This article covers the MLA bibliographic style for the sources you cite in your paper. The information here is based on the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (2009).
The goal of the entire in-text citation and Works Cited apparatus is to provide your reader with an easy, clear way to locate the sources you have drawn upon when writing your paper. The in-text citation serves as a key to the list of Works Cited at the end of the paper. It is therefore crucial that each key matches the appropriate reference work. The references are alphabetized to make matching the citation to the work quick and easy.
Guideline 1: Basic reference.
The Works Cited page has the following features:
- It includes all the sources cited in the paper. It should not include any works not cited in the paper because it is not a list of works consulted or a general bibliography (unless your instructor requires otherwise).
- Entries use a hanging indent, with all lines after the first line being indented one half of an inch from the left margin.
- Entries are alphabetized by the author’s last name, or if a corporate author or no author, by the first significant word in the title. That is, do not alphabetize by An or The.
Guideline 2: Typical book.
Book references feature these characteristics:
- The elements are separated by commas, colons, and periods, as shown by the examples below.
- The book title is in italics.
- All major words in the title are capitalized.
- The place of publication is the city, not the state. (Sometimes this is confusing because so many books are published in New York, which is both a city and a state.)
- The authoritative title of a book is the title page, not the cover or dust jacket. Occasionally there will be a variation.
- For a work by multiple authors, only the first author’s name is presented last name first. Multiple authors are separated by commas, and the last two are connected with and (Example 3).
- Note the placement and style of the edition number and of eds. or Ed. for editors (Example 4).
- Example 4 shows how to list a work originally translated and published, then edited and republished recently.
Example 1
Last name, First name. Book Title: Subtitle. Edition. City of Publication: Publisher, Date. Medium.
Doe, Jane. Understanding the Media: A Guide to Print and Broadcast Journalism. 11th ed. New York: Deerlink Press, 2003. Print.
Example 2
Smith, John, and Mary Doe. Quality Control in Aircraft Manufacture. Seattle: Aeroaviation Press, 2007. Print.
Example 3
Brown, John, Jane Doe, and James Smith, eds. Musicotherapeutics: Essays on Genre. London: Bella Arte, 2004. Print.
Example 4
Aristotle. Rhetoric. Trans. Edward Meredith Cope. 1877. Ed. John Doe. New York: Philosopher’s Attic Press, 2010. Print.
Guideline 3: Typical article.
Article references follow this format:
- Follow the punctuation style shown in the examples—using periods, commas, colons, and parentheses as indicated.
- The article title is in quotation marks. Be sure to put the period inside the closing quotation mark.
- The periodical title is in italics.
- Year of publication is in parentheses.
- The page numbers give the beginning and ending pages, with no p. or pp.
- All major words are capitalized in both the article title and periodical title.
- Note in Example 6 the arrangement of elements when an article is taken from an anthology.
Example 5
Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Periodical Title Volume (Year): Start page-end page. Medium.
Doe, John. “Filtration Breakdowns and the Cigarette Butt Problem.” Water Treatment Monthly 46 (2008): 221-227. Print.
Example 6
Doe, Jane. “Recycling and You: From Cliché to Lifestyle.” Essays on Culture Shift. Ed. Joseph Doax. New Mexico: Greentronics Press, 2008. 344-357. Print.
Guideline 4: Typical Web page.
Web articles are cited in a way similar to print articles. Note the differences.
- Include as much of the information shown in Example 7 as is available from the site.
- Use a period between elements except between the sponsoring organization and the date, where a comma is used.
- Use n.d. for “no date” as shown in Example 8.
- If your instructor requires it or if there would otherwise be difficulty in locating the information on the Web, include the URL in angle brackets at the very end of the citation. See Example 9.
Example 7
Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Web Site. Sponsoring Organization, Date of article. Web. Date you accessed article.
Doe, Jane. “Milton’s Use of the Colon.” Literary Punctuation Online. Association for the Study of Punctuation, 17 Dec. 2008. Web. 5 March 2009.
Example 8
Smith, John. “Infotainment: The Hybridization of Discourse Modes.” The Commentary Cloud, n.d. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.
Example 9
Doe, John. “Semantics: A New Definition.” Linguistica Abnormalis. International Research Society for Linguistic Progress, 2009. Web. 13 July 2008. <http://www.irslip.info/restricted/sand.htm>.
Notes
- Many Web pages do not contain all of the information described above. In such cases, include whatever information is available on the page. You may be able to locate the name of the Web site or the sponsoring organization by backing up to the root URL.
Guideline 5: Typical database.
Online databases are cited with the same format as Web articles, with the addition of the name of the source database.
Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Periodical Title Volume (Year): Pages. Database. Web. Date you accessed article.
Doe, John. “Aristotle on Friendship.” Amicus 32 (1999): 324-31. JSTOR. Web. 4 Nov. 2009.