MLA citations are similar to Chicago citations but they follow different conventions. MLA citations do not use footnotes or endnotes, but instead list the author and page number in in-text, or parenthetical citations, and then a corresponding Works Cited page for the full reference. For in-text citations, the author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in parentheses at the end of the sentence.
- At the end of the day, Wilbur made “in excess of half a million dollars” (Marx 43).
If you use the name of the author to set up your quote or paraphrase, you mention the author’s name in the sentence and then put the page number only in the parentheses at the end of the sentence.
- According to Marx, Wilbur made “in excess of half a million dollars” (43).
If you need to cite more than one source in your in-text citation, you should use a semicolon to separate the sources.
- (Jones 101; Williams 23).
It’s important to remember that in MLA style, each citation in your text must have a complete bibliographic entry in your Works Cited page, so, if readers want to go to the original source, they can.
MLA Works Cited
Figure 1. You use two containers if the source you are using is part of a larger source, such as a poem within an anthology, a series within a T.V. show, or a journal within a database.
Instead of offering a specific way to format each and every source time, to cite bibliographic information in MLA, use “containers” to include all the needed information. These containers, pictured in Figure 1, provide you with the required elements, order, and punctuation for each of your works cited entries.
As you work to format your works cited entries, you will notice that many sources require only one container. These are sources that you access directly from their original publication, such as books, an online magazine article, and general websites. You should follow the order of items listed in the container, following the simplified punctuation rules you see in the container as well. You will place a period after the author and the title of the source. Then, you should place commas after each item until the end of the entry.
Below the first container, the second container provides publication information for where you retrieved that information. For example, a journal article you access through your library’s databases will have its original publication information (container 1) and access information from the online database (container 2).
Focus on the Core Elements
Regardless of the source type, for the references page, you are asked to locate the same “core elements” from your sources and place them in a standard order in order to create citations. These core elements are explained in detail below. Note that you do not need to memorize every step of this process, but should take this opportunity to understand how citations are created. (You will likely use some kind of citation generator to do this work for you, but you will need a general familiarity so that you can know what information to plug into that citation generator and so that you can understand how to double-check the citation generator’s inevitable mistakes.) You can always use the MLA handbook, the MLA Style Center, or to other online resources to help you create the citations you need for your paper.
MLA Citation Examples
The basic guidelines for many types of MLA citations are listed below. To see more, visit MLA Citations on the Excelsior OWL website, Purdue OWL website, or in this citation guide from Santa Fe College.
Print Books with a Single Author
- If you are accessing a print book, then you will need just one container for publication information.
- Minot, Stephen. Three Genres. Pearson, 2003.
Books with Multiple Authors
- If you are accessing a print book, then you will need just one container for publication information.
- Two Authors
- Sennett, Richard, and Jonathan Cobb. The Hidden Injuries of Class. Vintage Books, 1973.
- More Than Two Authors: For more than two authors: list only the first author followed by the phrase “et al.” (Latin abbreviation for “and others”; no period after “et”) in place of the other authors’ names.
- Smith, John, et al. Writing and Erasing: New Theories for Pencils. Utah State UP, 2001.
Print Magazine Articles
- If you are accessing a print magazine article, then you will need just one container for publication information.
- Gallivan, Joseph. “Against the Odds.” Oregon Humanities, Summer 2008, pp. 16-24.
Online Magazine Articles
- If you are accessing a magazine article directly from the web, you will most likely need just one container to present publication information.
- Bilger, Burkhard. “The Height Gap.” The New Yorker, 5 Apr. 2004, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/04/05/the-height-gap.
Online Journal Articles
- If you are accessing a journal article directly from the journal’s website, you will most likely need just one container to present publication information. Note that MLA now requires full URLs for online material. However, if your article includes a DOI (digital object identifier), that information should be provided instead of the URL.
- Collins, Ross. “Writing and Desire: Synthesizing Rhetorical Theories of Genre and Lacanian Theories of the Unconscious.” Composition Forum, vol. 33, Spring 2016, compositionforum.com/issue/33/writing-desire.php.
- Cho, Helen, Sam D. Stout, and Thomas A. Bishop. 2006 Cortical Bone Remodeling Rates in a Sample of African American and European American Descent Groups from the American Midwest: Comparisons of Age and Sex in Ribs. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 130(2):214-226. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.20312.
Article from a Database
- If you are accessing a journal article from a database, you will need two containers to present the original publication information as well as the access information from the database.
- Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.
Online Newspaper
- If you are accessing a newspaper article directly from the web, you will most likely need just one container to present publication information. Reviews and letters to the editor should be presented in a similar manner.
- St. Fleur, Nicholas. “City Bees Stick to a Flower Diet Rather Than Slurp Up Soda.” The New York Times, 19 May 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/05/21/science/urban-bees-diet-flowers-soda.html.
Websites
- Websites that contain articles, postings, and almost anything else have been simplified in the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook. Just one container is needed for most websites.
- Hollmichel, Stephanie. “The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print.” So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/.