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Mary and Jeff Bell Library -- MLA

How should you document sources following the MLA guidelines?

The following guidelines and examples are from the Modern Language Association (MLA) Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed., edited by Joseph Gibalki and Walter S. Achtert. This set of guidelines, or "style sheet," is preferred in English courses and other humanities courses here at TAMU-CC. Check with your professor or instructor about which style sheet is appropriate for your particular class.

What kind of information must be documented?

When we use information from a source that is not common knowledge, and incorporate it into our own writing, we have to document where it came from, as in the following example:

Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263).

Note that this writer tells her reader the information needed for finding her source: we know that the quotation came from page 263 of a book by Wordsworth.

Then, at the end of your paper, you need to give your reader the rest of the information necessary for looking up the reference. This is usually a separate "Works Cited" page, and it is typically arranged by authors' last names, so that your reader can find the author referred to in your paper.

Citations of the most commonly used types of sources

The following are sample entries for the most commonly used types of sources. If you have a source not covered here, you should consult chapter 6 of the MLA handbook.

BOOKS

  1. Single author
  2. An anthology
  3. Books by two or more persons
  4. Anonymous author
  5. Work in an anthology
ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES, AND NEWSPAPERS
  1. Article from a newspaper
  2. Article in a magazine
  3. Journal with continuous pagination
  4. Journal with separate pages

ELECTRONIC MEDIA

  1. Articles from a web site
  2. Aggregated Databases: LEXIS-NEXIS
    EBSCO Academic Search Premier
  3. Online encyclopedia article
  4. Home pages and sites

BOOKS

Citation entries for books generally list three main sections for information about your source:

  • author name: last name first;
  • full title of the work: book and journal titles are underlined or italicized; article titles are put in quotation marks
  • publication information: city of publication, name of publisher, and date.
Each of these sections is followed by a period and two spaces.

1. A book by a single author:

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.

2. An anthology:

Peterson, Nancy J., ed. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches.

     Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

Note that in these entries:

  • the title is underlined or italicized;
  • there are two spaces between the three sections of the entry;
  • often-used words, such as "University" and "Press" use only initials, i.e., UP means "University Press;" no periods are used;
  • only the first line is at the margin; all other lines are indented five spaces;
  • there is only one blank space after each colon.
3. A book by two or more persons:

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring.

Boston: Allyn, 2000.

Note here that only the FIRST author's name is inverted; the rest in the list are in regular order.

4. An anonymous book:

Encyclopedia of Coral Reefs. New York: Crown, 1984.

5. A work in an anthology:

Since articles are only a part of a larger work, you must also provide your reader with page numbers. The numbers should be for the whole article, not just for the pages you have used.

Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. Black Theater: A 20th Century

Collection of the Work of Its Best Playwrights. Ed.

Lindsay Patterson. New York: Dodd, 1971. 221-76.

Note that the title of the play, A Raisin in the Sun, is underlined or italicized (as all play titles are), as is the title of the anthology. "Works Cited" pages follow regular rules of capitalization, underlining, and quotation marks for titles.

Lazard, Naomi. "In Answer to Your Query." The Norton Book of Light Verse. Ed.

Russell Baker. New York: Norton, 1986. 52-53.

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ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS

Citation entries for newspapers and periodicals generally list three main sections of information about your source:

  • author name: last name first;
  • full title of the work: newspaper and periodical titles are underlined or italicized; article titles are put in quotation marks; and
  • publication information: this will vary according to the amount of information available--follow the examples.

Each of these sections is followed by a period and two spaces.

1. A newspaper article:

Graham, Jennifer. "Love Library Redux." Daily Nebraskan 10 June 2000: 20.

2. An article from a magazine:

Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call. " Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71

Note that this entry gives the full date. Do not include volume and issue numbers.

Frazer, Lance. "Yours, Mine, or Ours: Who Owns the Moon?" Space World

Nov. 1986: 24-26.

This entry states only the month. Again, you should not include issue or volume numbers in your citation.

Abbreviate the names of months so that they take up three spaces plus a period, e.g., Aug. The following months may be spelled out: May, June, and July.

3. An article in a continuous scholarly journal (i.e., the numbers in one issue begin where the preceding issue left off):

Allen, Emily. "Staging Identity: Frances Burney's Allegory of Genre." Eighteenth-

Century Studies 31 (1998): 433-51.

Note that this entry supplies the volume number (31) before the year.

4. A journal that pages each issue separately:

Duvall, John N. "The (Super) Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated

Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise. " Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994):

127-53.

Note that this entry provides the volume number (50) and issue number (3) separated by a period and followed by the year.

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ELECTRONIC MEDIA

You must document full-text electronic resources just as you must document print sources. When citing a full-text electronic source, provide "access points" for your readers. Access points usually include the name of the full-text service, an indication of the type of service (CD-ROM, Online) and the URL for World Wide Web resources..

1. An article on a web site:

Poland, Dave. "The Hot Button." Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998 Turner Network Television.

28 Oct. 1998 <http://www.roughcut.com>.

2. Aggregated databases:
To cite material obtained from an online database subscribed to by a library, first provide information according to standard MLA style, then append: the name of the database (underlined), the name of the service, the date of access and the URL of the service's home page, if known. See specific examples below.

2A. LEXIS-NEXIS's Academic Universe:
Cite the article according to the standard MLA style then append: Academic Universe. LEXIS-NEXIS. Date of the access <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/>

Millar, Jeff. "The Rise and Fall of Everyman: 'American Beauty' Proves Potent

Family Portrayal." Houston Chronicle 24 Sept. 1999, Star ed.: 1. Academic

Universe. LEXIS-NEXIS. 13 Apr. 2000 <http://web.lexis- nexis.com/

universe/>.

2B. Academic Search Premier on EBSCOhost:
Cite the article to standard MLA style then append: Academic Search Premier. EBSCO Publishing. (AN: accession number). Date of access <http://epnet.com/ehost/ indiana/ ehost.html>

Mardesich, Jodi. "Online Music Stocks: Expect Plenty of Static Ahead." Fortune

25 Oct. 1999: 382. Academic Search Premier EBSCO Publishing.

(AN:2341736) 13 Apr. 2000

<http://www.epnet.com/ehost/Indiana/ehost.html>.

3.Online encyclopedia article:
Many online encyclopedias provide guidance on how to cite their sources. Adapt this information to MLA citation style, which should include the electronic publication information, as well as the version number and publication date, if relevant. Encyclopedia Britannica Online provides citation information at the end of their articles which can be adapted to MLA form:

"Olympic Games." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. <http://search.eb.com/

bol/topic?eu=115022&sctn=1>. [Accessed 13 April 2000].

MLA adaptation:

"Olympic Games." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Vers.99.1. April 1999.

Encyclopedia Britannica. 13 Apr 2000

<http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=115022&sctn=1>.
4.World wide web sites:
There are many different kinds of web sites, so it is impossible to give just one set of precise instructions for citation format. Remember the purpose of citation is to credit the author and publisher of the original work and to enable your readers to consult the same sources you did. At minimum, your citation should begin with the site title (for a professional or personal site with no title, use a description such as "Home Page"), and end with the date you accessed the information and the URL in angle brackets. Other information to include in the citation if available: the name of the author or editor; date of electronic publication or latest update; the name of the institution or organization associated with the site.

Examples:

Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue

University 15 Nov. 2000 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7felluga/theroy2.html

Lincoln-Log!. 2003. 1 Jan. 2003 <http://www.lincoln-log.com/graham.htm


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Webpage revised on 08/09/2007

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