MLA STYLE GUIDE
Note: All citations should be double-spaced. They are single spaced on this handout to save space. The guide uses underlining instead of italics for titles in order to remain consistant with the examples given in the MLA Handbook, 5th ed. However, MLA, 5th ed, does note (p. 65) that you may use italics rather than underlining when typing titles but suggests that you check with your instructor to determine their preference.
Book by a Single Author/Editor
Kasson, John F. Civilizing the Machine: Technology and Republican
Values in America
Book by Multiple Authors/Editors
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and John Ehrenreich, eds. The American Health
Empire: Power, Profits,
Grossberg, Lawrence, Cary Nelson, and Paula A. Treichler, eds. Cultural Studies. New York:
Hall, Stuart, et al. Policing the Crisis. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1979
If, instead of authors, the names of editors, translators or compilers appear on the title pages, then their name(s) should be listed. A comma should come after the name(s) and the proper abbreviation (eds., trans., or comps.) should follow the comma. If MORE THAN three persons authored/edited the book, only the first name (reversed) should appear, followed by a comma and "et al."
Corporate Authorship
Alan Guttmacher Institute. State Legislative Record: 1988 Fertility-
Related Bills and Laws as of
A corporate author can be a commission, association, committee, etc. If the corporate author and the publisher are the same, the corporate author's name should still appear in the author position of a bibliographic entry as well as in the publisher position.
Edited Collections - no author given
Fee, Elizabeth, and Daniel M. Fox, eds. AIDS: The Burdens of History.
Anthologies/Book Parts/Translations
If you refer to an article within an edited collection (book chapter,
short stories, introduction, etc.) then the bibliographic entry should
begin with the author of the referenced text. The name(s) of the editor(s),
compiler(s), translator(s) in first name/last name order should follow
the title of the publication preceded by "Ed." "Trans." "Comp". Note:
Page numbers of the article are included at the end of the citation.
Zola, Irving Kenneth. "Medicine as an Institution of Social Control." The American Health Empire:
Constantine, Macaroni. Pasta Luega. Trans. George Elbow. Ed. Milo Linguini.
If you mainly reference the specific comments and work of the translator, then the translator's name (reversed) should appear first, followed by a comma, "trans.", and a period. The author's name (in normal order), preceded by "By", should appear after the text's title.
Nice, Richard, trans. Outline of a Theory of Practice. By Pierre Bourdieu. Ed. Billy Bob
Book in a Series
Shilstone, Frederick W. Approaches to Teaching Byron's Poetry.
Approaches
Multivolume Works
Make reference to specific volumes and page numbers within the text
of your paper. When using only one volume in a multivolume work, insert
the number of the volume you are using between the title and the publication
information for that volume.
Lucas, Robert E., Jr. and Thomas J. Sargent, eds. Rational Expectations and Econometric
You may also add the total number of volumes at the end of the entry. If the volume has a different title from the entire work, your citation will appear as follows:
Arendt, Hannah. Imperialism. London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968.
Encyclopedia Articles (article unsigned and signed)
"Mealworm." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1987 ed.
Garvey, Lawrence. "El Paso, Illinois." Encyclopedia Americana. 1982 ed.
Government Publications
The typical citation for a government document begins with the author.
If no author is given, begin by identifying the government (United States,
Mississippi, Mexico, etc.) and the agency that issued the document. Include
the title of the publication, place, publisher and date.
New York State. Commission on the Adirondacks in the Twenty-First Century. The Adirondack
For congressional documents, include number and session of Congress and the type and number of the publication before the publishing information.
United States. Congressional Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl
For Congressional Records, include only the date and page numbers.
Cong. Record. 8 January 1988: 2890-2899.
Conference Proceedings
Conference proceedings are cited the same way as a book with the addition
of all pertinent conference information.
Gavin, McCloud, ed. Restoring Sunken Vessels. Proc. of the Maritime and Shipping Industry's
Presentations in proceedings are treated like works in a collection.
Mann, Humphrey. "Hemingway Reassessed." The Great American Writers: Proceedings of the
ERIC Document - Materials Accessed Through a Computer Service
Include the following information: Author name (if given); publication
information; title of the database (underlined); publication medium (Online);
name of the computer service (EbscoHost, Silverplatter, etc.); date of
access.
Guidelines for Family Television Viewing. Urbana: ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early
Footnotes or Endnotes in a Works Cited Page
Do not list the indirect source (the text listed in the endnote or
footnote) in your bibliography. Only mention the actual source in which
you found the information.
Harris, James. Scientists of Our Century. New York: Bantam, 1992.
Second Work by Same Author
If an author or authors have their names on more than one text, check
to see if the authorship of both texts is identical. If, and only if, the
authors are in fact identical, then the listing for the second entry should
be replaced with three hyphens and a period.
Hall, Stuart. "Cold, Comfort, Farm." New Socialist Nov. 1985:
10-12.
---. "Thatcherism: A New Stage?" Marxism Today Feb. 1980: 22-27.
Hall, Stuart. et al. Policing the Crisis. Basingstoke: Macmillan,
1979
No Author Identified
If no author can be identified, then a text is alphabetized by the
first word of its title, excluding definite or indefinite articles (note
that "The Shepherd's Consort" precedes Tesh, Sylvia Noble).
"The Shepherd's Consort." The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed.
Journal with Continuous Pagination (page numbers continue from one
issue to the next)
Note that with this type of journal, issue numbers are not necessary
and the year is sufficient for the date.
Gardner, Eric. "'This Attempt of Their Sister': Harriet Wilson's Our Nig from Printer to Readers."
Journal with Non-Continuous Pagination (each issue has separate page
numbering)
Note here that the volume number (26) is followed by a period and then
by the issue number (3); note also that the date is more specific than
simply the year.
Magistrale, Tony. "Wild Child: Jim Morrison's Poetic Journeys." Journal of Popular Culture 26.3
Article in a Weekly Periodical
Note that volume numbers are not listed for magazines. Periodical titles
should be underlined.
Whitaker, Mark. "Getting Tough at Last." Newsweek 10 May 1993: 22.
Interviews
Nelson, Cary. Personal interview. 15 Sept. 1987.
Villalobos, Joaquin. Interview. Mother Jones July 1992: 8-10.
Rico, Jose. Interview. Afternoon Edition. WILL Public Radio.
Films and Videotapes
Begin with the title, which should be underlined, followed by the director's
name. Then, include any additional information that you find relevant,
such as the names of lead actors. End with the distributor and year, separated
by a comma.
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree. Dir. Al Smith. With Winnie the
Recordings
With commercial recordings, begin with the name of the contributor
being cited. Then cite the title, the artist(s), the manufacturer, the
catalog number, and the year of release. When using a medium other than
a record, state the medium (eg. CD), immediately after the title. Underline
the title of the record but as in musical compositions, do not underline
titles identified by form, number, and key only. If necessary, state at
the end of the entry, any relevant characteristics of the recording and
whether the recording is no longer available. Cite spoken, non-musical
recordings the same way. When citing jacket notes or any text accompanying
a recording, state (in the following order), the author's name,the title
of the material and a description of the ma terial (e.g. jacket notes)
followed by the normal bibliography information mentioned above.
Lloyd Webber, Andrew. Phantom of the Opera. With Michael Crawford.
Computer Software
Writer of the program (if known), an underlined title of the program,
the version of the program, a descriptive label, the distributor and the
year of publication. At the end of the entry, add relevant information
such as the operating system the program needs, number of kilobytes and
form of the program. The medium can be, but is not limited to the following:
online, CD-ROM, floppy disk, magnetic tapes. Pagination in electronic references
is unavailable in many cases, thus left out of the citation.
Chen, Roger. Visdata. Vers. 1.1. Computer software. Viscal, 1986.
Computer or Internet Resources
Almost all of the following is taken directly from the MLA Style
website. Entries in a works-cited list for computer or Internet resources
contain as many items from the list below as are relevant and available.
1. 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
2. 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
3. Title of a book (underlined)
4. 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.
5. Publication information for any print version of the source
6. Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional
or personal site (underlined); or, for a professional or personal site
with no title, a description such as Home page
7. Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database (if available)
8. Version number of the source (if not part of the title) or, for
a journal, the volume number, issue number, or other identifying number
9. Date of electronic publication, of the latest update, or of posting
10. 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
11. For a posting to a discussion list or forum, the name of the list
or forum
12. The number range or total number of pages, paragraphs, or other
sections, if they are numbered
13. Name of any institution or organization sponsoring or associated
with the Web site
14. Date when the researcher accessed the source
15. 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
Scholarly Project
Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Apr. 1997.
Indiana U. 26 Apr. 1997
Professional Site
Portuguese Language Page. U of Chicago. 1 May 1997
Personal Site
Lancashire, Ian. Home page. 1 May 1997 (http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~ian/index.html).
Book
Nesbit, E[dith]. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908.
Victorian
Women Writers
Poem
Nesbit, E[dith]. "Marching Song." Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism.
London,
1908.
Article in a Reference Database
"Fresco." Britannica Online. Vers. 97.1.1. Mar. 1997. Encyclopaedia
Britannica. 29 Mar. 1997
Article in a Journal
Flannagan, Roy. "Reflections on Milton and Ariosto." Early Modern
Literary Studies 2.3 (1996):
Article in a Magazine
Landsburg, Steven E. "Who Shall Inherit the Earth?" Slate 1
May 1997. 2 May 1997
Article from a Subscription Service (i.e. EbscoHost, Lexis-Nexis, etc.) Note: If a library is the subscriber, include the library name, city and state.
Wildstrom, Stephen H. "A Big Boost for Net Privacy." Business Week Apr. 5, 1999: 23.
"Table Tennis." Compton's Encyclopedia Online. Vers. 2.0. 1997. America Online. 4 July 1998.
Fullilove v. Klutznick. 448 U.S. 448.448-554. No. 78-1007. US Supreme Court. 1980. Online.
Posting to a Discussion List
Merrian, Joanne. "Spinoff: Monsterpiece Theatre." Online posting. 30
Apr. 1994.