How does mla citation work

If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:. These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:.

Burke, Kenneth. University of California Press, When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations e. If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label.

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work such as an article or italicize it if it's a longer work e. Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse. If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:.

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page.

Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page.

The Works Cited entry appears as follows:. Accessed 23 Mar. If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation. Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's The Communist Manifesto. In such cases, give the page number of your edition making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume vol.

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection , cite the author of the internal source i. For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in Nature in , you might write something like this:.

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited. Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials in your citation. Best, David, and Sharon Marcus.

JSTOR, doi Franck, Caroline, et al. If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks. The basic entry for a book consists of the author's name, the book title, the publisher, and the year published.

The first author's name should be reversed, with a comma after the last name and a period after the first name or any middle name. The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears on the title page. Campbell, Megan, et al. The Best Noun Book. Books For Us, The full title of the book, including any subtitles, should be italicized and followed by a period.

If the book has a subtitle, the main title should be followed by a colon unless the main title ends with a question mark or exclamation point. Publication information can generally be found on the title page of a book. If it is not available there, it may also be found on the copyright page. State the name of the publisher. If you are citing a specific page range from the book, include the page s at the end of the citation.

If you have to cite a specific edition of a book later than the first, see the section below on citing edited books. If the translation is the focus of your project, include the translator's name at the beginning of the citation, like this:. Translator's Last name, First name, translator. If it's not the actual translation that is the focus, but the text itself, include the translator's name in the "other contributors" position, like this:.

Original Author's Last name, First name. Translated by First Name Last name. Publisher, Year published. E-books are formatted differently than print books. Some e-books have different, or extra, information than print books. In addition, e-book pages are often numbered differently. Since the content and format may differ from print books, e-book citations are structured differently. When citing an e-book from a website, format the e-book citation with the website title and URL. Title of E-Book.

Publisher, Year Published. Title of Website , URL. Rodgers, Tara. Duke UP, Title of E-book. E-Book ed. E-book ed.

Format for an e-book found on an e-reader with a file format included: Author's Last name, First name. File Format. Individual chapters are cited when a writer uses a book filled with many chapters, each written by different authors. When citing a specific chapter in a book or an anthology, structure the citation like this:. Last name, First name of Chapter's Author. Levi-Strauss, Claude. If your book is not a first edition, you should note this in the citation.

If the book is a revised edition or an edition that includes substantial new content, include the number, name, or year of the edition and the abbreviation "ed. Author's Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Numbered ed. Ferraro, Gary, and Susan Andreatta, editors. Cultural Anthropology: An Applied Perspective.

If your edited book has more than one author, refer to the directions above under the heading "Authors. Also, BibMe. Try our MLA formatter! Wondering how to cite a website in MLA? Fosslien, Liz, and Mollie West. The first author's name should be reversed, with a comma placed after the last name and a period after the first name or any middle name.

The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears on the website. For a page with two or more authors, list them in the order they appear on the website. Only the first author's name should be reversed, with the others written in normal order. Separate author names by a comma, and place the word "and" before the last author's name.

For pages with three or more authors, only include the first author, followed by the abbreviation "et al. The page title should be placed within quotation marks. Place a period after the page title within the quotation marks. The page title is followed by the name of the website, which is italicized, followed by a comma. After the website title, include the sponsoring institution or publisher followed by a comma.

If the name of the publisher is the same as the name as the website, do not include the publisher information in your citation. In MLA format, it is not recommended to include duplicate information for a website.

Next, state the publication date of the page. In some cases, a specific date might not be available, and the date published may only be specific to a month or even a year.

Provide whatever date information is available. End the citation with the URL. End the entire citation with a period.

Looking for an MLA formatter to create your website citations quickly and easily? Our MLA format website creates your citations in just a few clicks. The most basic entry for a journal consists of the author name s , article title, journal name, volume number, issue number, year published, page numbers, name of website or database where the article was found, and URL or Direct Object Identifier DOI.

Snyder, Vivian. Do not capitalize seasons. Most online journal articles have two containers. The first is the journal that the article is in, and the second is the website or database the journal is in.

The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears in the journal. For an article written by two authors, list them in the order they appear in the journal. Only the first author's name should be reversed, while the second is written in normal order. Separate author names by a comma, and place the word "and" before the second author's name. For articles with three or more authors, include the name of the first author in the citation, followed by a comma and the abbreviation "et al.

The article title should be placed within quotation marks. Place a period after the article title within the quotation marks, unless the article title ends with a question mark or exclamation mark. The article title is followed by the name of the journal, which is italicized. Include the volume number of the journal, but use the abbreviation "vol. Use the abbreviation "no. Jones, Robert, et al. Database Life , www. The DOI is comprised of symbols, numbers, and letters.

In print or PDF form, the first place to check is the front page of the article. If it is an online article, look for the DOI near the top of the article, at the very end of the article, or wherever citation information is located.

Here are a few examples:. If a DOI for an article exists, place it at the end of the citation. Thomas, Cristina, et al. Blogs can be good sources to use for research papers and projects since many are regularly updated and written by influencers and experts.

Blogs can belong to a single individual, a group of people, or a company. Notice in the above example, the date is missing. If there is no date shown on the blog post, omit it from the full citation. Williams, Lindsay. The most basic entry for a newspaper consists of the author name s , article title, newspaper name, publication date, page numbers, and sometimes a URL if found online. Omit volume numbers, issue numbers, and the names of publishers from newspaper citations.

Title of Database , URL. Hageman, William. The full article title should be placed within quotations. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use. MLA Modern Language Association style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.

This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook 9 th ed. A title in the container position is always italicized. If a source has no title, provide a description of the source instead.

Only the first word of this description is capitalized, and no italics or quotation marks are used. See here for information on formatting annotations in an MLA annotated bibliography. If your Works Cited list includes more than one work by a particular author, arrange these sources alphabetically by title.

In place of the author element, write three em dashes for each source listed after the first. The same applies to works by the same group of authors; replace the author element with three em dashes for subsequent sources. Sometimes, multiple entries will start with the same author, but in combination with different coauthors. Works by the author alone should come first, then works by two authors, and finally works by three or more authors i.

If there is no author, alphabetize the source based on the title of the work. Ignore articles the, a , and an for the purposes of alphabetization. If a title begins with a number, alphabetize it as you would if the number was spelled out. Each entry contains the author , title , and publication details of the source.

To apply a hanging indent to your reference list or Works Cited list in Word or Google Docs, follow the steps below. When the hanging indent is applied, for each reference, every line except the first is indented. This helps the reader see where one entry ends and the next begins. If there are three or more authors, name only the first author, followed by et al. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization. Search by book title, page URL or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

How would I cite the annotations by Leslie S. The original novel is written by Neil Gaiman…. MLA doesn't specifically provide an example of this type of citation, but I would suggest citing the annotations something like this:. Klinger, Leslie S. The Annotated American Gods. Novel by Neil Gaiman, William Morrow, To cite a tweet, you give the name of the account or the person's name if known , then the account's in square brackets, then the text of the tweet, then " Twitter ", and finally the date and URL.

For example:. Biden, Joe [ JoeBiden]. We still have more work to do, but recovery is moving forward even in the face of a pandemic.