Research Guides

MLA Style Guide

The purpose of placing references in the text of a paper is to briefly identify sources for readers and enable them to locate the source of the cited information in the works cited list. The references should be kept as brief as possible.

• Provide the author's last name and a page reference.
• In text citations are the same for print or electronic sources. However, electronic sources often have no page numbers. If there are none, you do not need to give a page number. If a source includes page numbers or section numbering, e.g. paragraph numbers, cite them instead.
• If you mention the author's name in the reference, there is no need to mention it again in the in-text citation.

Books

All references should be double-spaced; if an entry runs more than one line, indent the subsequent line(s) one-half inch. Examples are single-spaced to save space. The MLA guide uses underlining instead of italics for titles in order to remain consistent with the examples given in the MLA Handbook, 5^th ed. However, MLA, 5^th ed. does note (p. 65) that you may use italics rather than underlining when typing titles but suggests that you check with your professor to determine their preference. NOTE: alphabetize works cited by title, ignoring the articles A, An, and The. Please see the MLA Handbook (found in Reference LB 2369 .G53 1999) for in-text citation guidelines.

The general format is: Author's name. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year.

A Book by a Single Author
Example:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writer's of Research Papers. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1999.

Two or More Books by the Same Author(s)
State the name in the first entry only. For subsequent entries, type three hyphens instead of the name.
Example:
Grisham, John. The Firm. New York: Doubleday, 1991.
---. The Runaway Jury. New York: Doubleday, 1996.

A Book by Two or Three Authors
Cite author names in the order in which they appear in the book. Separate the names with commas. Reverse the order of only the first author's name.
Example:
Huba, Mary E., and Jann E. Freed. Learner-Centered Assessment on College Campuses: Shifting the Focus from Teaching to Learning. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

A Book by Four or More Authors
Either list all the names or use only the first author's name followed by "et al".
Example:
Bellah, Robert N., et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.

A Book by a Corporate Author
Example:
American Medical Association. The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine.
New York: Random, 1989.

An Edited Book or Anthology
Editor's name, ed. Title. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.
Example:
Norton, Mary Beth, ed. Major Problems in American Women's History: Documents and Essays.
Lexington, MA: Heath, 1989.

An Article from an Edited Book or Anthology
Article author. Article title. Book title. Ed. Editor's name. Place of publication. Year of publication, inclusive page numbers of the piece.
Example:
Gish, Nancy K. Adoption, Identity, and Voice. Imagining Adoption: Essays on Literature and Culture. Ed. Marianne Novy. U of Michigan P. 2001. 171-191.

An Article from an Encyclopedia
Example:
"Multiculturalism." Columbia Encyclopedia. 5^th ed. 1993.

A Multivolume Reference Book
If you refer to only one volume of a work, limit the information in the entry to only that work.
Example:
Richardson, John. A Life of Picasso. Vol. 1. New York: Random House, 1991.
If you refer to more than one volume of a multivolume work, indicate the number of volumes after the title.
Example:
Barr, Avon, and Edward A. Feigenbaum. The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. 4 vols.
Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1981-86.

Videos
List the title, director, and performers. End with the name of the distributor and the year of distribution. All this information should be found on the box or in the opening or closing credits of the video.
Example: The Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, and Robert Duvall. Paramount, 1997.

Periodicals - Print

Scholarly Journals
For journals with continuous pagination throughout a volume (for example, the first issue ends with page 230 and issue two begins with page 231), give the volume and year, as follows: Author's name. "Article title." Journal title Volume number (Year): inclusive page numbers.
Example:
Hendrix, Lewellyn. "Gender Equality in Marriage: A Cross Cultural View."
Cross Cultural Research 31 (1997): 201-25.
For journals in which each issue in a volume begins with page 1, include the issue number after the volume number, separated by a period. In the following example, the journal was volume 56, issue 2.
Example:
Bell, John. "Puppets and Performing Objects in the Twentieth Century." Performing Arts Journal
56.2 (1997): 29-46.

Magazine Articles
For a magazine published every week or biweekly, give the complete date (day, month, and year, in that order, with no comma between them). For a monthly or bimonthly magazine, give only the month and year. Do not give volume or issue numbers.
Example:
Poniatowska, Elena. "No More Fiesta of Bullets." Nation 28 July 1997: 23-24.

Newspaper Articles
Indicate the section of the newspaper if the paper is divided into sections. See example below from section A of a New York Times article.
Example:
Kolata, Gina. "Johns Hopkins Death Brings Halt to U.S. Financed Human Studies."
New York Times 20 July 2001: A1.

Electronic Sources

Articles from a Database (e.g. ProQuest, Faulkner's, or Moody's)
Author's last name, first name. "Title of article". Journal title Date of publication: Page range or
number of paragraphs. Database. Name of institution. The date that you accessed the article. The URL of the database.
Example:
Gleick, Peter H. "Making Every Drop Count." Scientific American February 2001: 29. ProQuest
DeVry Library, Long Island City, NY. 23 July 2001 http://proquest.umi.com/pdqweb.

Books from a Database (e.g., NetLibrary)
Author's last name, first name. Title of book. Place of Publication: Publisher, date.
Date you accessed the e-book. The URL of the database.
Example:
Chalk, Rosemary A., & King, Patricia. Violence in Families: Assessing Prevention and Treatment Programs. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 1998. 29 March 2004 NetLibrary http://www.netlibrary.com/

Articles from an Online Encyclopedia (e.g. Britannica Online)
Example:
"Leonardo da Vinci". Encyclopedia Britannica Online 17 July 2001 http://www.eb.com:180/.

Articles from the Internet
Scholarly Journals on The Internet
The same as a scholarly journal in print, except that at the end you give the URL (website address where the article is located). Note: The date of publication should be in parentheses.
Example:
Wright, Robert E. "Women and Finance in the Early National U.S." Essays in History 42.
(May 15, 2000): 48. 17 July 2001 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/journals/EH/EH42/Wright42.html.

Magazines on the Internet
Similar to scholarly journals. NOTE: date of publication has no parentheses and is written in full.
Example:
Barra, Allen. "Random Thoughts on the Olympics". Salon 30 Sept. 2000. 17 July 2001
http://www.salon.com/news/sports/olympics/2000/09/30/thoughts/index.html.

Newspapers on the Internet
Author's name. "Title of article."Title of Newspaper.Date of publication.Date of access URL of the web site.
Example:
Kelley, Jack. "Power Isn't Easy to Share with Guns at Ready." USA Today. 27 November 2000.
27 November 2001. http://www.usatoday.com/news/attack/2001/11/27/jalalabad.htm.

Web Sites
Professional/Corporate Web Sites
Page Title. Date of Publication in dd/mm/yyyy format. Name of Organization. Date of Access in the dd/mm/yy format
Example:
MLA on the Web. 25 November 1997. Modern Language Association of America. 25 Mar. 1998 http://www.mla.org/.

Personal Web Site
Authors last name, firstname. Page Title. Date of Access in the dd/mm/yy format
Example:
Smith, John. Home Page. 1 May 1997 www.nj.devry.edu/johnsmith.html.

How to Compile a Works Cited List
A works cited list appears at the end of a paper on a separate page. The pages should be numbered. The heading, "Works Cited," should be centered at the top of the page. The main parts of each entry should be separated with a period followed by one space. Double-space the lines between each citation.

Entries in the "Works Cited" list are arranged in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Sources without authors are arranged alphabetically by title within the same list. The first line of an entry is flush with the left margin, and all subsequent lines for the entry are indented 5 spaces to form a "hanging indent."

NoodleBib: An Online Tool for Creating MLA Source Lists
NoodleBib is an online tool that simplifies the process of creating and editing MLA and APA-style source lists. Visit the Noodle Tools web site at http://www.noodletools.com/ for free access to NoodleBib Starter.