MLA Format

Reference Work or Encyclopedia in Print Medium: "Title of Article as it appears in the reference." Title of Encyclopedia. Year of edition. Print.

"Franklin, Benjamin." Encyclopedia Britannica. 2002 ed. Print. "State Government." World Book. 2003 ed. Print.

If no author is identified—a rather common occurrence in research work—the title "slides forward" and becomes the first item in the entry. Short works, such as poems and essays, are enclosed in quotation marks. Long works, such as books and encyclopedias, are italicized.

"The Sniper in the Forest." The Dictionary of Obscure English Words.

Article in a Periodical (Newspaper or Magazine) in Print Medium: Author's last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Source Date: page(s) or location. Print.

...

Book, Textbook, or Pamphlet in Print Medium:

...

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Collected Works of Mark Twain. ed. by Bernard De Voto. New York: Scribner's, 1985. 145-330. Print. Dickinson, Emily. "Time's Lesson." Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson. ed. by Mabel Lois Odd and T.W. Higginson. New York: Avenel, 1982. 56. Print.

...

1.

1. Your works cited page heading will be capitalized and centered at the top of a separate page: Works Cited

The general format of any works cited entry is as follows:

Author's Name. Title. Publishing information. Medium of publication.

newspaper

Author's last name, First name. "Title of article." Name of Newspaper day month year, Edition if given: Section letter and page number. Print. Jerome, Paula. "The 2008 Presidential Election Campaign in Review." New York Times 12 Nov. 2008: A1+. Print.

Work in an Anthology in Print Medium: An anthology is a collection of works, such as poems or short stories, usually compiled by an editor. In this case the format is:

Author's last name, First name. Title of work. Title of source. ed. [for editor] by First name Last name. City of publication: Publisher, year of publication. page numbers where work is found. Medium of publication.

The author is always listed as Last name, First name. If two or three authors are identified, each is listed this way:

Champlain, Marie. Boeck, Wilhelm, and Jaime Sabartes. McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert McNeil.

bible

Do not list an author when citing a Bible source. MLA has a number of different works cited formats for the Bible. For simplicity and consistency, follow this format: King James Version. Chicago: John A. Dickson, 1950. Print. New American Standard. Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1977. Print. New International Version. Colorado Springs: International Bible Society, 1984. Print.

2.

Each source (called an entry) is listed alphabetically by the first important word of the first item in the entry, regardless of type of source or nature of that first item in the entry, and regardless of the order in which each is found in your paper.

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Entries are not numbered. 5. Entries are double spaced, and double spaced between entries. 6. Right and left page margins for entries are the same as for the entire paper. 7. Pay attention to all capitalization, punctuation, and spacing. Every detail is part of the correct form.

Author's last name, First name. Title of book. City of publication: Publisher, year of publication. Medium of publication.

Jones, Charles. On the Beach. Chicago: Squire Books, 1984. Print. Sanders, Mary E. How the West Was Really Won: the story of Black and Irish Americans in the Nineteenth Century. Colorado Springs: WaterBrook, 2000. Print.

A book with an editor rather than an author follows this exact format, except the editor's name is followed with ed. before the title:

Joy, Charles, ed. Great Sea Voyagers. The rest follows as above

If a source has a corporate (group) author, list that corporation or group in the author space:

National Reading Council. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

magizine

Shrewsbury, Norm. "Llama Trekking for Landscapes." Outdoor Photographer Sept. 1991: 26-34. Print. Morris, Betsy. "Coke: The Real Story—How One of the World's Great Companies Lost Its Way." Fortune 31 May 2004: 84-98. Print.

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The first item in any entry is always the author, or the title if no author is named (This is a common enough occurrence that MLA works cited format has a rule for it. See examples below.).

Same Author, Multiple Sources in Print Medium:

Twain, Mark. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. New York: Scribner's, 1980. Print. ---. The Gilded Age. New York: Harper Collins, 1982. Print.

works cited page

an alphabetical listing of all sources investigated and used to complete the project

parenthetical citation

documentation placed in parentheses within the text of an assignment

source

in research, all outside material used to research information for an assignment

paraphrase

restating the author's ideas in one's own words; much longer than a summary; must be documented

MLA format

the Modern Language Association style of citation for research sources, commonly used in schools and universities in the areas of language and the humanities

documentation

the acknowledgement of all outside sources researched and used in an assignment; citation

plariagism

the use of someone else's information, whether quoted directly, summarized or paraphrased, without permission or citation so that the information appears to belong to the person reporting it rather than to the actual owner

cite

to refer to a source as an authority

direct quotation

using the exact words of an author. Must always be put into quotation marks; must be cited in parentheses following the quote in the text; and must also be given an entry in the works cited page.