Formatting

To standardize citation procedure across the humanities, MLA asks you to list the important information for each source in a specific order and style. While the rules may feel arbitrary, they have been compiled to facilitate ease of communication and consistency of citation. In other words: the details MATTER. 

When deciding how to cite your source, start by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order for as many as are relevant:


Each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown above. 



AUTHOR

Begin the entry with the author’s last name, followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period.


Example: Bhabha, Homi K.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.


TITLE OF SOURCE

The title of the source should follow the author’s name. Depending upon the type of source, it should be listed in italics or quotation marks.


Example: The Hummingbird House in the citation below

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. MacMurray, 1999.


An individual webpage should be in quotation marks. The name of the parent website, which MLA treats as a "container," should follow in italics:

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*


A periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper) article should be in quotation marks:

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.


*The MLA handbook recommends including URLs when citing online sources. 


TITLE OF CONTAINER

The eighth edition of the MLA handbook introduced what are referred to as "containers," which are the larger wholes in which the source is located. For example, if you want to cite a poem that is listed in a collection of poems, the individual poem is the source, while the larger collection is the container. 


Example: The Vintage Book in the citation below

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.


VERSION

If a source is listed as an edition or version of a work, include it in your citation. If your work is not a certain edition or version, skip this step!


Example: 3rd ed. in the citation below

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.


NUMBER

If a source is part of a numbered sequence, such as a multi-volume book or journal with both volume and issue numbers, those numbers must be listed in your citation. If your work is not part of a number sequence, skip this step!


Example: no.2 in the citation below

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.



PUBLISHER

The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public.


Example: the Museum of Modern At in the citation below

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive, www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.



PUBLICATION DATE

When the source has more than one date, it is sufficient to use the date that is most relevant to your writing. If you’re unsure about which date to use, go with the date of the source’s original publication.


Example: 1999 in the citation below

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999.


LOCATION

You should be as specific as possible in identifying a work’s location.

An essay in a book or an article in a journal should include page numbers.


Examples: the page number and URL in the citations below

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94.


The location of an online work should include a URL. 


Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.