MLA Format Guide:
Quick, picker-upper review!
A brief checklist:
Have you
* Used standard, white 8.5 by 11-inch paper?
* Double-spaced and used an acceptable font?
* Created a header, numbering the pages
consecutively?
* Italicized the titles of longer works?
* Reviewed your instructor’s formatting directions???
Okay, enough with the preface!
* Differing from other essays, a research
paper requires you to, of course, research
and cite sources. So let’s start with MLA
in-text citations…
* Parenthetical citations: If you don’t mention
the writer’s name in your sentence, at the end,
place the author’s name and the source’s page
number inside parentheses (Dupré 1).
* When you mention the author’s name in
the sentence, then place only the relevant
page number(s) in parentheses.
Examples: 1.) Zeus, that codger, “bemoaned his
aching back” (Homer 89).
2.) In his autobiography, Melville writes that his
“favorite hue is a gentle, undulant rouge” (45).
3.) If the work has no author, then substitute the
source’s shortened title for the anonymous
author.
Irregular Citations: A Brief and Close Look
* Authors with same last name? Use first letter of first name to
distinguish: (A. Goody 159)
(B. Goody 157)
* Multiple works by same author? Include shortened title in
citation (Miller, Cancer 469).
* Indirect source -- you quote the author quoting someone
else -- then follow this format example: (qtd. in Comeaux
259).
Formatting Quotations!
* Periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after
the parenthetical citation.
* Question marks and exclamation points?! Inside the
quotation marks if part of passage, but outside
parenthetical citation if part of your text.
* Mark breaks in short quotations of verse with a slash, /,
at the end of each line of verse:
* Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened
there / That's all I remember" (11-12).
Loooooong Quotations?
* Quotation longer than four typed lines? Block it as such:
Begin the block quotation on a new line,
indenting one inch. The parenthetical
citation follows the quotation, and you
should omit the quotation marks. (Boo 2)
Say What?
* Need to omit or add word(s)? Then use brackets to
indicate textual additions: According to Robertson, “Dr. Wily
[who is actually a robot] is up to no good” (23).
* If omitting words, then use ellipses: The dubious character
explained “the reason we wear these bandanas is because
[…] we are zombies” (Bradstreet 90).
Excited about Works Cited!
* Your in-text citations refer readers to the Works Cited page,
usually last in your manuscript, and give a source’s
information.
* Since you can research many resources, MLA thus
provides various types of citations.
Quick reminders:
* Refer to instructor’s formatting directions for the Works Cited page!
* Alphabetize your entries!
* Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not
capitalize articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the
first word of the title or subtitle: The Complete History of a Paperclip,
Why Dinosaurs and Ninjas Are Awesome, There’s No Preposition I’d
End a Sentence With.
* Use italics for longer works, like books, but quotation marks for shorter
ones, such as poems.
* After the first line, indent all other lines of the citation.
Books:
* One author? Then use this example: Last name, First name. Title of
Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
* More than one author? Rodrigue, John, and Nick Comeaux. Poetic
Geriatrics. New Orleans: Red Herring, 2007.
* If more than three authors, after listing the first author, you may type
“et al,” indicating other unmentioned authors. Coyne, Amanda, et al.
* Two or more books by the same author? Write one regular entry, and for
the additional ones, substitute “---” for the author’s name. List the
author’s books alphabetically by title under his or her named entry.
Books:
* Corporate author? Italian-American Association. “The History of
Jutz’s Café.” Thibodaux: Random, 2009.
* No author at all? List work alphabetically by title, and follow this
example: Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993.
•
Translated book? Derrida, Jacques. Sovereignties in Question.
Trans. Lindon Stall. Opelousas: Ditto Press, 2004.
* Republished book? Insert the original publication date before the
newer one: Falgoust, Kristina. On Blinking. 1981. Vacherie: Coin
Books, 2002.
Books:
* Anthology or collection? List by editor. Melvin, Clay, ed. The
Harrowing Lyrics of Early Dylan. New York: Viking Press, 2004.
* If you have multiple editors, then use “eds.”
* Work in an anthology of collection? Lastname, Firstname. “Title of
Work.” Title of Anthology. Ed. Editor’s Name(s). Place of
Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.
Periodicals:
* Article in a magazine? Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical.
Day Month Year: pages.
* Article in a newspaper? Cheramie, Janie. “Sudden Beaver Attack, Mayor
Rothbard blames Wikipedia.” The New York Times. 23 June 2004: 10.
* Article in a Scholarly Journal? Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of
Journal Volume. Issue (Year): pages.
* Journal with continuous pagination? Allen, Emily. "Staging Identity:
Frances Burney's Allegory of Genre." Eighteenth-Century Studies 31
(1998): 433-51. Non-continuous pagination? Then you must include the
issue.
Electronic Sources:
Find these common features before you cite a web page:
* Author and/or editor names
* Name of database & title of project, book, or article
* Any available version numbers
* Date of version, revision, or posting
* Publisher information
* Date you accessed the material
* Electronic address, printed between the carets ([< , >])
Electronic Sources:
* An entire website? Name of Site. Date of
Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization
affiliated with the site (often found in copyright
statements). Date you accessed the site. [electronic
address].
* The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The
Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue
University. 23 April 2006
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.
Electronic Sources:
* A page on a site? ”Boudreaux’s Paste.”
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 28 April 2006. 10
May 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bpaste>.
* Short work from site? Heidegger, Martin. “Let’s Get
Metaphysical.” Anthology of Stuff. London: A. Bell,
1996. Online Cool Stuff. 17 May 2000. University of
Importance. 09 November 2007
<http://urlistoolongsousethesiteshomepage.com>.
More Electronic Sources


An article in a web magazine? Author(s). "Title of
Article." Title of Online Publication. Date of
Publication. Date of Access <electronic address>.
An article in an online scholarly journal? Wheelis, Mark.
"Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging
Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 33 pars. 8 May 2006
<http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm>.
One More Electronic Source, I Promise:
* Article from an electronic subscription service?
Grabe, Mark. "Voluntary Use of Online Lecture
Notes: Correlates of Note Use and Note Use as
an Alternative to Class Attendance." Computers
and Education 44 (2005): 409-21. Science Watch.
ScienceDirect. Nicholls, Thibodaux, Ellender Lib.
28 May 2006 <http://www.sciencedirect.com/>.
And there you have it!
Oh, one more thing. Here’s the citation for
this presentation:
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The
Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue
University. 23 April 2006
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.