MLA Guidelines The purpose of this list is to provide the student guidelines to perform the following tasks: Provide a Works Cited list at the end of the document Refer to works cited in the body of the document Format for Works Cited List The Works Cited list is included at the end of the research document. It is alphabetized by the author s last name. The second line of an entry is indented five spaces or 0.5 inch. Double space the list. Books Possible components of a book entry are listed below in the order in which they are normally arranged: (Essential elements are listed in bold.) Author s name (Last name first) Title of a part of a book Title of the book Name of the editor, translator, or compiler Edition used Number(s) of the volume(s) used Name of the series Place of publication Name of the publisher Date of publication Page numbers Supplementary bibliographic information and annotation Book by a Single Author Lannon, John. M. Technical Communication. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2003. Book by Two Authors If there is more than one author, list the names of the authors in the order they are listed on the title page of the book. Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant. The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon, 1965. MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, 2003 Page 1
Book by Multiple Authors If there are more than three authors, list only the name of the first author and add et al. ( and others ), or you can give the names in full as they appear on the title page. Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985. Volume in a Multi-Volume Work Durant, Will, and Ariel Durant. The Age of Voltaire. New York: Simon, 1965. Vol. 9 of The Story of Civilization. 11 vols. 1935-1975. Work in an Anthology Baldwin, James. Sonny s Blues. Making Literature Matter. 2 nd ed. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin s, 2003. 404-36. Periodicals MLA provides the following guidelines for providing detailed entries for journals and periodicals on the Works Cited page. Newspaper or Magazine Article Possible components of a newspaper or magazine entry are listed below in the order in which they are normally arranged: (Essential elements are listed in bold.) Author s name Title of the article Title of periodical Date of publication Inclusive page numbers of the article Example: Shah, Angela. Benefits of Toyota plant may ripple across Texas. Dallas Morning News. 6 Feb. 2003. D1, D120. MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 2
Article in a Scholarly Journal Possible components of a scholarly entry are listed below in the order in which they are normally arranged: Author s name Title of the article Title of the journal Volume number Year of publication Inclusive page numbers of the article (page where article starts and page where it ends) Example: Carliner, Saul. Choices and Challenges: Considerations for Designing Electronic Performance Support Systems. Technical Communications 59 (2002): 411-417. Note: Note the punctuation in the example above. Also, if pages in the volume are numbered sequentially for the entire volume, it is not necessary to indicate the number (if there is one) for an individual issue. With sequential numbering, it is also not necessary to indicate the month of publication. Electronic Resources Components of an electronic resource entry are listed below in the order in which they are normally arranged: (Essential elements are listed in bold.) Author s name Title of the document Title of scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional or personal site Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database Date of electronic publication or last update Name of the institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the site Date when you accessed the source Network address or URL Professional Site Portuguese Language Page. U of Chicago. 1 May 1997 <http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/port/>. Personal Site Lancashire, Ian. Home page. 1 May 1997 <http:// www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~ian/index.html>. MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 3
Online Encyclopedia "Tan, Amy." Encyclopædia Britannica 2003. Encyclopædia Britannica Premium Service. 07 Feb. 2003 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=102149>. Article in a Reference Database "Fresco." Britannica Online. Vers. 97.1.1. Mar. 1997. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 29 Mar. 1997 <http://www.eb.com:180>. Article in a Journal Flannagan, Roy. "Reflections on Milton and Ariosto." Early Modern Literary Studies 2.3 (1996): 16 pars. 22 Feb. 1997 <http://unixg.ubc.ca:7001/o/e-sources/emls/02-3/flanmilt.html>. Article in a Magazine Landsburg, Steven E. "Who Shall Inherit the Earth?" Slate 1 May 1997. 2 May 1997 <http://www.slate.com/economics/97-05-01/economics.asp>. Work from a Subscription Service Koretz, Gene. "Economic Trends: Uh-Oh, Warm Water." Business Week 21 July 1997: 22. Electric Lib. Sam Barlow High School Lib., Gresham, OR. 17 Oct. 1997 The Bible <http://www.elibrary.com/>. When citing a standard version of the Bible (first example), it is not necessary to underline the title or name of the version or to include publication information. For an edition of the Bible, underline the title and give its publication information. Examples The Bible. King James Version. The New English Bible. London: Oxford UP and Campbridge UP, 1970. Interview If you do any primary research, personal interviews are documented as follows: Porter, Para Beatrice Wright. Personal Interview. 26 Apr. 1989. MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 4
Referencing Sources in the Body of the Document When you quote from a source or use information from that source, such as ideas or statistics, you need to introduce the source in the text of your document. You also need to tell where in that source you got that information. See the examples below: Citing Sources in the Text Cite on the First Reference The first time you reference a work, indicate the name of the author and the work you are citing in the text of your research document. If the author s name is provided in the text, it is only necessary to include the page number from which you got the information in parentheses. Remember, the full information is included in the Works Cited page at the end of the document. Notice that since the author s name or sufficient information to identify the resource is included in the text reference, the page number is all you need to include in parentheses to cite the work. Also note the punctuation. The period for the quote goes outside the page number reference. Example from Text of thedocument: In Mark Twain: God s Fool, Hamlin Hill does not seem to value the fantasies and dream worlds Twain created during this period. Hill writes, In general, it was a summer s work for which the impressive quantity of manuscript was the only justification (113). Indicating the Author in Parentheses If you do not indicate the author or title of the source in the introductory text, source information is included in parenthesis. Include the author's last name along with the page number. See the example below. Note: The full information about the source must be included on the "Works Cited" page at the end of the document. Example from Document: Most states do not keep adequate records on the number of times cell phones are a factor in accidents; as of December 2000, only ten states were trying to keep such records (Sundeen 2). Lines of Poetry If you are only referring to one or two lines of poetry, you may put it in quotation marks in the body of your text and use a slash to separate lines. Use a space on each side of the slash. See the example that follows: MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 5
Example from Document: In Flowers by the Sea, William Carlos Williams refers to the shape / perhaps of restlessness. (5-6) Matching Works Cited Entry: Notice the Works Cited entry, repeated as an example below, already includes the page number on which this particular poem is located. Williams, William Carlos. Flowers by the Sea. Selected Poems. New York: New Directions, 1962. 63. Two Authors If your source has two or three authors, name them in the text, as in the first example, or include their last names in the parenthetical reference: (Redelmeier and Tibshirani 453). Examples from Document Redelmeier and Tibshirani found that "the risk of a collision when using a cellular telephone was four times higher than the risk when a cellular telephone was not being used" (453). Three Authors When three authors are named in the parentheses, separate the names with commas: (Alton, Davies, and Rice 56). Or When three authors are named in the parentheses, separate the names with commas: (Alton et al. 56). Four or More Authors If your source has four or more authors, include only the first author's last name followed by "et al." (Latin for "and others"). Make sure that your parenthetical citation matches the way you handle the entry in the list of works cited. Example from Document The study was extended for two years, and only after an independent panel reviewed the results did the researchers publish their findings (Blaine et al. 35). MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 6
Detailed MLA Guidelines for Electronic Resources Sources on the World Wide Web that students and scholars use in their research include scholarly projects, reference databases, the texts of books, articles in periodicals, and professional and personal sites. Entries in a works-cited list for such sources contain as many items from the list below as are relevant and available. Following this list are sample entries for some common kinds of Web sources. Name of the author, editor, compiler, or translator of the source (if available and relevant), reversed for alphabetizing and followed by an abbreviation, such as ed., if appropriate Title of a poem, short story, article, or similar short work within a scholarly project, database, or periodical (in quotation marks); or title of a posting to a discussion list or forum (taken from the subject line and put in quotation marks), followed by the description Online posting Title of a book (underlined [Should I use underlining or italics?]) Name of the editor, compiler, or translator of the text (if relevant and if not cited earlier), preceded by the appropriate abbreviation, such as Ed. Publication information for any print version of the source Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional or personal site (underlined [Should I use underlining or italics?]); or, for a professional or personal site with no title, a description such as Home page Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database (if available) Version number of the source (if not part of the title) or, for a journal, the volume number, issue number, or other identifying number Date of electronic publication, of the latest update, or of posting For a work from a subscription service, the name of the service and--if a library is the subscriber--the name and city (and state abbreviation, if necessary) of the library For a posting to a discussion list or forum, the name of the list or forum The number range or total number of pages, paragraphs, or other sections, if they are numbered Name of any institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the Web site Date when the researcher accessed the source Electronic address, or URL, of the source (in angle brackets); or, for a subscription service, the URL of the service's main page (if known) or the keyword assigned by the service MLA Guidelines Drue Parker, Spring 2003 Page 7