modern language association · creating works cited one-inch margins and last name, page number...
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MLA:Modern Language Association
What is MLA?
● One of three major citation ways to credit another person's work
○ MLA; APA; Chicago Style
■ MLA style in the humanities.
■ APA style in psychology and education.
■ Chicago notes and bibliography in history.
■ Chicago author-date in the sciences.
● Citation style with rules on how to cite sources in academic writing to avoid
plagiarism
Reference Lists:
● At the end of a paper, a list of all the sources is cited. Each entry corresponds to an
in-text citation, and gives the reader full publication information to easily find the
source.
● Citation styles differ in the naming of this list:
○ APA (reference page); MLA (works cited); Chicago A (bibliography).
● Differences in the order of information and how the format is entered. Format often
depends on the type of source (e.g. book, website, or journal article).
Formatting:
● Citation styles have rules about the formatting of a paper as a whole. This
include guidelines for the cover page; margins, spacing and font size; titles
and headings; or even how to write numbers and abbreviations.
● These rules are can be more flexible and less important than the citation
rules. It is always a good rule of thumb to check your citation style for all
formatting guidelines..
General Formatting:
The general MLA format guidelines are:
● Times New Roman 12 (or another standard font)
● 1-inch page margins
● Double line spacing
● ½-inch indent for new paragraphs
● Title case capitalization for headings
Title Page and Heading
The heading in MLA format is left-aligned on the first page of your paper. It includes:
● Your full name
● Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
● The course name or number
● The due date of the assignment
After the MLA heading, press ENTER once and type your paper title. Center the title
and don’t forget to apply title case capitalization. Read our article on writing strong
titles that are informative, striking and appropriate.
Page HeaderAt the top of every page, including the first page, you need to include your last
name and the page number. Follow these steps to set up the MLA header in your
Word or Google Docs document:
1. Double-click at the top of a page
2. Type your last name
3. Insert automatic page numbering
4. Align the content to the right
Citations:
MLA uses parenthetical citations containing the author and page number.
MLA citation example (book)
MLA in-text citation: citing the source in the written paper
The book uses success stories from the authors’ own lived experiences to make
the case for a creative revolution in the business world (Stewart and Simmons
22).
● Quotes, paraphrases, or information from someone else’s work must include an
in-text citation that points to the original source..
● The citation goes directly after the relevant information, and before any other
punctuation (except with block quotes, where the citation comes after the period). If
the author’s name is in the sentence, only the page number needs to be in
parentheses.
● Examples:○ MLA is the second most popular citation style (Smith and Morrison 17–19).
○ According to Smith and Morrison, MLA is the second most popular citation style (17–19).
○ APA is by far the most-used citation style in the US (Reynolds 74), but it is less dominant in the UK.
In-text Citations w/Multiple Authors:
If a source has more than two authors, the in-text citation is shortened using “et al.”
The table shows examples of the different formats.
1 author (Ferrante 37) Include the author’s last name and page number
2 authors (Moore and Patel 48–50) Connect last names with “and“
3+ authors (Gallagher et al. 59) Use first author’s last name and “et al.“
In-Text Citations w/No Page Numbers
If the source does not have page numbers but is divided into numbered paragraphs, sections or chapters, use these instead, together with an appropriate abbreviation (par., sec., ch.). In this case, use a comma after the author’s name.
Example: Luxemburg Ch. 10; Williams ❡12; Salle sec. 2
If the source does not use any numbering system (for example, when citing a website or a lecture), include only the author name or title in the in-text citation. Do not include paragraph numbers unless they are explicitly numbered in the source.
Example: Several scholars have critiqued the “narrative of crisis” at Europe’s borders (Rajaram).
Some sources will have no named author. If there is no author, use the title in the
parenthetical citation instead. If the title is longer than a few words, shorten it to
the first word or phrase, excluding any articles (a, an, and the). The shortened title
must plainly lead to a single entry in the Works Cited. It should always begin with
the same word by which the source is alphabetized.
Examples: “Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions” change to “Sources” w/in the
written paper; “A Quick Guide to Proofreading” change to “Quick Guide” in the paper.
In-Text Citations w/No Author
Works Cited Page
● Included on a separate page at the end of the paper. All sources referenced in
the paper in alphabetical order. Do not include sources that were only consulted;
meaning, you read for general information..
● Place the title “Works Cited” in the center at the top of the page. After the title,
press ENTER once and insert your MLA references.
● If a reference entry is longer than one line, each line after the first should be
indented ½ inch (called a hanging indent). All entries are double spaced, just like
the rest of the text.
Creating Works Cited● One-inch margins and last name, page number header as the rest of your paper.
● Label the page Works Cited (no italicized or quotation marks) and center the
words Works Cited at the top of the page
○ Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be
aligned with the left margin.
● Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
● Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a
hanging indent.
● List page numbers of sources efficiently.
● If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the
page numbers on your Works Cited page as pp. 225-50
○ Example: the digit in the hundreds place is repeated between 225 and 250,
so you omit the 2 from 250 in the citation: pp. 225-50.
● If the excerpt spans multiple pages, use “pp.” ~ use a hyphen in a span of
pages.
● If only one page of a print source is used, mark it with the abbreviation “p.”
before the page number (e.g., p.157). If a span of pages is used, mark it with
the abbreviation “pp.” before the page number (e.g., pp.157-68).
● If you ae citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print
form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the
online database name in italics. You do not need to provide subscription
information in addition to the database name.
● Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
● Use italics (no underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and “quotation marks” for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)
Works w/More that One Author
● If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order the entries
alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for
every entry after the first:
○ Example: Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives. [...]
● When an author or collection editor appears both as the sole author of a text
and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first:
○ Heller, Steven, ed. The Education of an E-Designer.○ Heller, Steven, and Karen Pomeroy. Design Literacy: Understanding
Graphic Design.
Works w/No None Author
Alphabetize works with no known author by their title; use a shortened version of the title in the parenthetical citations in your paper. In this case, Boring Postcards USA has no known author:
● Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulations. [...]● Boring Postcards USA. [...]● Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives. [...]
● Container is the larger work that the source appears in. Containers are italicized and treated the same as titles.○ A chapter within a whole book; an article within a journal/magazine; tv
series; article in a newspaper; video on youtube; discussion in a class● Other Contributors are any editors, translators or other important
contributors to its creation, include these after the container title, together with a label describing their role○ Translator or an editor
● Version is more than one edition, volume, or issue of the source○ 3rd ed.; director’s cut; season 1 episode 8
Author. Title. Container. Other Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Date, Location.
● Location is the page number or page range on which the source appears (e.g. the location of a chapter within a book). Use “p.” to refer to a single page and “pp.” for a page range.○ In an online source, the location is the URL or DOI (Digital Object Identifier,
is a string of numbers, letters and symbols used to permanently identify an article or document on the web.)
○ If the source has both page numbers and a URL (for example, a journal article in a database), include both as part of the different containers■ https://www.education.com/lesson-plans/■ https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=157■ Pp. 52 - 60