

Parenthetical:

 ("Magna Carta" 521)

 Electronic Resources

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.

Electronic Scholarly Journal Article (From a Database)

Works Cited:

 Herold, Niels. "Pedagogy, Hamlet, and the Manufacture of Wonder."
 Shakespeare Quarterly 46.2 (1995):125-134. JSTOR. Web. 31 Dec. 2009.

Parenthetical:

 (Niels)

Electronic Scholarly Journal Article (From a Web Site)

Works Cited:

 Sohmer, Steve. "12 June 1599: Opening Day at Shakespeare's Globe." Early
 Modern Literary Studies 3.1 (1997): n. pag. Web. 22 June 1999.

Parenthetical: 

(Sohmer)

Thesis or Dissertation

(Print)



Works Cited:

 Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing
 in the IUPUI Comprehensive Campaign. Diss. Purdue University, 2002. Ann
 Arbor: UMI, 2004. Print.

Parenthetical: 

(Bishop n. pag.)

(Electronic)

Works Cited:

 Ryals, Douglas Wesley. "Renaissance Speculation: Shakespeare and the
  Prehistory of Liberalis." Diss. University of California, Irvine, 2006.
     Proquest Digital Dissertations. Proquest.

Parenthetical: 

(Ryals n.pag.)

Electronic Book

Works Cited: 

Horowitz, Daniel. "Growing Up Absurd." Vance Packard & American
 Social Criticism. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina Press, 1994.
     NetLibrary. Web. 16 October 2008.

Parenthetical:

(Horowitz 2008)

 

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