Research Guide: MLA Style 2009

This guide is intended as a quick reference to the most common aspects of the MLA style. For more complete information, consult:

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed. (2009) REF LB 2369 G 53 2009
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide from Purdue University:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

General guidelines for the works cited list (source: The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2008. Web. 3 Sept. 2009)

• Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations five spaces so that you create a hanging indent.
• List entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name
• Alphabetize multiple works of the same author by title
• Type three hyphens followed by a period for additional works by the same author
• Separate the author, title, and publication information with a period followed by two spaces. Use a single space after a colon
• Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)
• For every entry, you must determine the Medium of Publication. Most entries will likely be listed as Print or Web sources, but other possibilities may include Film, CD-ROM, or DVD.
• Writers are no longer required to provide URLs for Web entries. However, if your instructor or publisher insists on them, include them in angle brackets after the entry and end with a period. For long URLs, break lines only at slashes.
• If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online database name in italics. You do not need to provide subscription information in addition to the database name.
• List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your Works Cited page as 225-50.

Electronic Sources

Basic components (Source: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/)

• Author and/or editor names (if available)
• Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)
• Title of the Website, project, or book in italics. (Remember that some Print publications have Web publications with slightly different names. They may, for example, include the additional information or otherwise modified information, like domain names [e.g. .com or .net].)
• Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers.
• Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
• Take note of any page numbers (if available).
• Date you accessed the material.
• URL (if required, or for your own personal reference).

• If publishing information is unavailable for entries that require publication information such as publisher (or sponsor) names and publishing dates, MLA requires the use of special abbreviations to indicate that this information is not available. Use n.p. to indicate that neither a publisher nor a sponsor name has been provided. Use n.d. when the Web page does not provide a publication date.
• When an entry requires that you provide a page but no pages are provided in the source (as in the case of an online-only scholarly journal or a work that appears in an online-only anthology), use the abbreviation n. pag.

Examples:

An entire Internet site  

Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 2002. Web. 15 May 2009

An entire online book (MLA Handbook, 188)

Bucke, Richard Maurice. Walt Whitman. Philadelphia, 1883. Google Book Search. Web. 1 May 2009

An online article in a scholarly journal from a library database (MLA Handbook, 190)

Tolson, Nancy. “Making Books Available: The Role of Early Libraries, Librarians, and Booksellers in the Promotion of African American Children’s Literature.” African American Review 32 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR. Web. 1 Oct. 2008.

An online article in a magazine (MLA Handbook, 186)

Levy, Steven. “Great Minds, Great Ideas.” Newsweek. Newsweek, 20 May 2002. Web. 27 May 2009.

Books (MLA Handbook, 136-181)

Order of components (Many entries will omit one or more of these aspects; source: MLA Handbook, 152)

• Author’s name
• Title of a part of the book, for example part of an anthology
• 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, and date of publication
• Medium of publication

Book by a single author (MLA Handbook, 148)

Fukuyama, Francis. Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution. New York: Farrar, 2002. Print.

Two or more books by the same author (MLA Handbook, 133)

Borroff, Marie. Language and the Past: Verbal Artistry in Frost, Stevens, and Moore. Chicago:  U of Chicago P, 1979. Print.

---, trans. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: Norton, 1967. Print.

---, ed. Wallace Stevens: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1963. Print.

A book by two or more authors (MLA Handbook, 154)

Hutcheon, Linda, and Michael Hutcheon. Bodily Charm: Living Opera. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 2000. Print.

A book by more than three authors (MLA Handbook, 155)

Gilman, Sander, et al. Hysteria beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993. Print.

A work in an anthology (MLA Handbook, 157)

More, Hannah. “The Black Slave Trade: A Poem.” British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. Ed. Paula R. Feldman. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997. 472-82. Print.

An article in a reference book (MLA Handbook, 160)

Mohanty, Jitendra M. “Indian Philosophy.” The New Encyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia. 15th ed. 1987. Print.

A multivolume work (MLA Handbook, 160-168)

• If you are citing from two or more volumes, cite the total number of volumes
• If you are citing from only one volume, state the number of the volume that you are using  

Example using two or more volumes

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Oxford Sherlock Holmes. Ed. Owen Dudley Edwards. 9 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

Example citing from only one volume of a multivolume work

Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Oxford Sherlock Holmes. Ed. Owen Dudley Edwards. Vol. 8 New York: Oxford UP, 1993. Print.

Articles

Order of components (Many entries will omit one or more of these aspects; source: MLA Handbook, 136)

• Author’s name
• Title of the article
• Name of the periodical
• Series number or name
• Volume number (for a scholarly journal)
• Issue number (if available, for a scholarly journal)
• Date of publication
• Page numbers
• Medium of publication consulted (Print)
• Supplementary information

Examples:  

Article from a scholarly journal that uses continuous page numbers for an entire volume (MLA Handbook, 140)

White, Sabina, and Andrew Winzelberg. “Laughter and Stress.” Humor 5 (1992): 343-55. Print.

Article from a scholarly journal that pages each issue separately (MLA Handbook, 140)

Albada, Kelly F. “The Public and Private Dialogue about the American Family on Television.” Journal of Communication 50.4 (2000): 79-110. Print.

Article from a magazine published every month or every two months (MLA Handbook, 143)

Fallows, James. “The Early-Decision Racket.” Atlantic Monthly Sept. 2001: 37-52. Print

Article from a magazine published every week or every two weeks (MLA Handbook, 142)

Weintraub, Arlene and Laura Cohen. “A Thousand-Year Plan for Nuclear Waste.” Business Week 6 May 2002: 94-96. Print.

Article from a newspaper (MLA Handbook, 141)

Hennenberger, Melinda. “The Leonardo Cover-up.” New York Times 21 Apr. 2002, late ed., sec. 6: 42+. Print.

A Review (MLA Handbook, 144)

Fassett, Deanna L. Rev. of When Children Don’t Learn: Student Failure and the Culture of Teaching, by Barry M. Franklin. Communication Education 50 (2001): 83-85. Print.

Reference citations in the text of a paper

General Guidelines (MLA Handbook, 213-232)

• References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited.
• Identify the location of the borrowed information as specifically as possible.
• Cite the last name of the author(s) and a page reference
• If an author appears as part of the narrative, only put the page number(s) in parentheses
• If the author’s name is not part of the narrative, put both the last name and the page number(s) in parentheses
• If a work has two or three authors, cite their last names and page number(s)
• If a work has more than three authors, follow the form you have used in the bibliographic entry. Either:
• Cite all the authors and page number(s) or
• Cite the first author followed by “et al.” and page number(s)
• If your list contains more than one author with the same last name, you must add the first initial
• If the work is listed by title, use the title, shortened or in full
• You may omit page numbers when citing complete works
• Place the parenthetical reference where a pause would naturally occur, as near as possible to the material documented.
• The parenthetical reference precedes the punctuation mark that concludes the sentence, clause, or phrase.

Examples (MLA Handbook, 216-232):

Author’s name in text:

Tannen has argued this point (178-85).

Author’s name in reference:

This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).

Authors’ names in text

Others, like Jakobson and Waugh (210-15), hold the opposite point of view.

Authors’ names in reference

Others hold the opposite point of view (e.g., Jakobson and Waugh 210-15)

Citing a work listed by title:

International espionage was as prevalent as ever in the 1990s (“Decade”)

Citing more than one work in a single parenthetical reference

(Fukuyama 42; McRae 101-33)