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Research Guides

Citing Sources: MLA 9th

This guide offers resources to help you document the sources you're citing in your research papers and projects.

MLA Style Overview

The MLA citation style is typically used by scholars in fields such as the Classics, English, Modern Languages, and Philosophy 

MLA Style uses the same basic format for all types of sources. Core elements are listed in a particular order, and containers are used when citing a source that is part of a larger work--such as an article within a journal or a chapter within a book.

See the examples below for more information.

Articles

Which elements get used depends on what is available for that source. This varies by type of source (i.e. journal articles vs. book chapter vs. website). If parts of this basic format are not available (such as author or page numbers), omit it and move to the next element of the citation. 


Format

Author last name, First name. "Article Title." Periodical Title, vol. x, no. x, Day Month Year, pp. x-xx. Database Name, URL/DOI.

 

Article Examples

Journal or Magazine Article Retrieved from a Database

Cowley, Jason, and Katy Shaw. "Three Lions and a Unicorn." New Statesman, vol. 148, no. 5499, 29 Nov. 2019, pp. 20-25. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsgcl.608501953&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Journal from a Database, with a DOI

Bockelman, Brian. "Buenos Aires Bohème Argentina and the Transatlantic Bohemian Renaissance, 1890-1910." Modernism/Modernity, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 37-63. Project Muse, doi.org/10.1353/mod.2016.0011.

Journal from a Database, with a Permalink

Goldman, Anne. "Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante." The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, spring 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.

Journal Article from an Online Journal

Alpert-Abrams, Hannah. "'Machine Reading the Primeros Libros." Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 2016, www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/4/000268.html.

News Article from a Website

Mack, Eric. "Elusive Narwhals, Once Mistaken for Unicorns and Mermaids, Now Heard on Rare Recordings." Forbes, 26 May 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/ericmack/2020/05/26/elusive-narwhals-once-mistaken-for-unicorns-and-mermaids-now-heard-on-rare-recordings/#1406f652302b. Accessed 1 June 2020.

DOIs, Permalinks, and URLs

DOIs, Permalinks, and URLs are important markers to help your readers find the online materials you have accessed. Be sure to check with your instructor about the inclusion of DOIs, Permalinks, and URLs. Some instructors may prefer you add them to the end of all of your online references, while others may want to keep them out unless they are vital to locating the materials.  

DOIs and Permalinks are preferred because they are permanent links to an object's location online. URLs can be changed or broken. However, if no DOI or Permalink is available, use the URL. 

MLA does not encourage the use of URL shortening services. Instead, one should drop the protocol (https://) and, if necessary, drop the path if it is overly long, keeping only the host address so readers can evaluate the source and locate the material through their own search on the site.

If you need to break a long URL for hanging indentation, try to do so after a punctuation or symbol (e.g. ., _, /, @)


For a quick overview of core elements and containers, see the following from the MLA Style Center:

In-Text Citations

MLA uses parenthetical citations consisting of the author's last name and the page number, where one exists. If there is no known author, use a portion of the title--which is what appears first in the full bibliography entry.

Examples

Fascinating sentence... (Cowley and Shaw 21).

Narwhals use echolocation, like bats, to find food (Mack).

Spary noted... (1052).

Note: No page number is needed for online articles that don't have them.

Books & Chapters

Format: Entire Book

Author last name, First name. Book Title. E-book, Publisher, Year.

Editor last name, First name, editor. Book Title. Xth ed., Publisher, Year.

Format: Chapter in a Book

Author last name, First name. "Chapter Title." Book Title, edited by Editor First name Last Name, Xth ed., Publisher, Year, pp. x-xx.

Format: Chapter in a Book in a Multivolume Work

Author first name, Last name. "Chapter Title." Title of Volume, edited by Editor first name Last name, Publisher, Year, pp. x-xx.

Author first name, Last name. "Chapter Title." Title of Volume, edited by Editor first name Last name, pp. x-xx. Title of Series/Multivolume Work, general editor, General Editor first name Last name, Xth ed., vol. x, Publisher, Year.

Book Examples

Entire Book

Montanari, Massimo. Cheese, Pears, and History in Proverb. Translated by Beth Archer Brombert, E-book, Columbia University Press, 2010.

Zipes, Jack, editor. The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales. 2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2015.

Chapter in a Book

Samarawickrama, Sumudu. "Adora." Global Dystopias, edited by Junot Díaz, Boston Review, 2017, pp. 11-19.

Chapter in a Book in a Multivolume Work

Fox, Michael V. "Part IV: Proverbs 24:23-34 - More Words of the Wise." Proverbs 10-31. Yale University Press, 2009, pp. 770-774.

Fox, Michael V. "Part IV: Proverbs 24:23-34 - More Words of the Wise." Proverbs 10-31, 2009, pp. 770-774. The Anchor Yale Bible, general editor, John J. Collins, vol. 18B, Yale University Press, 2008-.

Author Examples

One Author

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Getrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Panthenon, 1998.

Two Authors

Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.

More than Two Authors

Charon, Rita, et al.  The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, 2017.

Edited

Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al., editors. Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. U of Massachusetts P / Library of Congress, Center for the Book, 2007. 

Milton, John. The Riverside Milton. Edited by Roy Flannagan, Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

Translated

Pevear, Richard, and Larissa Volokhonsky, translators. Crime and Punishment. By Fyodor Dostoevsky, e-book ed., Vintage Books, 1993.

Stendhal. The Red and the Black. Translated by Roger Gard, Penguin Books, 2002.

MLA uses parenthetical citations consisting of the author's last name and the page number, where one exists. If there is no known author, use a portion of the title--which is what appears first in the full bibliography entry.


Examples

Fascinating sentence... (Cowley and Shaw 21).

Narwhals use echolocation, like bats, to find food (Mack).

Spary noted... (1052).

Websites & Online Multimedia

Format: Entire Website

Author. Website Title. Name of publisher/organization affiliated with site, date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

Format: Webpage

Author. "Webpage Title." Website Title, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

Website Examples

Entire Website

Folgerpedia. Folger Shakespeare Library, 17 July 2018, folgerpedia.folger.edu/Main_Page.

 Webpage

"About the Museum." National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian Institution, americanindian.si.edu/about. Accessed 8 June 2020.

"Phyllis Wheatley." Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/phillis-wheatley. Accessed 8 June 2020.

Social Media

Thomas, Angie. Photo of The Hate U Give cover. Instagram, 4 Dec. 2018, www.instagram.com/p/Bq_PaXKgqPw/.

Chaucer Doth Tweet [@LeVostreGC]. "A daye wythout anachronism ys lyke Emily Dickinson wythout her lightsaber." Twitter, 7 Apr. 2018, twitter.com/LeVostreGC/status/982829987286827009.

In-Text Citations

The National Museum of the American Indian has two facilities that house exhibitions, the museum in Washington, D.C., and the George Gustave Heye Center in New York City ("About the Museum").

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