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Citation Styles

This guide will help you cite your sources in your papers and projects!

MLA Formatting Requirements

Follow these guidelines for formatting your Works Cited page.

 

 

  • The reference list should be begin on a new page.
  • The phrase "Works Cited" (without quotation marks) should appear at the top center of the page.
  • The list of works cited must be alphabetical by the author's last name.
  • All citations must be double spaced.
  • The second line and all subsequent lines of a citation must be indented, but do not skip spaces between entries.

MLA Style Help

Need more help with MLA Style? Check out the following resources.

MLA Templates

Quick Guide to MLA References Page 

Books

Type Citation
Template
Author's last name, Author's first name. Title of the Book. Publisher, Year. 

Single Author Example

Shields, Charles J. Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee. Henry Holt, 2006. 

Note: For no author, begin the citation with the title of the work.

Multiple Authors Example

For two or three authors, separate by "and"

Ex: Jones, Mary, and Matthew Larsen.

For more than three authors, you may only use the first author listed followed by "et al." You may also list all of the authors.

Ex: Smith, John, et al.

Single Essay in an Edited Book Example

Template:

Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of essay." Title of Book/Collection, edited by editor's first name last name, publisher, year, page range of essay. 
Ex:
Smith, Paul M. "The Diverse Librarian." An Introduction to Reference Services in Academic Libraries, edited by Elizabeth Connor, Haworth Press, 2006, pp. 137-140. 
Ebook Example* Brown, Jeffrey. Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and their Fans. UP of Mississippi, 2001. Ebrary Academic Complete, site.ebrary.com/lib/csun/detail.action? docID=10432102.

 

Articles

Type Journal Citation Newspaper Citation Magazine
Template     
Author's last name, Author's first name. "Article Title." Journal Title, Volume, Issue, Year, page range. 
Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of Article." Newspaper Title, Day Month Year, page range.


Note: If the page range is not inclusive, give only the first page number and a plus sign (ex: 5+).

Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of Article." Magazine Title, Day Month Year, page range. 


Note: Do not give volume and issue numbers.

Print Example
Ellery, Karen.
"Undergraduate Plagiarism: A Pedagogical Perspective." Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, vol. 33, no. 5, 2008, pp. 507-516. 
Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post, 24 May 2007, p. LZ01. 


Note: If the newspaper is a local publication, include the city name and state in brackets after the title of the newspaper.

Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time, 20 Nov. 2000, pp. 70-71. 
Electronic Example

For journals accessed through an online database, the citation should include the italicized name of the database, the doi or url, and the date you accessed the article.

Ex:

Zuber-Chall, Susan. "History of an Indian Library and Challenges for Today." Journal of Academic Librarianship, vol. 36, no. 5, 2010, pp. 420-426. Academic Search Complete, doi: 10.29/jml.2010.33.5. Accessed 1 June 2011.

 

Note: If there are no page numbers, use "n. pag."

For newspaper articles accessed through an online database, you should include the italicized name of the database, the doi or url, and add the date of access at the end of the citation.

For newspaper articles only available on the web, you should use the url and add the date of access at the end of the citation.

Ex: 

Banerjee, Neela. "Proposed Religion-Based Program for Federal Inmates is Canceled." The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2006, www.nytimes.com/2006/10/28/us/28prison.html?_r=0. Accessed 4 Apr. 2015. 

 

For magazine articles accessed through an online database, you should include the italicized name of the database directly before the medium of publication and add the date of access at the end of citation.

For magazine articles only available on the web, you will need to add the url and date of access at the end of the citation.

 

 

 

 

 

Nonperiodical Webpages or Media

 

Type Citation  
Website Template
Editor, author, or compiler's last name, First Name (if any). "Title of the Page/Work." Title of Overall Website, Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation, URL. Date of access.

 

Note: If publisher's name is not available, use n.p. If date of creation is not available, use n.d.

 
Webpage Example
Hatter, Kathryn. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili in a Slow Cooker." ehow.com, eHow, n.d., http://www.ehow.com/how_4867606_make-homemade-chili-slow-cooker.html, Accessed 11 Oct. 2011.
 
Uploaded Video Example*
MASH Season 10 Ep3 Rumor At The Top. YouTube, uploaded by Adam Kowarsh, 11 Nov. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThvwqhVQVpg.
 
Streaming Video Example*
Cain, Susan. “The Power of Introverts.” TED Talks, Feb. 2012, www.ted.com/talks/susan_ cain_the_power_of_introverts?language=en.
 
Social Media Post Example*
Neil DeGrasse Tyson [@neiltyson]. “Schools often fail to simultaneously train students how to be skeptical of claims & how to embrace the weight of the evidence.” Twitter, 31 July 2016, twitter.com/neiltyson/status/759777990343593984.
 

 

Note

* indicates an addition in the MLA Style 9th ed. Handbook released in 2021

Quick Guide to MLA In-text Citations

In addition to providing full citations in your works cited list, you also need to provide brief in-text citations in author-page style every time you quote, paraphrase, or summarize someone else's work.

In this style, you must mention the author's name in either the text of the sentence or in parentheses at the end of the quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You should place the page number(s) you are referencing in parentheses at the end of the quotation, paraphrase, or summary.

For example:

Tilley describes apprenticeship as "watching and learning, then coaching followed by hands-on practice" (205).

OR

Apprenticeship is described as "watching and learning, then coaching followed by hands-on practice" (Tilley 205).

 

When there are no page numbers, use only the author's name in the in-text citation.