English 1 MLA Guidelines

Author's Name Not Mentioned in Text

An in-text citation for a book typically consists of two elements: the last name of the author, and the page number from which the information is taken. These are put in parentheses. example: Savannah has been called Georgia's "first city" (Yates 1).

Citing a Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection

Author (Last Name, First Name). "Title of Essay" Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name (First Name Last Name), Publisher, Date of Publication, Page range of entry. example: Jordan, Mikhail. "Creating Suspense in Fiction Writing." A Practical Guide for Writers, edited by Ronald Klein, Whitman Press, 1998, pp. 21-24. Note: If you are citing a poem or short story from a collection, and the literary work is part of the author's own collection (all the works from that collection are from the same author), then an editor name will not be included in the citation. example: Sheehan, Sally. "I Sing to My Mother." Selected Poems From Daughters. Raven Press, 1998, pp. 34-35.

Citing an Article from a Scholarly Journal

Author (Last name, First name). "Article Title." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages. examples: MacDuffie, Allen. "The Jungle Books: Rudyard Kipling's Lamarckian Fantasy." PMLA, vol. 129, no. 10, 2014, pp. 18-34. McDonagh, Josephine. "Rethinking Provincialism in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Fiction." Victorian Studies, vol. 55, no. 3, 2013,pp. 399-424.

Citing a Magazine or Newspaper Article

Author (Last name, First name). "Article Title." Title of Periodical, Date Published (Day Month Year), pages. examples: Baker, Mario. "Training Puppies to be Obedient." The Modern Puppy Magazine, 8 Mar. 2009, pp. 70-71. Lopez, Don. "Manufacturing Manager Gets Canned." Figuereiro Gazette, 24 May 2010, p. LZ01. Note: Magazine and newspaper articles are cited in the same way, but be sure to note the different pagination in a newspaper.

Citing a Book with an Editor

Author (Last name, First name). Title of Book. Edited by Name of Editor (First name Last name), Publisher Name, Publication Date. example: McGyver, Angus. Escape to Adventure. Edited by Pete Thornton, Adrenaline Press, 1987. Note: For a book with an editor, the book should be cited the way a book would normally be cited, but the editor is added after the title with the label "Edited by" in the citation. For a book with more than one editor, the book should be cited the way a book would normally be cited, but the editors' names are listed in place of the authors' names in the citation. The editors' names should be followed by a comma and "editors."

Citing a Book That Has More Than One Edition

Author (Last name, First name). Title of Book. Edition., Publisher Name, Date of Publication. example: Fargo, Lewis. Astronomy and You. 5th ed., Science Press, 2008.

Citing a Book with a Translator

Author (Last name, First name). Title of Book. Translated by Name of Translator (First name Last name), Publisher Name, Publication Date. example: Kinkade, Betty. Physics of Dynamic Force Fields. Translated by Wade Wilson, Radar Books, 1980. Note: In a citation for a book with a translator, the book should be cited the way a book would normally be cited, but the translator is added after the title with the label "Translated by" in the citation.

Citing a Book with One Author

Author Name (Last name, First name). Title of Book. Publisher Name, Publication Date. examples: Kramer, Ronan. Catching the Limp. Pervis, 2009. Note: A book title is italicized, but can also be underlined if italics are unavailable or undesirable.

Core elements of a Works Cited entry

Author. Title. Title of Container, Other Contributors, Version, Numbers, Publisher, Date, Location

Citing a Book with More Than One Author

First Author (Last name, First name), and Second Author (First name Last name). Title of Book. Publisher Name, Publication Date. example: Schrute, Dwight, and James Lewis. Best Business Practices. Dunder Mifflin Press, 2000. Note: In a citation for a book with two authors, the first given name should be written as "Last name, First name," and the subsequent author's name should be written as "First name Last name."

Citing a Book with Three Authors or More

First Author (Last name, First name), et al. Title of Book. Publisher Name, Publication Date. example: Martinez, John, et al. How to Survive in the Wilderness: Guide to Camping. The Mockingbird Press, 2008. Note: In a citation for a book with three or more authors, list only the first author followed by the phrase "et al." in place of the subsequent authors' names.

Citing an Encyclopedia Article or a Dictionary Entry

For entries in a reference book, such as an article in an encyclopedia or dictionary, cite the work as you would any other work in a collection, but do not include the publisher information. Also, the volume or page number of where the article can be found should not be included in the citation. Author's Name (if available). "Article Title or Entry title." Name of Publication, Edition., Date of Publication. examples: "Transcendentalism." Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd ed., 2005. Wunderschön, Heinrich. "History of Germany." The Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed., 1994.

Citing Other Common Sources

If you are citing a source such as a film, CD, DVD, television show, music, or other sources, a general format for all other sources can be used. The general format is (include any information in the citation that is available and applicable): Author's name (Last Name, First Name). "Title." Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location of where source can be found (page numbers, paragraphs, URL or DOI), Date of Access. CD Citation: Glittery Ripe. "Strawberry Fields." Love Songs of the Decade, 2001. Movie Citation: Under The Sea. Directed by John Akilene, performances by Jonas Rigby, Samantha Dulone, Barbara Eurton, and Enrique Slater, Red Cliff Film Studio, 1986. Television Show Citation: "The One Where Roxy Got Married." Family Circle: The Complete Second Season, written by Margaret Stein, directed by Thomas Kim, Three Olives Distributors, 2006. Note: Like citing information from Web sites, cite any information that is available and appropriate to the source.

Citing an Entire Work

If you do not need to cite a particular part of a work (pages), it is sufficient to mention the author and/or title in the text without using a parenthetical reference. example: Fuller's Julius Caesar examines the famous Roman's roles as soldier, scholar, and tyrant.

Two or More Works by the Same Author

In cases where an author appears more than once in Works Cited, the in-text citation must include the title in addition to the author and page. example: Not all early Irish monks were meek and mild (Herm, The Celts 257-58).

Citing a Multi-Volume Work

In cases where the Works Cited lists more than one volume in a series, the in-text citation should include the relevant volume number before the page, separated by a colon. The Handbook of Psychology describes one common method of identifying learning disabilities as the use of intelligence tests (7: 457).

No Author Listed (Cite by Title)

In some in-text citations, such as a source from the Internet, an author may not be given. In such cases, list the first relevant element from the Works Cited list (article name in quotes, website name, film name). example: "At the peace conference in Paris in 1919, Allied leaders would state their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such devastating scale" ("World War I History").

Author's Name in Text

The author's name or source title is not needed in a citation for a work with a page number if the author is clear in context or was mentioned in the previous citation. In these instances, only the page number is needed in the in-text citation. example: Kendra Yates has referred to Savannah as Georgia's "first city" (1).

Citing Two or More Works by the Same Author

To cite multiple works by the same author, the author's name should appear only once on the Works Cited page. The first entry will provide the author's name. Thereafter, in place of the author's name, include three hyphens. The three hyphens are included as a placeholder for the same name in the preceding entry, so there is no need to repeat the author's name more than once. example: The Works Cited for this author are the following (two sources listed): Herm, Gerhard. The Celts: The People Who Came Out of the Darkness. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976. ---. The Phoenicians: The Purple Empire of the Ancient World. Morrow, 1975. Note: In cases where an author appears more than once on a Works Cited page, the in-text citation must include the title in addition to the author and page.

Citing an Electronic Source

When gathering information to cite an electronic source, including an entire Web sites, an article from a Web site, or an article from an online database, you may not always find all the information you need on the Web site. Try to find as much information as you can, and cite what you find. The general format for any citation of an electronic source is (include any information in the citation that is available and applicable): Last Name, First Name of Author, Editor, or Compiler (if available). "Article Title." Other Container Title. Any version numbers (edition), Volume Number (if applicable), Issue Number (if applicable), Publisher Name, Publication Date, Any pages if source appears in both print and online (p. or pp.), URL (without the https:// or https://), DOI, or permalink, Date of Access (Accessed Day Month Year). examples: Jurgensen, John. "Hollywood's Favorite Cowboy." Wall Street Journal Online, Dow Jones & Company, 20 Nov. 2009, www.wsjo.com/article012/cowboy, Accessed 5 Mar. 2011. Howard, Ame. "Hygiene in the Victorian Novel." The Victorian Web, vol. 10, no. 3, 2000, pp. 17-18. www.tvw.com/article172/hygiene/novel/. Accessed 20 Aug. 2010. Note: The Publisher's name is only included in the citation if the Web site title is different.

MLA Works Cited

a list of citations that includes all the books, newspaper articles, magazine articles, Web sites, and other sources of information cited in an essay or a research paper. Since the reader may need to locate or reference the original information, sources are listed in the Works Cited in alphabetical order according to the author's last name (or by the first element in the entry).

In-text citation

used to help readers easily find the sources in the References page that correspond to your referenced passage