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Citation Guide

MLA Overview

MLA Citation Style

The Modern Language Association has created a style for consistently documenting source references in a research paper by using in-text citations that refer to a Works Cited page at the end of the paper. This page gives you a brief overview of in-text and Works Cited basics along with some resources for more detailed support. 

In-Text Citations

In-Text Citations

You will include these within the body of your paper as you write. For every in-text citation you include, you should have a correlating reference on your Works Cited page at the end of your paper or presentation.

The 2 Key Pieces:

1)  Author Last Name
•Two authors? (Jones and Talbot 79)
•More than two? (Rauchar et al. 328)
•No author? Use the article title in quotes (“Impact of Cheese Curds”)

2)  Page #

•Note that for web sources with no clear page numbers, you do NOT include a page number
 

How you cite in-text also depends on whether you introduce the author (narrative citation) or not (parenthetical citation). Notice how when you introduce the author, you only need to put the page number at the end of the sentence. If you don't introduce the author you will need to include the author last name and page number at the end of your sentence. 

MLA In-Text Citation Example

Works Cited Page

Works Cited

Your full references will be listed on a separate page at the end of your paper. 

Your references page should: 

  • Be titled "Works Cited" (not References or Bibliography) 
  • Be in alphabetical order by the first letter or number in the reference (usually by Author Last Name) 
  • Have a "hanging indent". To achieve an indent, type "Hanging Indent" into the help box on Word or Google Docs and it will show you

Works Cited Example

Formatting Citations

Basic Format: 

AuthorLastName, FirstName. Title of Book. Format, City of Publication (if published BEFORE 1900 only), Publisher, Publication Date.

Example: 

Jensen, Alisa. Knitting with Robots. E-book, Invitation Press, 2010. 

(Note: If NOT an E-book, simply leave out "E-book" from the format.) 

Basic Format: 

AuthorLastName, FirstName. "Title of Article: Subtitled Capitalized Too." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue no., Year, pages.

Example: 

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.

Basic Format: 

AuthorLastName, FirstName. "Title of Article." Title of Newspaper, Date published, p. #. 

Example: 

Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." New York Times, late ed., 21 May 2007, p. A1.

Basic Format: 

AuthorLastName, FirstName. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

Example: 

Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good Housekeeping, 21 Mar. 2006, pp. 143-48.

Basic Format: 

AuthorLastName, FirstName. "Title of Article." Site, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

Example: 

Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.

Need more? Or have a particular source that's giving you trouble? 

Try the detailed MLA Guide provided by Purdue OWL!

Or email your librarian at library.gotoltc.edu! We're happy to help!

Sample MLA Paper

More MLA Resources

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