CITING REFERENCES: MLA Style (3rd ed.)
Andersen Library, UW-Whitewater
This guide provides selected examples of Modern Language Association (MLA) style for citing
sources, excerpted from Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing,
3rd ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2008, Ref PN147 .G444 2008; and MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., Modern Language Association of America,
2009, Ref LB2369 .G53 2009, both kept at the Reference Desk.
MLA requires a list of Works Cited at the end of a paper and Parenthetical Documentation in
the body of a paper which refers back to entries on the Works Cited list. Cite only sources to
which the paper refers, not every work examined during your research. Entries in the Works
Cited list should be arranged alphabetically by the principal author's last name or, if the work is
anonymous, by its title. Each entry should usually include name(s) of author(s), full title of work,
place of publication, publisher, date of publication and, for periodical articles, volume, issue and
inclusive page numbers. Bibliographic information should be taken from the source's title page.
Parenthetical Documentation
Place the parenthetical reference before the concluding punctuation mark of the sentence,
phrase or clause
... Machiavelli contended that human beings were by nature "ungrateful" and "mutable" (1240),
and Montaigne thought them "miserable and puny" (1343).
One author
Tannen has argued this point (178-85).
This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).
Handbook p. 216
Two or three authors’ names in reference
…(Rabkin, Greenberg, and Olander vii).
p. 248
More than three authors’ names in reference
... (Lauter et al. 2601-09).
Handbook p. 215
Title (periodical article) but no author name in reference
... ("Decade").
Handbook p. 223
Corporate author (citing in text is the preferred method)
p. 252
The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa predicted ... (1-2, 4-6).
One of a multivolume work in reference
... (Wellek 2: 1-10).
Handbook p. 222
Nonadjacent pages in reference
... (Zender 138, 141).
p. 241
Quotation in secondary source in reference (use when only an indirect source is available) p. 254
... (qtd. in Weinberg 1: 405, 616-17).
Multiple works in reference
... (Lauter et al., vol. B; Crane).
p. 257
Works Cited
Center the title, Works Cited, at the top of a page at the end of the paper. Do not indent the first
line of each citation, but indent all subsequent lines 1/2 inch. Alphabetize by authors’ last names.
Always double space the WORKS CITED.
Multiple publications by the same author
p. 253
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957. Print.
---. The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1991.
Print.
BOOKS
No author/anonymous
p. 196
The Chicago Manual of Style.15th ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003. Print.
One author; on ereader
p. 238
Metcalf, John. What Is a Canadian Literature? Guelph: Red Kite, 1988. Kindle file.
Two to three authors
p. 189
Welsch, Roger L., and Linda K. Welsch. Cather’s Kitchens: Foodways in Literature and Life.
Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1987. Print.
More than three authors
p. 190
Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman,
1985. Print.
Corporate author
p. 190
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Campus Life: In Search of Community.
Princeton: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 1990. Print.
One work in an anthology/without author
p. 192
"A Witchcraft Story." The Hopi Way: Tales from a Vanishing Culture. Comp. Mando Sevillano.
Flagstaff: Northland, 1986. 33-42. Print.
Unsigned article in an online encyclopedia
p. 215
"Kooning, Willem." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2007. Web. 19
Mar. 2007.
Signed article in a print encyclopedia or other reference work
p. 194
Le Patourel, John. "Normans and Normandy." Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Ed. Joseph R.
Strayer. 13 vols. New York: Scribner's, 1987. Print.
Edited book at a scholarly project or website
p. 217
Child, L. Maria, ed. The Freedmen’s Book. Boston, 1866. Google Book Search. Web. 12 Mar.
2007.
Unsigned article in a well-known encyclopedia
"Japan." The Encyclopedia Americana. 2004 ed. Print.
p. 194
Edited work
p. 196 / 200
Blanco, Richard L., ed. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols.
Hamden: Garland, 1993. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York:
Washington Square-Pocket, 1992. Print.
Translated work
p. 198
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York: Viking, 1996. Print.
One of multivolume work (citing a part of one volume)
p. 201
Stowe, Harriet Beecher. “Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl.” 1863. The Heath Anthology of
American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter et al. 5th ed. Vol. B. Boston: Houghton, 2006.
2601-09. Print.
One work in a series
p. 203
Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Trans. Jack Schmitt. Berkeley: U of California P, 1991. Print.
Latin Amer. Lit. and Culture 7.
Second or subsequent edition
p. 200
Newcomb, Horace, ed. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2007.
Print.
Government document
p. 207
United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. New
York: Taylor, 1991. Print.
United States. Cong. House. Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack.
Hearings. 79th Cong., 1st and 2nd sess. 32 vols. Washington: GPO, 1946. Print.
Presentation in published proceedings of a conference
p. 208
Mann, Jill. “Chaucer and the ‘Woman Question.’” This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Tenth
Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle
English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, 19-20 January 1989. Ed. Erik Kooper.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991. 173-88. Print.
Legal source
p. 232
For many or complex legal references, consult The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, Ref
KF245 .U53, kept at the Reference Desk.
PERIODICAL ARTICLES
Journal article
p. 177
Barthelme, Frederick. "Architecture." Kansas Quarterly 13.3-4 (1981): 77-80. Print.
Journal article available only on the Web
p. 220
Wood, Michael. “The Last Night of All.” PMLA 122.5 (2008): 1394-402. Web. 22 Jan. 2008.
Journal article available as part of an online database
p. 220
Kuelker, Michael, and Anand Prahlad. “A Life in Proverbs: An Interview with Anand Prahlad.”
African American Review 43.4 (2009): 655-60. JSTOR. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.
Article reprinted in a book available as part of an online database
Handbook p. 159
Holladay, Hilllary. “Narrative Space in Ann Petry’s Country Place.” Xavier Review 16.1 (1996):
21-35. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Linda Pavlovski and Scott
Darga. Vol. 112. Detroit: Gale, 2002. 356-62. Literature Criticism Online. Web. 22 Aug.
2009.
Magazine article in print (do not give volume and issue numbers, even if listed) p. 180
McEvoy, Dermot. “Little Books, Big Success.” Publishers Weekly 30 Oct. 2006: 26-28. Print.
Newspaper article with nonconsecutive pages
in print
p. 180
Haughney, Christine. “Women Unafraid of Condo Commitment.” New York Times 10 Dec.
2006, late ed., sec. 11:1+. Print.
OTHER INTERNET RESOURCES
The date of access appears at the end of web citations.
Website
p. 215
Quade, Alex. “Elite Team Rescues Troops behind Enemy Lines.” CNN.com. Cable News
Network, 19 Mar. 2007. Web. 19 Mar. 2007.
Blog entry
p. 215
Lessig, Lawrence. “Free Debates: More Republicans Call on RNC.” Lessig 2.0. N.p., 4 May
2007. Web. 20 Nov. 2007.
OTHER RESOURCES
Television or radio program
p. 222
"The Phantom of Corleone." Narr. Steve Kroft. Sixty Minutes. CBS. WCBS, New York, 10 Dec.
2006. Television.
Film or videorecording
p. 226
It's a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore,
and Thomas Mitchell. 1946. Republic, 2001. DVD.
Interview conducted by citer (you)
Reed, Ishmael. Telephone interview. 10 Dec. 2007.
p. 229
Lecture
p. 230-231
Brieger, Brian. “Lecture 3: Recruitment and Involvement of Trainees.” UW-Whitewater. 28 Jan.
2014. Lecture.
For additional assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat at
http://library.uww.edu/get-help/ask-a-librarian or in person at the Library’s Reference Desk.
Last Revised: 7/2014
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