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Citing References: MLA Style |
| Parenthetical Documentation | Works Cited |
This guide provides select examples of Modern Language Association (MLA) style for citing sources, excerpted from Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998, Ref PN147 .G444 1998, and MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2003, Ref LB2369 .G53 2003, kept at the Reference Desk. See also guidelines on "How do I document sources from the Web in my works-cited list?"
MLA requires a list of Works Cited at the end of a paper and Parenthetical Documentation in the text of the paper, referring to entries on the Works Cited list. Cite only sources to which the paper refers, not every work examined. Entries in the Works Cited list should be arranged alphabetically by principal author's last name or, if the work is anonymous, by its title. Each entry should usually include name(s) of author(s), full title of work, place of publication, publisher, date of publication and, for periodical articles, volume, issue and inclusive page numbers. Bibliographic information should be taken from the source's title page.
Parenthetical Documentation
Where? It precedes the concluding punctuation mark of the sentence, phrase or clause
... Machiavelli contended that human beings were by nature "ungrateful" and "mutable" (1240), and Montaigne thought them "miserable and puny" (1343).
Author's name in text
Tannen has argued this point (178-85).
Author name in reference
This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).
Two or three authors' names in reference
... (Jakobson and Waugh 210-15).
More than three authors' names in reference
... (Lauter et al. 2425-33).
Title (periodical article) but no author name in reference
... ("Decade").
Corporate author in text (this is the preferred method)
The United Nations' Economic Commission for Africa predicted ... (1-2, 4-6).
One of a multivolume volume work in reference (if multiple volumes cited in bibliographic entry)
... (Wellek 2: 1-10).
Nonadjacent pages in reference
... (Taves, 153-54, 171).
Quotation in secondary source in reference (use when only an indirect source is available)
... (qtd. in Weinberg 1: 405, 616-17).
Multiple works in reference
... (Lauter et al., vol. 1; Crane).
Works Cited
Multiple publications by the same author
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.
---. The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1991.
---, ed. Sound and Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1957.
Books
One author
Rosenthal, Robert. Meta-Analytic Procedures for Social Research. 2nd ed. Newbury Park: Sage, 1987.
Two or three authors
Welsch, Roger L., and Linda K. Welsch. Cather's Kitchens: Foodways in Literature and Life. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1987.
More than three authors
Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985.
Corporate author
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Campus Life: In Search of Community. Princeton: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990.
One work in an anthology/without author
"A Witchcraft Story." The Hopi Way: Tales from a Vanishing Culture. Comp. Mando Sevillano. Flagstaff: Northland, 1986. 33-42.
Signed article in an encyclopedia
Le Patourel, John. "Normans and Normandy." Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Ed. Joseph R. Strayer. 13 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1987.
Unsigned article in a well-known encyclopedia
"Mandarin." The Encyclopedia Americana. 1994 ed.
Edited work
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square-Pocket, 1992.
Tannen, Deborah, ed. Gender and Conversational Interaction. New York: Oxford UP, 1993.
Translated work
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Viking, 1996.
Second or subsequent edition
Newcomb, Horace, ed. Television: The Critical View. 5th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 1994.
One of multivolume work
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. "Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl." 1863. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter et al. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. Lexington: Heath, 1994. 2425-33.
One work in a series
Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Trans. Jack Schmitt. Latin Amer. Lit. and Culture 7. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991.
Pamphlet without author
Renoir Lithographs. New York: Dover, 1994.
Government document
United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. New York: Taylor, 1991.
United States. Cong. Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Hearings. 79th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess. 32 vols. Washington: GPO, 1946.
Presentation in published proceedings of a conference
Hualde, José Ignacio. "Patterns of Correspondence in the Adaptation of Spanish Borrowings in Basque." Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena. Ed. Steve S. Chang, Lily Liaw, and Josef Ruppenhofer. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Soc., 2000. 348-58.
Abstract from Dissertation Abstracts International
Stephenson, Denise R. "Blurred Distinctions: Emerging Forms of Academic Writing." Diss. U of New Mexico, 1996. DAI 57 (1996): 1700A.
Legal source
Consult The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Ref KF245 .U53, kept at the Reference Desk.
Periodical Articles
Journal article with volume number, year, and pages (continuous pagination)
Mann, Susan. "Myths of Asian Womanhood." Journal of Asian Studies 59 (2000): 835-62.
Journal article with volume, issue number(s), year, and pages (paginated by issue)
Barthelme, Frederick. "Architecture." Kansas Quarterly 13.3-4 (1981): 77-80.
Magazine article (do not give volume and issue numbers, even if listed)
Perlstein, Rick. "Abridged Too Far?" Lingua Franca Apr.-May 1997: 23-24.
Newspaper article with nonconsecutive pages
Goldberg, Vicki. "Photographing a Mexico Where Silence Reigned." New York Times 23 Mar. 1997, late ed., sec. 2: 39+.
Review, unsigned, untitled
Rev. of Anthology of Danish Literature, ed. F. J. Billeskev Jansen and P. M. Mitchell. Times Literary Supplement 7 July 1972: 785.
Abstract
McCabe, Donald L. "Faculty Responses to Academic Dishonesty: The Influence of Student Honor Codes." Research in Higher Education 34 (1993): 647-58. Abstract. Current Index to Journals in Education 26 (1994): item EJ471017.
Non-Print Resources
Television or radio program
"Yes . . . but Is It Art?" Narr. Morley Safer. Sixty Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York. 19 Sept. 1993.
Film or videorecording
It's a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. 1946. DVD. Republic, 2001.
Interview conducted by citer
Poussaint, Alvin F. Telephone interview. 10 Dec. 1998.
Internet resources
MLA recommends inserting the date of access immediately before the location <URL>.
Article on a general site
Henry, Edward. "Rice Confirmed as Secretary of State: Ex-National Security Adviser First Black Female to Hold Office." CNN.com. 25 January 2005. Cable News Network. 26 Jan. 2005 <http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/26/rice.confirmation/index.html>.
Professional site
Nineteenth-Century German Stories. Ed. Robert Godwin-Jones. 1999. Foreign Lang. Dept., Virginia Commonwealth U. 10 Jan. 2002 <http://www.fln.vcu.edu/menu.html>.
Book at a scholarly project or site
Nesbit, E[dith]. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. May 2000. Indiana U. 26 June 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/ nesbit/ballsoc.html>.
Article in an encyclopedia
"Fresco Painting." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 2002. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 8 May 2002 <http://search.eb.com/>.
Article in an electronic journal available independently
Dane, Gabrielle. "Reading Ophelia's Madness." Exemplaria 10.2 (1998). 22 June 2002 <http://web.english.ufl.edu/english/exemplaria/danefram.htm>.
Article in an electronic journal available as part of an archival database
Chan, Evans. "Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema." Postmodern Culture 10.3 (2000). Project Muse. 20 May 2002 <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/pmc/v010/10.3chan.html>.
Article from a library subscription service
McMichael, Anthony J. "Population, Environment, Disease, and Survival: Past Patterns, Uncertain Futures." Lancet 30 Mar. 2002: 1145-48. Academic Universe: Medical. LexisNexis. U of Wisconsin-Whitewater, University Lib. 22 May 2002 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/>.
Online posting
Whenever feasible, cite an archival version of the posting.
Chu, Michael. "Bellini Style." Online posting. 20 May 2002. Opera-L. 21 May 2002 <http://lists.cuny.edu/archives/opera-l.html>.
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