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Citations

A resource for citations in various formats, covering when, why and how to cite.

MLA Style Guide

Works Cited

The newest edition of MLA offers guidelines, rather than strict rules that must be followed. MLA calls the following "Core Elements" that should be included (when available) for any source listed in a Works Cited page.

  1. Author.
  2. Title of source.
  3. Title of container,
  4. Other contributors,
  5. Version,
  6. Number,
  7. Publisher,
  8. Publication date,
  9. Location.

Here is the basic format for any source:

Author. Title of source. Title of container (do not list container for standalone books, e.g. novels), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs URL or DOI). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

Academic/Scholarly Journal: Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Magazine: Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

Newspaper:  Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

(Note: Newspapers often have unique page names. If a newspaper releases several editions a day (early, late etc.) note the edition after the newspaper title - separate with commas.

 

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

  • Article on a website
    • Last Name, First M. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication, Date Month Year, URL.
  • Book on a website
    • Last Name, First M. Title of book, version (edition), etc. Name of publishing website, URL.
  • Journal Article in a Database
    • Last Name, First M. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, date of publication, pp. #-#. Title of Database, URL.

 

In-Text Citations

In-Text Citations

In MLA Style, you may refer to the works of others in your text by using parenthetical citations. Provide relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, you will put all source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (before the period). There are some situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere, or to leave out some information. 

General Guidelines:

  • The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends upon two factors:
    • The source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD)
    • The source’s entry on the Works Cited page
  • Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. 
    • 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 on the Works Cited page.

Author-Page Style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation, meaning 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.

For example:

  • Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).
  • Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263).
  • Wordsworth extensively explored the role of emotion in the creative process (263).

Corresponding Works Cited entry: 

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967. 

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

  • Best and Marcus argue that one should read a text for what it says on its surface, rather than looking for some hidden meaning (9).
  • The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in texts” (Best and Marcus 9).

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations, vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.:

  • According to Franck et al., “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor health of Americans” (327). 
  • The authors claim that one cause of obesity in the United States is government-funded farm subsidies (Franck et al. 327).

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine, vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Non-Print Sources

When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page. 

Guidelines for electronic and Internet sources:

  • Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
  • Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
  • Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com or Forbes.com, as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.