MLA Citation
Style Guide
(Traditional Sources)

This handout is designed to be a quick reference guide to the MLA style of documenting sources in research papers. Your "Works Cited" section should appear at the end of your paper and works should be arranged alphabetically by author (or title, if no author appears in the entry). List only works you actually cited. (Your teacher may also request a list of works consulted.) Entries should be double spaced. For further information about types of entries not listed here, consult Joseph Gibaldi's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.

BOOKS
One Author
English, Carol. The Cliffs Won't Do: Read the Book. Philadelphia: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Multiple Citations by the Same Author
Small, Chris. Please, Help Me Carry My Keys! Topeka: Rand, 1993.
---. Don't Measure a Chemist by Her Size. New York: Feminist, 1993.
Two or Three Authors
Drucker, Darla, and Amy Jones. How to Survive Your Wedding. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Corporate Author
Wissahickon Home Economics Department. Cooking with Spice. New York: Scribners, 1993.
Editor
Valenza, Joyce, ed. Bagels and Books: An Anthology. Brooklyn, NY: Random House, 1991.
Work in an Anthology
Smith, James. "The Physics of Sushi." The Fabulous Physics Paper. Ed. Samuel Klein. Rome, GA: Cambridge UP, 1954. 46­59.
Edition Other Than the First
Peters, Michael. Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Keeping Your Classroom Neat and Clean. 4th ed. Philadelphia: Lysol, 1995.
REFERENCE BOOKS
Signed Article
Copaset, Sandra. "Zen and the Art of Wearing Blue and Khaki." Encyclopedia Americana. 1996 ed.
Unsigned Article
"Best Beards of All Time." Encyclopedia of Anatomy and Hair. 15th ed. 1993.
JOURNALS AND PERIODICALS
Article in a Journal
with Continuous Pagination
Skater, Andrew. "Rollerblading on a Secondary Level." Secondary Education 54(1990):
113­25.
Article from a Monthly
or Bimonthly Periodical
Ramsey, Pamela. "Where's My Smiley Face?" MacWorld Sept. 1997: 86­94.

Article from a Weekly
or Biweekly Periodical
Henry, Mary Ann. "Announcing Bus Changes with Flair." Time 4 July 1991: 71­76.
NEWSPAPERS
Signed Article
Goldberg, Grace. "The Inside Track: Alumni Life." Trojan Times 10 Oct. 1991: 17.
Unsigned Article
"Striking a Pose with Sally Miles." New York Times 15 Oct. 1997, sec. 1, 35.
FACTS ON FILE
"Berger's Greatest Speeches." Facts On File World News Digest 3 Sept. 1998: 535.
SIRS (PRINT NOTEBOOKS)
McLaughlin, Janet. "AP History-The McLaughlin Group." Forbes June 1993: 21­23. History. Ed. by Eleanor Goldstein. Vol. 5. Boca Raton, FL: Social Issues Resources Series, 1995. Art. 35.

FILMS AND RADIO
AND TELEVISION PROGRAMS
"Starring the Other Peggy Lee." Slightly Off Broadway-The Series. Prod. Sheldon Wang. PBS. WNET, New York. 6 Aug. 1995.
Making Creative Bookcovers. Dir. Tom Martin. Videocassette. Clemens, 1997.
PERSONAL OR
TELEPHONE INTERVIEW
Craig, John. Personal interview. 23 Sept. 1994.
CITING WORKS WITHIN YOUR TEXT
To document your sources, cite the author's name and the page number of the source in parentheses at the end of the sentence before the period.
Lowfat cream cheese can save you 300 grams of fat per year (Valenza 35).
If the author's name is used in your sentence, you may just refer to page numbers:
Copaset argues that "yellow simply does not interact well with khaki" (45).
If you are referring to the whole work rather than a specific section, you may omit any reference in parentheses.
Berger's main thesis is that by using motifs, organic unity is easier to achieve.

Citations
for Electronic
Sources

Web sites devoted to cybercitation vary in their interpretation of how MLA applies to online sources. What is most important in documenting electronic resources is to give the reader as much essential information as possible (author, title, publication data) to identify the source you are citing. Style information is based on Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 4th ed., New York: Modern Language Association, 1995.

CD-ROMs
Non-periodical
Name of author (if given). "Title of Part of Work." Title of Product. Edition or release, if given. Publication medium (CD-ROM). City of publication: Publisher, year of publication.
Wallechinsky, David. "Olympic Games."
World Book Multimedia Encyclopedia. 3.20b. CD-ROM. Chicago: World Book, 1996.
Periodical
Name of author (if available). "Title of Article." Title of Journal or Newspaper publication information for printed source. Title of database. Publication medium (CD-ROM). Name of Vendor. Electronic publication date.
Nethead, Jane. "Email Rules." New York Times 15 November 1995, late ed.: B3. New York Times Ondisc. CD-ROM. UMI-ProQuest. Jan. 1996.
SIRS Researcher Reprint
Name of Author. "Title of Article." Original Source date: pages. SIRS Volume. Ed. year. Article number. SIRS Researcher. CD-ROM. Boca Raton: SIRS, date.
Calvin, Michael. "Surfing the Web." Futurist Sept.-Oct. 1995: 20­27. Earth Science. Ed. Eleanor Goldstein. 1995. Art. 25. SIRS Researcher. CD-ROM. Boca Raton: SIRS, 1995.

WORLD WIDE WEB
Author (if known). "Title of Page or Document." Title of Site or Larger Work (if applicable). Date of document. Online. Available http://address/filename. Date of access.
Cassutto, George. "Social Studies and the World Wide Web." 8 June 1996. Online. Available http://www.fred.net/nhhs/html3/article3.htm.
25 Sept. 1996.
"Graf Has Look of a Champion." ESPNET SportsZone. 29 Aug. 1996. Online. Available http://www.espn.com/gen/top/0108716001.html. 30 Aug. 1996.
ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIA
Author. "Title of Article." Title of Reference Work. Online. Title of the Database or Online Service. Date of access.
Cook, Sarah Gibbard. "Berlin, Germany." Compton's Living Encyclopedia. Online. America Online. 27 Aug. 1997.
FTP
Author. "Title of Document or File." Date of publication (if available). Online. Available ftp: address, path/filename. Date of access or download.
Kehoe, Brendan. "Zen and the Art of the Internet." Sept. 1996. Online. Available ftp: ftp.cs.widener.edu/cd pub/get. 9 Sept. 1997.

GOPHER
Author. "Title of Document or File." Date of publication (if available). Online. Available gopher: address, path. Date of access.
Allen, Gary. "Grants for Math and Science Education." 8 Nov. 1996. Online. Available gopher: enc.org/Professional Development Resources. 20 Dec. 1997.
LISTSERV
Author. "Subject of Message." Date of post. Online posting. Name of listserv@E-mail address of list. Date of access.
Bookman, Emily. "Re: Bulletin Board Ideas."
5 Nov. 1997. Online posting. LM_NET@
listserv.syr.edu 20 Nov. 1997.
USENET NEWSGROUP
Author. "Title of Item." Date of post. Online posting. Newsgroup name. Usenet. Date of access.
Brown, Carol. "Stress and Test Taking." 8 Mar. 1997. Online posting. k12.ed.research. Usenet. 28 Mar. 1997.
ONLINE CHAT
Name of speaker (if available). Date of session. Online. IRC address, IRC channel name.
Yente, Ima. Online. 24 Oct. 1997. Online. telnet: IRC@kids.ccit.duq.edu, Channel #KIDCLU+.
TELNET
Author (if available). "Title of Document." Date of publication (if available). Online. Available telnet: address, path. Date of access."Colorado Charter Schools." 15 Nov. 1996. Online. Available telnet: 140.226.1.8/The Schoolhouse. 4 Sept. 1998.

JOURNAL MATERIAL
FROM A COMPUTER SERVICE
OR ONLINE DATABASE
Author. "Article Title." Periodical Title Date of print publication (if available). Edition (if any): pages. Database Name (if any). Online. Name of computer service. Date of access.
Keizer, Gregg. "Write the Perfect Paper." Family PC Sept. 1996. Online. America Online.
25 Nov. 1996.

or for pay service or ASCII-text environments

Miller, Larry. "Setting up a Home Office." New York Times 16 Aug. 1996: A03. Online. ProQuest Direct. 7 Dec. 1996.
E-MAIL
Warning: Though many style sheets advise listing personal E-mail addresses in a citation, there is the danger of violating the privacy of the author or the recipient. The MLA Handbook does not recommend including addresses.
Author of E-mail message. "Subject line of message." E-mail to recipient's name. Date of message.
Valenza, Joyce. "What to wear at the conference." E-mail to Jane Nethead. 27 Sept. 1996.
E-mail Sent to You
Nethead, Jane. "Enjoying the Web." Personal
E-mail. 29 Sept. 1996.

Copyright@1998 American Library Association. All rights reserved. Permission granted to reproduce for nonpofit educational purposes.

Return to PV/RSF Main

Return to LES/SL Main

10/16/00 kmw