MLA Style--A Brief Guide

 

This handout is designed to be a quick reference guide to the MLA style of documenting sources in papers. Your "Works Cited" section should appear at the end of your paper and the works are to be arranged alphabetically by author (or title, if no author appears in the entry.) In this section you should list only works actually cited. For further information about types of entries not listed here, consult Joseph Gibaldi's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th edition, which is available at the circulation desk. You can access the full guide at: http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/.

 

Basic Guidelines:

 

  • If no author is given, start the citation with the title.
  • Titles of major works should be in italics, not underlined.
  • Abbreviate the names of all months except May, June and July.
  • Indent the second line and all other lines 5 spaces.
  • Double space.

 

This information is adapted from the Springfield High School Township web site and is printed with permission of the author, Joyce Valenza. You can access the full guide here: http://mciu.org/~spjvweb/.

Print Sources:

 

Format for the "WORKS CITED" section:

 

Author (Last name, First name). Title.  City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

 

Examples:

 

A Book by One Author

 

English, Carol. The Cliffs Won't Do: Read the Book. Philadelphia: McGraw Hill, 1997.

 

Two or More Books by the Same Author

 

Small, Chris. Please, Help Me Carry My Keys! Topeka: Rand, 1993.

 

- - -. Don't Measure a Chemist by Her Size. New York: Feminist, 1993.

 

A Book by Two or Three Authors

 

Drucker, Darla and Amy Jones. Your Wedding. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.

 

A Book with a Corporate Author

 

Springfield Township Home Economics Department. Cooking with Spice. New York: Scribners, 1993.

 

A Book with an Editor

 

Valenza, Joyce ed. Bagels and Books: An Anthology. Brooklyn, NY: Random House, 1991.

 

A Work in an Anthology

 

Smith, James. "The Physics of Sushi." The Fabulous Physics Paper. Ed. Samuel Klein. Rome:

 

     Cambridge, UP, 1854. 46- 59.

 

A Signed Article in a Reference Book

 

Copaset, Sandra. "Zen and the Art of Wearing Blue and Khaki." Encyclopedia Americana. 1996 ed.

 

An Unsigned Article in a Reference Book

 

"Best Beards of All Time." Encyclopedia of Anatomy and Hair. 15th ed. 1993.

 

An Article in a Journal with Continuous Pagination

 

Skater, Andrew. "Rollerblading on a Secondary Level." Secondary Education 54(1990): 113-25.

 

An Article from a Monthly or Bi-Monthly Periodical

 

Ramsey, Pamela. "Where's My Smiley Face?" MacWorld Sept. 1997: 86-94.

 

An Article from a Weekly or Biweekly Periodical

 

Henry, Mary Ann. "Announcing Bus Changes With Flair." Time 4 July 1991: 17-76.

 

A Signed Article from a Daily Newspaper

 

Goldberg, Grace. "The Inside Track: Alumni Life." Trojan Times 10 Oct. 1991: 17.

 

An Unsigned Article from a Daily Newspaper

 

"Striking a Pose with Sally Miles." New York Times 15 Oct. 1997, late ed. sec.: 35+.

 

Films; Radio and Television Programs

 

"Starring the Other Peggy Lee." Slightly Off Broadway. Prod. Sheldon Wang. PBS. WNET, New York. 6

 

      Aug. 1995.  

 

Personal or Telephone Interview

 

Craig, John. Personal interview. 23 Sept. 1994.

 

Personal photograph

 

(Begin with a description of the photo. Do not use italics or quotation marks. Indicate who took the photo and the date it was taken.)

 

Grandpa Al at Home. Personal photograph by Susan Student. 28 May 2003.

 

Electronic Sources

 

Uniform standards are being developed to address the changes in information. Sites devoted to cybercitation issues are popping up all over the Web. These sites vary in their interpretation of how MLA applies to online sources, but the patterns in each example are similar. What is most important in documenting electronic resources, is to give the reader as much essential information as possible (e.g. author, title, publication data) to identify the source you are citing.

 

World Wide Web (General Web site):

 

Format:

 

Author (if known). “Title of Page or Document.” Title of Site or Larger Work (if applicable).  Date of electronic publication, last update, or date of posting.

 

     Name of any Associated Institution. Date of download <http://address/filename>.

 

Examples:

 

Cassutto, George. “Social Studies and the World Wide Web.” 8 June 1996. Hagerstown High School. 3 Oct.1997

 

     <http://www.fred.net/nhhs/html3/article3.htm>.

 

Smith, George. “Graf Has Look of a Champion.” ESPNET SportsZone. 29 Aug. 1996

 

     <http://www.espn.com/gen/top/0108716001.html>.

 

Article in an online magazine or newspaper (not accessed through a subscription service like Proquest)

 

Format:

 

Author of article. Title of article. Title of Magazine Date of electronic publication. Date of access <http://address/filename>.

 

Example:

 

Smith, Jane. "Who Really Invented the Internet?" Web Weekly 26 Feb 2001. 4 May 2001

 

     <http://webweekly.com/smithwho/>.

Article in an online encyclopedia:

 

Format:

 

Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Reference Work. Edition or version (if available).  Date of electronic

   

      publication. Title of the Database or Online Service.  Date of access < http://address/filename>.

 

Example:

 

Cook, Sarah Gibbard. “Berlin, Germany.” Encyclopedia Americana Online. Mar. 1997. Grolier Online. 29

   

      Feb. 1999  <http://grolier.go.com>.

 

Journal material accessed from a subscription service (Proquest, elibrary, InfoTrac, etc.):

 

Format:

 

Author. “Article Title.” Periodical Title Date of print publication (if available): pages. Database Name (if any). Publisher (if

 

     appropriate). Date of access <http://address/filename>.

 

Examples:

 

Brown, Susan. “Writing the Perfect Paper.” High School Weekly 12 Sept. 1996: 22. eLibrary. 25 Nov. 1996

 

     <http://ehostweb14.epnet.com/>.

 

Citing works within your text:

To document your sources, cite the author's name and the page number of the source in parentheses at the end of the sentence, before the final period:

 

Lowfat cream cheese can save you 300 grams of fat per year (Valenza 35).

 

If the author's name is used in your sentence you may just refer to page numbers:

 

Copaset argues that "yellow simply does not interact well with khaki" (45).

 

If you are referring to the whole work rather than a specific section, you may omit any reference in parentheses:

 

Berger's main thesis is that by using motifs, organic unity is easier to achieve.

 

 

Citing Electronic Sources within your text:

 

If there is an author and page number, follow the same rules as above.

 

If there is no page number, use the abbreviation of "paragraph" or "section": (Smith, par. 1). Or ("Little Rock," sec. 1).

 

If there is no known author, use either the complete title or a short form of the title:

 

(Little Rock Central Home Page," sec.2). Or ("Little Rock," sec.2).

 

 

 

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Notes: (Your Teacher's Requirements)