MLA DOCUMENTATION
Source: MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 7th Edition
BOOK ENTRY
1. Author’s Name (See below if editor but no author)
2. Title of a part of the book if using part rather than entire book (in quotation marks)
3. Title of the book italicized. If the book has a subtitle, put a colon between title and subtitle even if the
colon is not included on the title page of the book (Title: Subtitle)
4. Name of the editor, translator, or compiler (abbreviate with Ed., Trans., Comp. then name)
*Use the editor after the book title when the book has an author and an editor or if citing only part of a
book and that part has an author.
5. Name of the series (if the book is part of a series)
6. Place of publication followed by a colon (city only)
7. Name of the publisher followed by a comma (omit Press and abbreviate University Press to UP)
8. Date of publication (period at the end of citation)
9. Medium of publication followed by a period (Print.)
Note: You do not put page numbers at the end because you are citing the entire book as your source.
Book—One Author
Berlage, Gai Ingham. Women in Baseball: The Forgotten History. Westport: Greenwood, 1994. Print.
Book-–No Author with Editor
Feldman, Paula R., ed. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era. Baltimore: John Hopkins UP, 1997.
Print.
Book with Author AND Editor
When editor’s name comes in the middle of the citation, it is preceded by Ed. (capital E).
Crane, Stephen. The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War.
Ed. Fredson Bowers. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1975. Print.
Two or More Books by the Same Author
Give the author’s name in the first entry only. Thereafter, type three hyphens, followed
by a period and the title.
Borroff, Marie. Language and the Past: Verbal Artistry in Frost, Stevens, and Moore. Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 1979. Print.
---. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. New York: Norton, 1967. Print.
Book by Two or More Authors or Editors
Give authors’ names in the same order as title page. Reverse order only for the first author.
Rabkin, Eric S., Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander. No Place Else: Explorations in Utopian
and Dystopian Fiction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983. Print.
Rabkin, Eric S., Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander, eds. No Place Else: Explorations in
Utopian and Dystopian Fiction. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983. Print.
Book with More Than Three Authors--name only the first author and add et. al
MLA Guide for English—page 1
Gilman, Sander, et al. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993. Print.
Multivolume Work –These are usually books with the words Dictionary or Encyclopedia in
the title but they are not dictionaries or encyclopedias in the traditional sense.
*If you use more than one volume, cite the total number of volumes in work
Blanco, Richard L., ed. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Hamden:
Garland, 1993. Print.
**If you use only one volume of multivolume work, state the number of the volume and give publication
information for that volume alone
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Oxford Sherlock Holmes. Ed. Owen Dudley Edwards. Vol. 8. New York:
Oxford UP, 1993. Print.
Book in a Series
If title page indicates part of series, include the series name, neither underlined nor enclosed in
quotation marks (and the series number if there is one), followed by a period before the publication
information. Use Ser. if Series is a part of the name.
Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Trans. Jack Schmitt. Latin Amer. Lit. and Culture 7. Berkeley: U of
California P, 1991. Print.
Lefkowitz, Frances. David Letterman. Pop Culture Legends. New York: Chelsea, 1997. Print.
A Government Publication
Cite as author the government agency that issue publication—name of government first, followed by
name of agency. Title of publication, underlined. Number and session of Congress, type and number
of publication. Publication information –most are issued by GPO (Government Printing Office).
United States. Cong. Joint Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack. Hearings. 79th
Cong., 1st and 2nd sess. 32 vols. Washington: GPO, 1946. Print.
SELECTION FROM A BOOK (Compilation/Anthology)
When each chapter of a book has its own author, the editor of the book has collected articles written
by various people about a particular topic and compiled them into a book (called a compilation or
anthology). In this case, your source is the article you are using, not the entire book. To cite just a
part of a book, begin with the author and title (in quotation marks) of the part you are using. Then
follow that with the citation for the book. In this case, you must include page numbers to indicate the
pages of the book the chapter spans.
Allende, Isabel. “Toad’s Mouth.” A Hammock Beneath the Mangoes: Stories
from Latin America. Ed. Thomas Colchie. New York: Plume, 1992.
83-88. Print.
Article in a Familiar Reference Book
Do not give full publication information. List only, edition (if stated) and year of publication.
“Ginsburg, Ruth Bader.” Who’s Who in America. 52nd ed. 1998. Print.
MLA Guide for English—page 2
“Mandarin.” The Encyclopedia Americana. 1994 ed. Print.
ARTICLE IN A PERIODICAL
Article in a Magazine
1. Author’s Name
2. Title of the article in quotation marks
3. Name of the periodical italicized—no punctuation afterward
4. Date of magazine (entire date in MLA format 24 Apr. 2004 if the magazine is published weekly or
every two weeks; give only month and year if the magazine is published every month or every two
months) Abbreviate the name of the month whenever possible.
5. Page numbers (If the article is not printed on consecutive pages, give the first page followed by a
plus sign.)
6. Medium of publication.
Note: Do not give volume and issue numbers even when listed.
Mehta, Pratap Bhanu. “Exploring Myths.” New Republic 6 June 1998: 17-19. Print.
Amelar, Sarah. “Restoration on 42nd Street.” Architecture Mar. 1998: 146-50. Print.
Josef, Samuel. “Surviving MLA.” Student Life April 2004: 9+. Print.
Article in a Newspaper
1. Author of article if given. (Do not cite Associated Press as author)
2. Title of article in quotation marks—follow rules for capitalizing titles even if most words of title are not
capitalized; never put title in all caps even if it is printed that way in the newspaper
3. Name of newspaper as it appears on masthead italicized, but omit any introductory article (Ex. New
York Times, not The New York Times)—no punctuation afterward
4. If city is not included in name, add city in square brackets after the name unless the newspaper is a
nationally published paper Ex. Daily Gazette [Toledo, Ohio]
5. Complete date—day, month, year. Abbreviate months except May, June, July
6. NO volume and issue numbers
7. If edition on masthead, add comma after date and specify edition (nat. ed., late ed..)
8. After edition or date, use a colon then give page number(s). Use a plus sign if article continues to next
page.
9. Medium of publication
Jeromack, Paul. “This Once, a David of the Art World Does Goliath a Favor.” New York Times 13 July
2002: B7+. Print.
Article in a Scholarly/Professional Journal (periodicals written for professionals)
1. Author’s Name
2. Title of the article in quotation marks
3. Name of the periodical italicized—no punctuation afterward
4. Volume number
5. Issue number (only if journal paginates each issue separately)
6. Year of publication in parentheses
MLA Guide for English—page 3
7. Page numbers
8. Medium of publication.
volume #
Journal that paginates continuously:
White, Sabina, and Andrew Winzelberg. “Laughter and Stress.” Humor 5 (1992): 345-55. Print.
Journal that paginates by issue:
Barthelme, Frederick. “Architecture.” Kansas Quarterly 13.3 (1981): 77-80. Print.
Volume
issue
A Review
1. Reviewer’s Name and Title of Review (if there is one)
2. Write: Rev. of
3. Title of Work reviewed, a comma, the word by, and the name of the author
Updike, John. “No brakes.” Rev. of Sinclair Lewis: Rebel from Main Street, by Richard Lingeman.
New Yorker 4 Feb. 2002: 77-80.
MISCELLANEOUS PRINT AND NONPRINT SOURCES
Film or video Recording
1. Title italicized
2. Name of director
3. Name of performers optional
4. Distributor
5. Year of release
6. Medium of publication
It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel
Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946. Film.
CITING ELECTRONIC PUBLICATIONS
Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Not
every Web page will provide all of the following information. However, collect as much of the following
information as possible both for your citations and for your research notes:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Author and/or editor names (if available)
Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)
Title of the Website, project, or book in italics. (Remember that some Print publications have Web
publications with slightly different names. They may, for example, include the additional information or
otherwise modified information, like domain names [e.g. .com or .net].)
Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers.
Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
Take note of any page numbers (if available).
Medium of publication.
Date you accessed the material.
URL (if required, or for your own personal reference; MLA does not require a URL).
MLA Guide for English—page 4
An Entire Internet Site
1. Editor, author, compiler name (if available).
2. Name of site (italicized)
3. Version number.
4. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher)
5. date of resource creation (if available)
6. Medium of publication
7. Date of access
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23
Apr. 2008.Britanica Online. Vers. 98.2. Apr. 1998.
Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003. Web. 10 May 2006.
Article in an Online Newspaper or on a Newswire
Achenbach, Joel. “America’s River.” Washington Post 5 May 2002. Web. 20 May 2002
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13425-2202May1.html>.
Online-only Published Interviews
1. List the interview by the name of the interviewee.
2. If the interview has a title, place it in quotation marks.
3. Place the name of the Website (in italics)
4. Publisher name (or sponsor)
5. The publication date
6. The medium of publication (Web)
7. Date of access
8. If no publisher name is give, insert the abbreviation n.p.
Zinkievich, Craig. Interview by Gareth Von Kallenbach. Skewed & Reviewed. Skewed & Reviewed,
2009. Web. 15 Mar. 2009.
A Tweet
1. User's name (Last Name, First Name)
2. His/her Twitter user name in parentheses
3. The tweet in its entirety in quotations, inserting a period after the tweet within the quotations
4. Date and time of posting, using the reader's time zone; separate the date and time with a comma and
end with a period.
5. Include the word "Tweet" afterwards and end with a period.
Brokaw, Tom (tombrokaw). "SC demonstrated why all the debates are the engines of this campaign."
22 Jan. 2012, 3:06 a.m. Tweet.
Purdue Writing Lab (PurdueWLab). "Spring break is around the corner, and all our locations will be
open next week." 5 Mar. 2012, 12:58 p.m. Tweet.
MLA Guide for English—page 5
WORK FROM AN ONLINE SERVICE PROVIDED BY LIBRARY
Cite articles from online databases (e.g. Gale, EbscoHost, etc.) and other subscription services just as you
would print sources. Since these articles usually come from periodicals, be sure to consult the appropriate
sections of the Works Cited
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Author’s Name
Publication Information (Article, Periodical, Date, pages)
Name of the database used (italicized)
Medium (Web.)
Date of access
EXAMPLES
Junge, Wolfgang, and Nathan Nelson. “Nature's Rotary Electromotors.” Science 29 Apr. 2005: 642-44.
Science Online. Web. 5 Mar. 2009.
Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal 50.1
(2007): 173-96. ProQuest. Web. 27 May 2009.
Revised 2-01-13
MLA Guide for English—page 6