MLA
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MLA has changed! There are new rules since
2009. For the latest rules, go to OWL at Purdue
(type in OWL at Purdue into a search engine and
click on OWL at Purdue, then MLA 2009. OR go
to Mrs. Sokol’s website and click on links and
click on the MLA/OWL link).
Creating a Works Cited/ In-text
Citation using Word 2007
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You can also create a works cited page using Microsoft Office 2007.
– Open the document.
– Click on references,
– go to the insert citation box.
– Make sure that the format is set to MLA
– Click on insert citation
– Click on add new source
– Choose what type of source you are using (internet, book, etc)
– Fill in the information fields
– Click okay
– This has created your 1st in text citation (to edit you can right click)
– To Create a Works Cited click on Bibliography
– Then click on Works cited, it should automatically appear for you.
Underlined Titles
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Book Titles: The Great Gatsby
Play titles: Fences- Think of a stage
Long Poems Published as Books: Leaves of Grass
Pamphlets: New Jersey Drive Manual
Periodicals( Newspapers, magazines, & journals): Wall Street Journal, Time
Magazine
Films, i.e. Movies: It’s a Wonderful Life
Radio & Television Programs: Friends
CDs, Audiocassettes, Record Albums: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
( applies to all 3)
Ballets, Operas, and other long Musical numbers: The NutCracker
– Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique
Paintings, works of sculpture: Thomas Cole’s The Oxbow
Ships, aircraft, spacecraft: USS Arizona (ship), Spirit of St. Louis (aircraft),
Challenger (spacecraft)
“Titles in Quotation Marks”
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“Names of Articles”: “Rise in Aid to Education
Proposed” ( newspaper article)
“Essays”: “The Fiction of Langston Hughes” (essay in a
book)
“Short Stories”: “Rip Van Winkle”
“Short Poems”: “The Cross of Snow”
“Chapters of Books”: “The American Economy before
the Civil War” (chapter in a book)
“Individual Episodes of T.V.& Radio programs”:
“The Trouble with Tribbles” (episode of Star Trek)
“Short Musical compositions (e.g. songs): “Hard
Days Night”
Unpublished works, such as lectures and speeches:
“Preparing for a Successful Interview” (lecture)
Long Quotation
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Long quotation—If the quotation runs
more than four lines on your paper, set it
off by beginning a new line and indenting
ten spaces or tabbing in twice from the
left margin. Introduce the passage with a
colon. Do not use quotation marks
and do double space. However, some
teachers prefer that you single space the
quote ( I DO, so does Mrs. Dilbeck)
Example of Long Quote
Like Cinderella, Jane Eyre must endure the cruelty of siblings
who benefit from financial resources that are rightfully hers. Unlike her fairytale
counterpart, however, she fights back:
I had indeed levelled at that prominent feature as hard a blow as my
knuckles could inflict; and when I saw that either that or my look
daunted him, I had the greatest inclination to follow up my
advantage to purpose; but he was already with his mama. I heard
him in a blubbering tone commence the tale of how “that nasty Jane
Eyre” had flown at him like a mad cat . . .(Bronte 27; bk. 1, ch. 4)
(Courtesy of Dr. Glockhamer)
POEMS
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Poem titles should be in “Quotations”
If you quote part or all of a single line of a verse that does
not require special emphasis, put it in quotation marks
within your text. You may also incorporate two or three
lines in this way using a slash with a space on each side
( / ) to separate them.
– Examples:
 Bradstreet frames each poem with a sense of
mortality: “All things within this fading world hath
end” (1).
 Reflecting on the “incident” in Baltimore, Cullen
concludes, “Of all the things that happened there /
That’s all that I remember” (11-12).
Poems Continued
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Verse quotations of more than three lines
should begin on a new line. Unless the
quotation involves unusual spacing, indent each
line one inch ( two tab keys) from the left
margin and double space between lines, adding
no quotation marks that do not appear in the
original. A parenthetical reference for a verse
quotation set off from the text follows the last
line of the quotation ( as in quotation prose); a
parenthetical reference that will not fit on the
line should appear on a new line, flush with the
right margin of the page.
Poems continued
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Example of 3 or more lines
– Elizabeth Bishop’s “In the Waiting Room “ is
rich in evocative detail:
It was winter. It got dark
Early. The waiting room
Was full of grown –up people,
arctics and overcoats,
Lamps and magazines. (6-10)
Poems Continued
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2nd Example of 3 or more lines
– E.E. Cummings concludes the poem with this
vivid description of a carefree scene,
reinforced by the carefree form of the lines
themselves:
It’s
spring
and
the
goat-footed
balloonMan
whistles
far
and
wee (16-24)
In-Text Citation
In-Text citations should match the works
cited page.
 The in-text citation can be done one of
two ways: Author’s name in text or
author’s name in reference.
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Author’s name in Text & Reference
Example:
Text: F. Scott Fitzgerald used ”…a single green
light, minute and far away…” ( 26) to represent
Gatsby’s longing for Daisy.
OR
Reference: The use of ”…a single green light,
minute and far away…” ( Fitzgerald 26) to
represent Gatsby’s longing for Daisy is a symbol
that is still used to today to also represent the
corruption of the American Dream.
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Different Novel Versions
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A novel—Because novels are available in
different editions, what appears, for
example, on page 26 in my edition of The
Great Gatsby is not necessarily what
appears on yours. Hence, in the internal
documentation after the author and page
number add a semicolon and then the
book and chapter. Ex. (Fitzgerald 26; bk.
1, ch. 1). (Courtesy of Dr. Glockhamer)
Works Cited
Works Cited should always be ABC order
 Use author’s last name or the first major
word of the title to alphabetize
 Do not number entries or have bullet
points
 Double space entries
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Works Cited Example
Anderson, Robert, ed., et.al. Elements of
Literature: Literature of the United States.
5th ed. United States: Holt, Rinehart, and
Winston, 1993.
Dickinson, Emily. “Heart! we will forget
him!” Elements of Literature: Literature of
the United States. Ed. Anderson, Robert,
et.al. 5th ed. United States: Holt,
Rinehart, and Winston, 1993.