Select a main category above or look for a specific example using this drop-down menu:
How do I cite... Other Materials Book by a Single Author Multiple Sources by the Same Author Book by Two or Three Authors Book by a More than 3 Authors Book by a Corporate Author An Anonymous Book An Article in a Reference Book An Introduction, Preface, Foreword or Afterword Periodical Articles Newspaper Articles Magazine Articles Journal Articles Full-text articles from Databases Internet Resources Personal Web Site Article on a Web Site Professional Website Article from an Online Periodical Online Book Supreme Court Case E-mail MLA FAQ

What is MLA Style? | What is the Basic MLA Format for a Research Paper? | What is included in MLA Documentation? | The Parenthetical Reference | Formatting Quotations in your Text | The Works-Cited List | How do I Cite Books in MLA Style?| How do I Cite Articles in MLA Style? | How do I Cite Internet/Electronic Sources in MLA Style? | How do I Cite Other Materials in MLA Style? | MLA FAQ
This guide will help you become comfortable with MLA style and provide basic information on documenting sources in this format. For complete information on using MLA, please refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th edition) available in Randall Library at the Reference Desk.

What is MLA Style?

---

The Modern Language Association style is one of the three most widely used citation and writing styles for student research papers and scholarly manuscripts. It is used predominantly English and other humanities fields. A full description of the style is available for high school and undergraduate college students in The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th edition) and for graduate students, scholars and professional writers in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Both of these books are available at the reference desk in Randall Library, in bookstores and for sale on the MLA website <http://www.mla.org>.

What is the Basic MLA Format for a Research Paper?

---

Basics
Papers in MLA format should be typed on 8 1/2-by-11 inch paper with a one-inch margin on all sides and left justified. The first word of each paragraph should be indented five spaces (1/2 inch) and should be double-spaced throughout.

Heading
A heading that includes your name, your instructor's name, the course number, and the date, each on separate lines (double-space between each line), should be placed one inch from the top of the first page on the left margin.

Title
A title page is not necessary in MLA style. The title should be centered and double-spaced from the heading. The title should not be underlined, in italics, quotations marks or typed in all capital letters unless the title includes names of books, movies or other names of works that require special punctuation. Double-space between the title and the first line of the text.

Page Numbers
All pages should be numbered in top right corner, one-half inch from the top. The page number should include your last name and the page number and no punctuation.

EXAMPLE
the top of a first page of a research paper

What is included in MLA Documentation?

---

Acknowledging sources MLA style requires a parenthetical reference in the text where you quote or paraphrase the work of other authors. This reference links to a specific source that is fully described in an alphabetical list of the sources you cite in your paper. This list is at the end of the paper and is called a works-cited list. The parenthetical citation provides sufficient information to locate the correct source in the works-cited list.

The Parenthetical Reference

---

Your parenthetical documentation should clearly point from references in the body where you quote or paraphrase the work of others to the appropriate sources in your works-cited list.

• A parenthetical reference for a typical works-cited entry will include the authors' last name(s) and the relevant page number(s).
• You do not need to include a parenthetical reference if the wording of your sentence contains enough information to identify the reference. However, you would need to include a parenthetical reference that includes only a page number if your sentence contains the author's name, but refers to a particular page or section in the source from which you are quoting or paraphrasing.

EXAMPLE: Author's name in your text.
If the author's name is in the text and your reference is to an entire work, rather than a part of it, you do not need to include a parenthetical reference.
Coughlin develops a new paradigm for the topic.

EXAMPLE: Author's name in your text referring to a particular part of the work.
If the author's name appears in the text and you are referring to a particular part of the work, you will need a parenthetical reference that includes a page number, but no author's name.
Coughlin explains that there are three major movements in the period (54).

EXAMPLE: A quote or paraphrase in your text that does not mention the author or section of the work.
When you use information from other sources and do not mention those sources in your text, your parenthetical reference should contain the author's name and page numbers if the information is from a particular part of the work.
There are three major movements in the period (Coughlin 54).

Formatting Quotations in your Text

---

Formatting Quotes of Four Lines or Less
When you use a direct quote in your paper that is no longer than four lines, put the quoted words in quotation marks incorporated directly into your text. If the author of the quote is not clear, do not put a period at the end of the quote, but close the quotation marks, insert the parenthetical reference and end with a period.

EXAMPLE

Your text here.

"Further changes in the 'social time sense' in the late nineteenth century
and early twentieth centuries resulted from further systemization of national and
international time measurement" (Stevenson 118).

Formatting Long Quotes
When you quote a passage that is longer than four lines of text in your paper, set this passage off from your text by starting it on a new line, indented ten spaces from the left margin. Double space the quote, but do not put quotation marks around it. If your are quoting from only one paragraph, do not indent the first word of the paragraph any further than the ten spaces. If you are quoting multiple paragraphs, indent the first line of each paragraph an extra three spaces. Include a parenthetical reference at the end of the quote, outside of the concluding punctuation mark.

EXAMPLE

Some Things to Remember about Formatting Quotes

• Parenthetical references are usually placed at the end of sentences, where a pause would naturally occur.
• Parenthetical references are placed inside the final punctuation mark when they are used with paraphrased information.
• Parenthetical references that directly follow quotation marks are placed after the closing quotation mark and followed by a period.
• Parenthetical references following a block quote come after the last line of the quotation, outside of the concluding punctuation mark.

The Works-Cited List

---

Basics
Put your works-cited list at the end of your paper on its own page. It should be numbered accordingly with your paper (if your last page of text is 12, the works-cited will be page 13). This page should have a title, Works Cited, that is centered and an inch from the top of the page. Double-space between the title and your first entry into the works-cited list

The Entries
Begin each entry in your list along the left margin. If any entry is longer than one line, indent the following lines five spaces (1/2 inch) to set it apart from the next entry. Double-space the whole list.

The Arrangement
Each entry in the works-cited will begin with the author's last name. Arrange the list in alphabetical order of authors' last names. If the author's name is unknown, the entry will begin with the title. Place these entries alphabetically into the list, but ignore titles that begin A, An or The and alphabetize them using the first word of of the title following A, An or The.

What is the Basic MLA Documentation Format?

---

Citations for books in MLA are generally comprised of three main parts: author, title and publication information in this order:

Author's name. Title of Book. City of publication: publisher's name, year of publication.

Some Things to Remember about MLA Documentation:

• Author's names are Last name, First name.
• Put a period at the end of the author section of the entry.
• Use the author's name as it is on the title page of the book. Use initials only if the title page does.
• Generally, you will not use title, affiliations and degrees (like PhD, Sir or Saint) when listing the authors on the works-cited page, but you will include essential suffixes (like Jr. or IV).
• Use complete titles of books, including subtitles.
• Place a period at the end of the title.
• Underline the whole title, including all the punctuation throughout the title, but do not underline the period at the end of the title.
• Place a colon between the city of publication and the publisher and a comma between the publisher's name and the year of publication.
• If several cities are listed in the book, use the first city in your entry.
• For non-US cities that may be unknown to your readers, place a comma and an abbreviation of the country where your city is located.
• Publishers' names should be shortened and should not include articles (A, An, The), business abbreviations (Inc., Corp.) and descriptive words (Press, Publishers, House). However, if you are citing a university press, add a capital P to the end to the end of the publisher's name (University of Kentucky P).
• If the name of the publisher is the name of one person, only use the surname (W.W. Norton is Norton). If the publisher's names includes the name of more than one person, use only the first of the surnames (Mc-Graw Hill is McGraw in your entries).

How do I Cite Books in MLA Style?

---

The basic book format in MLA style is:
Works Cited

Author's name. Title of Book. City of publication: publisher's name, year of publication.

Parenthetical Reference
To cite the entire book either explain who the author is in the text of your paper, or include a parenthetical reference with the author's last name. For example, (Smith).

If you quote or paraphrase only a part of the book, include a parenthetical reference with the author's name and the page number(s). For example, (Smith 102).If you use the author's name in your text, only include a page number in your parenthetical reference. For example, According to Smith... (102).

Citing More than One Source by the Same Author
Works Cited
If you cite more than one book by the same author in your paper, only the first entry will include the author's name. The following entries will instead have three hyphens and a period where the author's name would ordinarily go. The entry that includes the author's name should be the entry by this author whose title comes first alphabetically. The other titles that begin with the hyphens should then come directly after this entry in alphabetical order by title.

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
When you have more than one entry in your works-cited list by the same author, put a comma after the author's last name and add the title of the work, (if it is short or an abbreviated title) and the relevant page number.If you include the author's name in the text of your paper, you do not need to include the his/her name in the parenthetical reference. Likewise, if you include the author's name and the title of the source, you will only need the page number in the parenthetical reference.

EXAMPLE:Author's Name in Your Text
As Bloom explains in How to Read and Why, ... (72).

EXAMPLE:Author's Name in Parenthetical Reference
(Bloom, How to Read and Why 72).

Citing Books With Multiple Authors
Works Cited
When citing a book with two or three authors, list their names in the same order they are listed on the title page of the book (which is not necessarily alphabetical order). Reverse the name of the first author, followed by a comma, and then list the next author's first name and last name, type and before the final author's first name and last name, then place a period after the end of the final name. If the names listed on the title page are editors, translators or compilers, place a comma after the final name and add an abbreviation describing who they are (eds., trans, comps.).

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
If more than one name is given in an entry in your works-cited list, give the last name of each in your parenthetical reference.

EXAMPLE:Parenthetical Reference for a Book with Three Authors
(Browner, Pulsford and Sears 84).

More than three authors, list only the first author's name and add et al. (which means and others).
Works Cited

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for a Book with More than Three Authors
(Greenough et al. 276-284).

Citing Books With a Corporate Author
Works Cited
Some books are attributed to an association, organization or company, rather than a person or group of people. For these books, cite the book by the corporate author, even when the corporate author is the publisher.

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
If the corporate author's name is long, it is best to note it in the text of your paper, rather than in a parenthetical reference. When you do place a corporate author in a parenthetical reference, shorten terms that are commonly abbreviated.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for a Book with a Corporate Author
(ACRL 67).

Citing Anonymous Books
Works Cited
If you are using a book that has no author named, begin the entry in your works-cited list with the title of the book. Alphabetize the entry by the title, ignoring an initial A, An or The. Do not use Anonymous for the author's name.

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
The parenthetical citations used in the text of your paper that refer to a book without an author will use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for an Anonymous Book
(New York 143).

Anonymous Books whose Titles Begin with the Same Word

When you have two or more books or articles with no author and the same first word in the title, you need to include as many words as possible to distinguish between/among them.

The mid-1960s saw a great revival of interest in the folk blues, leading to the rediscovery of many very talent performers (History of Blues 53).

“The last years of the Babylonian Empire witnessed far-reaching changes”(History of the Jewish 164).

How do I Cite Parts of Books in MLA Style?

---

When the information you use in your paper comes from a particular part of a book, for example the introduction, preface, foreword or afterword, or a specific article in a reference book, you should cite this work accordingly.

Citing an article in a reference book.
Works Cited
If you use specific entries in an encyclopedia or dictionary, you should cite it so that readers of your paper will easily be able to find that exact entry.If you can determine the author of the specific entry, cite him or her first. Often the authors of the individuals entries are listed immediately before or after the entry. Sometimes only their initials are given and the full name is spelled out elsewhere in the encyclopedia. Follow this by the title given to the specific entry or article concluding with a period. Place the entire title, including the period, in quotation marks. If no author is given, begin your citation with the title of the article. If you are using a reference book that is common or that frequently publishes new editions, you do not need to give the full publication information, but only the edition (if it is stated) and the year of publication. (If you need help determining this, ask a reference librarian.) If it is a reference book that is not commonly known and does not frequently publish new editions, you will need to give the full publication information including, the editor, the edition, the volume number (if it has more than one volume), the city of publication, the publisher and the year of publication.

EXAMPLES

Parenthetical Reference
If the author of an article in a reference book is given, use his/her last name. If the source arranges the articles alphabetically, you do not need to include a page number in your reference.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for an Article in a Reference book with an author given and articles arranged in alphabetical order
(Cosgrove).

If your works-cited entry begins with the title, use a shortened version of the title in your parenthetical reference and the relevant page numbers. If the source arranges the articles alphabetically, you do not need to include a page number in your reference.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for an Article in a Reference book with no author given and articles arranged in alphabetical order
(Gardner).

Citing an Introduction, Preface, Foreword or Afterword
Works Cited
If you will be citing from any of these parts of books, start , as usual, with the author's name and then the part being cited. Do not put the name of the part being cited in quotation marks, unless the section has a specific title. If so, type the title in quotation marks and follow it with the name of the section. After the name of the section, type By and the author of the section. If the author of the section is also the author of the complete book, follow By with only with author's last name. If the author of the section is different from the author of the book, type the author's full name (first name first) and then continue with the full publication information, and then add the page numbers of the section.

Author of complete book. Name of Section. Title of Book. By author of section. Editor of book. City of

publication: publisher, year of publication.

Some things to Remember:

• If the section of the book has a title, place that in quotation marks after the author's name and before the name of the section.
• If the section was written by the author of the book, only type their last name after By.
• If the section was written by someone other than the author of the book, type their full name in regular order.
• If the book has an editor, type Ed. and the editor's name in regular order just before the publication information.

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
If you refer to the entire foreword, afterword, preface or introduction of a work in your text, you will only need to include the author of that section in your parenthetical reference. If you refer to a particular passage in one of these sections, include relevant page numbers in your reference.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for a Passage within an Introduction of a book
(Weaver 89).

How do I Cite Other Materials in MLA Style?

Pamphlet: (same as a book)

Best Museums: New York: Trip Building, 1993

Government Publication with Known Author:

Great Britain. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. Radionuclide Levels in Food, Animals, and Agricultural Products:

Post-Chernobyl Monitoring in England and Wales. London: HMSO, 1987

A Supreme Court Case in Lexis-Nexis

The basic format for a Supreme Court Case in a subscription database is:

The Case Title. U.S. Reports citation, page numbers, docket number, name of the court, year of decision, Internet address and date of accessing the site.

EXAMPLE

Published Proceedings of a Conference:



Personal Letter:
Morrison, Toni. Letter to the author. 17 May 1992

Personal Interview:

Pei, J.M. Personal Interview. 22 July 1993.

Published Interview:

Gordimer, Nadine. Interview. New York Times 10 Oct. 1991, late ed.: C25.

Videotape:


Film:


Radio or Television Program:

How do I Cite Articles in MLA Style?

---

Magazines, newspapers and scholarly journals are all periodicals. This means that they are publications that are published at regular intervals, for example every day, once a week, once a month or four times a year. Each type of periodical has a specific format for citation in MLA style.

Citing Newspaper Articles
Works Cited
A citation for an article in the newspaper includes the author of the article, the title of the article in quotation marks, the name of newspaper, the complete date, an edition if one is listed and the page number(s) on which the article appears. If the newspaper begins with the word The or any other introductory article, leave it off in your citation (for example, New York Times not The New York Times). If the name of the city where the newspaper is published does not appear in the title of the newspaper, add the city name in brackets following the title of the newspaper (for example, Enquirer Journal [Monroe]). When you type the date, abbreviate the names of all months, except May, June and July. The page numbers of newspapers are often classified by the section of the paper, so be sure to include the section letter before the page number. When an article in a newspaper continues to another page in the paper, write the first page number and add a plus sign (+).

The basic format for a newspaper article is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper day month year, edition ed.: pages.

EXAMPLE

Some Things to Remember About Newspapers:

• If the title of the newspaper begins with The, do not include The in your citation.
• If the title of the newspaper does not include the name of the city where it is published, include that name of the city following the title, but not underlined, in brackets. Enquirer Journal [Monroe].
• There is no period after the title of a newspaper.
• If the article you are citing continues to another page in the newspaper, put the number of the first page of the article (including the section number if the paper is divided into sections) and a plus sign.

Parenthetical Reference
Your parenthetical reference will follow the basic format, including last names of authors and relevant page numbers.

EXAMPLE: Parenthetical Reference for a Newspaper Article
(Miller A1).

Citing Magazine Articles MLA Style
Works Cited
To cite an article from a magazine published every week or every two weeks, give the authors name, the title of the article in quotation marks, the title of the magazine underlined, the complete date (abbreviate the month except for May, June, and July) and the page numbers for the article. If the article is printed on consecutive pages, list the pages (for example, 17-19), but if the article continues later in the magazine, put the first page of the article and a plus sign. Do not give volume and issue numbers even if they are listed.
The basic format for a magazine article in magazine that publishes every week is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Magazine day, month, year: page number(s).

EXAMPLE

If the article you are citing is from a magazine that is published every month or every two months, do everything exactly as above, but only give the month or months (abbreviated except for May, June and July) and the year instead of a complete date. Do not give volume and issue numbers even if they are listed.

The basic format for a magazine article in magazine that publishes once a month is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Magazine month, year: page number(s).

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
Your parenthetical reference will follow the basic format, including last names of authors and relevant page numbers.

Citing Articles from Scholarly Journals
Works Cited
Scholarly journals are generally published less frequently than magazines, are written by scholars or professionals rather than journalists, and are for an academic or professional audience. You will probably use scholarly journals a great deal in your research papers.

Begin citations of articles in scholarly journals with the author's name, the title of the article in quotation marks and the title of the journal.

If you are citing a scholarly journal that pages each issue of a volume continuously (this means that if volume 48 issue number 1 ends on page 137, volume 48 issue number two will begin on page 138), you will follow the title of the journal with the volume number, the year of publication, in parentheses, a colon and the page numbers.

The basic format for an article in a scholarly journal that paginates continuously is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal volume number (year) : page numbers.

EXAMPLE

If the article you are citing comes from a journal that pages each issue separately (each issue in a volume begins with page one), add a period and the issue number directly after the volume number.

The basic format for an article in a scholarly journal that pages each issue separately is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal volume number.issue number (year): page numbers.

EXAMPLE

Parenthetical Reference
Your parenthetical reference will follow the basic format, including last names of authors and relevant page numbers. If both of the examples listed above were found in your Works Cited, your parenthetical reference would include a short title along with the author's name to distinguish between the two.
(Kozol, "Not for Sale" 33).

Citing a Full-Text Journal Article from a Subscription Database
(no author, see below) (no page numbers, see above)

The basic format for a full-text article in a subscription database is:

EXAMPLE

Same Article Title with No Author
When you have two or more articles with no author and the same title, you need to include a publication fact that distinguishes the works in the works-cited list entries.

At one time, it was believed that the mind simply turned off during sleep, or that the soul left the body during sleep. (“Sleep,” Gale 3397).

Modern research suggests that sleep deprivation lasting up to 10 days shows no serious, prolonged consequences (“Sleep,” World 1085).

How do I Cite Internet Sources in MLA Style?

---

Works Cited
MLA has outlined specific guidelines for documenting sources from the world wide web. The main difference between documenting print sources and documenting web sites is that a date of access must be included since the nature of web resources is unstable. You must also add the electronic address or the URL (uniform resource locator) for the source in angle brackets < >.

Parenthetical Reference
Personal web pages rarely have any type of numbering system and you will most often not have page numbers in your parenthetical citations for web pages. If the web site does include any fixed numbering system, you should cite the relevant numbers and include an abbreviation that describes what types of sections are being numbered. For example, some sites will include paragraph numbers. For those, your parenthetical reference should include the author's last name, the abbreviation pars. and the relevant paragraphs. For example, (Benkert pars. 5-6).

No date: If no date is given for posting or latest update of the site, use the abbreviation N.d. (no date) or leave it blank.

No page numbers
If pages are not numbered, use the abbreviation N.p. (no pagination) or leave it blank. Ignore the page numbers shown on any printout of a web site because the internet browser assigned them - they were not part of the original site format.

In your paper:
TyAnna Herrington notes in her introduction, "Nicholas Negroponte's Being Digital provides another welcome not only into an age of technological ubiquity, but into a way of 'being' with technology." (Herrington N.p.)

What it would look like on your Works Cited Page:

Herrington, TyAnna K. "Being is Believing." Rev. of Being Digital, by Nicholas Negroponte. Lkd.

Kairos: A Journal for Teaching Writing in Webbed Environments 1.1 (1996) at "Reviews." 24 May 1996

<http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1/1>


Citing a Personal Web Site

The basic format for a personal web site is: (no author, see below)

EXAMPLE

Internet Citations Within Your Paper
In your paper
In response to Victor Brobert's 1990 PMLA address on the "politics of critical language," one correspondent suggests that "some literary scholars envy the scientists their wonderful jargon with its certainty and precision and thus wish to emulate it by creating formidably technical-sounding words of their own" (Mitchell).

What it would look like on your Works Cited Page:
Mitchell, Jason P. PMLA Letter. 1991. 23 May 1996 <http://sunset.backbone.olemiss.edu/~jmitchel/pmla.htm>.

Citing a Professional Web Site (no author, see below)

The basic format for a personal web site is:

Name of Page. Name of institution or organization sponsoring orassociated with the Web site. Date of publication or last update. Date of Access <url>.


Citing an Article on a Web Site (no author, see below)

The basic format for an article on a web site is:

Author. "Title of Article." Name of Page. Date of publication or last update. Name of institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the Website. Date of Access <url>.

EXAMPLE

Citing an Article in an Online Journal (no author, see below) (no page numbers, see above)

The basic format for an article in an online journal is:

Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal volume.issue (year): total number of paragraphs, pages or sections if they are numbered. Access date.<url>.

Citing an Online Book (no author, see below) (no page numbers, see above)

The basic format for a book (online) is:

Author. "Title of Book." Publisher, date of publication. Access date. <url>.

Citing an unknown author

When the author of a work is not given, use the complete title of the work in a signal phrase or a shortened version in the parenthetical reference.

In your paper:
According to the article "It's Raining Pennies - But Not From Heaven," for years we have known that we cannot buy much with a penny, but "now the coin is under attack as a public nuisance" (31).

Or

For years we have known that we cannot buy much with a penny, but "now the coin is under attack as a public nuisance" ("It's Raining Pennies" 31).

Citing an E-mail Addressed to You

The basic format for an email addressed to you is:

Author. "Title of the message taken from the subject line (if there is one)." E-mail to the author. Date of message.

EXAMPLE

Citing an E-mail Addressed to Someone Other than You

The basic format for an email addressed to someone other than you is:

Author. "Title of the message taken from the subject line (if there is one)." E-mail to name of recipient. Date of message.

EXAMPLE

Last Update: April 9, 2008

Return to Top