Citations

Article in a Web Scholarly Journal:

Basic Format:

 Lastname, Firstname.   "Title of Article."  Title of Journal, volume, issue, Date of Publication, 

      Page Range of Entry (if available), URL.  Date of Access.  

Example:

 Wheelis, Mark.  "Investigating Disease Outbreaks under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin

      Weapons Convention."  Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 6, no. 6, Dec. 2000, 

      pp. 595-600, www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm.  Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

Citing Books:

  Basic Format:

    Lastname, Firstname.  Title of Book.  Publisher, Year of Publication.

  Example:

     Pollan, Michael.  The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.  Penguin Press, 2006.

Citing eBooks:

  Basic Format:

    Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.  Name of Database, URL.  

       Date of access.

  Example:

    Verner, Dorte.  The Impact of the Euro on Latin America.  World Bank Publications, 2000.  eBook

       Collection (EBSCOhost), dom.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

        direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=33326&site=ehost-live&scope=site.  Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.  

One Essay or Chapter Within an Edited Book (different essays or chapters have different authors):

Basic Format:

    Lastname, Firstname.  "Title of Essay."  Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, 

        Year of Publication, pages.  

Example:

   Flam, Jack.  "Bonnard in the History of Twentieth-Century Art."  Pierre Bonnard: The Late Still

        Lifes and Interiors, edited by Dita Amory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009, pp. 47-60.

Magazine & Newspaper Articles in Print:

NOTE: If there is more than one edition available for the date of the newspaper, include the edition after the date of publication.  If the newspaper is a less well-known publication, include the city name in brackets after the title of the newspaper.  

Basic Format:

Lastname, Firstname.  "Title of Article."  Title of Periodical, Date of Publication, pages.

Example:

Caplan, Jeremy.  "Trying to Make a Decent Living."  Time, 26 June 2006, pp. 56-58.

Newspaper & Magazine Articles in Online Databases:

Basic Format:

Lastname, Firstname.  "Title of Article."  Title of Periodical, volume (if provided), issue (if provided), Date of 

     Publication, pages.  Title of Database, URL.  Date of Access.

Example:

"Iran and America: An Intersecting History."  Newsweek, 1 June 2009, pp. 29-52.  Academic

     Search Premier, web.ebscohost.com.  Accessed 3 Dec. 2015. 

Part of a Web Site (Such as One Page Within the Site):

NOTE: If the publisher is the same as the website name, list it only once.

Basic Format:

     Editor, author, or compiler name (if available).  "Title of Page."  Name of Site,

        Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), 

        Date of resource creation (if available), URL.  Date of Access.

Example:

   "Paying for Graduate School: Financial Aid for Grad Students."  eHow, 

        gradschool.about.com/od/financialaid/Financial_Aid.htm.  Accessed 8 Dec. 2009.

Scholarly Articles in Online Library Databases:

Basic Format:

Lastname, Firstname.  "Title of Article."  Title of Journal, volume, issue, Date of Publication, pages.  

     Title of Database, DOI or URL.  Date of Access.

  Example:

  Giersch, Anne, and Virginie Rhein. "Lack of Flexibility in Visual Grouping in Patients with

      Schizophrenia." Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 117, no. 1, Feb. 2008, pp. 132-142.

      PsychInfo, doi: 10.1037/0021-843X.117.1.132.  Accessed 26 Jan. 2017.

Scholarly Articles in Print:

Basic Format:

Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Article."  Title of Journal, volume, issue, Date of Publication, pages.

Example:

Green, Samuel Swett. "Personal Relations between Librarians and Readers.” Library

     Journal, vol. 118, no. 11, June 1993, pp. 74-81.

Websites (An Entire Site):

Basic Format:

    Editor, author, or compiler name (if available).  Name of Site, Name of

       institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of

       resource creation (if available), URL.  Date of Access.  

Example:

     Brennan School of Business.  Dominican University, 2009, 

        www.dom.edu/academics/bsb/index.htm.  Accessed 7 Dec. 2009.  

• Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested or the paper is assigned as a group project. In the case of a group project, list all names of the contributors, giving each name its own line in the header, followed by the remaining MLA header requirements as described below. Format the remainder of the page as requested by the instructor.
• In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
• Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
• Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. For example: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
• Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit the last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)

Formatting the first page of your paper: 

• Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested or the paper is assigned as a group project. In the case of a group project, list all names of the contributors, giving each name its own line in the header, followed by the remaining MLA header requirements as described below. Format the remainder of the page as requested by the instructor.
• In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
• Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.
• Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text. For example: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"
• Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
• Create a header in the upper right-hand corner that includes your last name, followed by a space with a page number. Number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. (Note: Your instructor or other readers may ask that you omit the last name/page number header on your first page. Always follow instructor guidelines.)

Section Headings: Essays

Writers sometimes use section headings to improve a document’s readability. MLA recommends that when dividing an essay into sections you number those sections with an Arabic number and a period followed by a space and the section name. For example: 

1. Early Writings

2. The London Years

3. Traveling the Continent

4. Final Years

Sample Section Headings 

Numbered: 

1. Soil Conservation

1.1 Erosion

1.2 Terracing

2. Water Conservation

3. Energy Conservation

Formatted, unnumbered: 

Level 1 Heading: bold, flush left

Level 2 Heading: italics, flush left

Level 3 Heading: centered, bold

Level 4 Heading: centered, italics

Formatting Quotations

When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on their length. Below are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper. Please note that all pages in MLA should be double-spaced.

Short Quotations

To indicate short quotations (four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks. Provide the author and specific page number (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the in-text citation, and include a complete reference on the Works Cited page. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

Long Quotations

For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented 1/2 inch from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)

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.
  • Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be aligned with the left margin.
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to 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 pp. 225-50 (Note: MLA style dictates that you should omit the first sets of repeated digits. In our example, the digit in the hundreds place is repeated between 225 and 250, so you omit the 2 from 250 in the citation: pp. 225-50). If the excerpt spans multiple pages, use “pp.”  Note that MLA style uses a hyphen in a span of pages.
• If only one page of a print source is used, mark it with the abbreviation “p.” before the page number (e.g., p. 157). If a span of pages is used, mark it with the abbreviation “pp.” before the page number (e.g., pp. 157-68).
• 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.
• For online sources, you should include a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scholarly databases use a DOI (digital object identifier). Use a DOI in your citation if you can; otherwise use a URL. Delete “http://” from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a citation and should be followed by a period.
• All works cited entries end with a period.