MLA Style

This guide provides information on:

1. Formatting a Bibliography/Works Cited Section
• Books
• Articles
• Film or Video
• Online Resources
2. Citing Sources in the Text of the Paper
• Sources with Authors
• Sources without Authors

Each example includes the MLA reference number from the 6th edition (2003) of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. For more information and more examples, please consult the MLA Handbook, located in the Reference Section, Call # LB2369 .G53 2003.

1.    Formatting a Bibliography/Works Cited Section.

General Notes:

• MLA requires a hanging indent in a list of works cited. In a hanging indent, the first line of each citation begins at the margin, and the following lines are indented by 1/2".
• Double space within and between entries.
• Alphabetize by author's last name.

Books

Books: Single author. MLA 5.6.1

Template:
Author. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date.
Example:
Boyer, Ernest L. College: The Undergraduate Experience in America. New York: Harper & Row, 1987.

Books: Multiple authors. MLA 5.6.4

Template:
Author, and Author. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date.
Example:
Timothy L., Al Siebert, and Laurence N. Smith. Student Success: How to Succeed in College and Still Have Time For Your Friends. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 2000.

Books: Corporate author.   MLA 5.6.6

Template:
Corporate Author. Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date.
Example:
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Historical Atlas of the Holocaust. New York: Macmillan, 1996.

Books: Works in an anthology. MLA 5.6.7

Template:
Author. "Title." Anthology Title. Editor. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. Pages.
Example:
Bass, Franta. "The Garden." I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children's Drawings and Poems From Terezin Concentration Camp. Ed. Hana Volavkova. New York: Schocken, 1993. 70.

Articles

Article: Scholarly Journal. MLA 5.7.1-5.7.4

Template: (Drop the issue number if the journal is paginated continuously through all issues of one volume.)
Author. "Article Title." Name of Journal Volume.Issue (Date): Pages.

Example:

Ballard, Mary E., Shavonda Green, and Caroline Granger. "Affiliation Flirting, and Fun: Mock Aggressive Behavior in College Students." Psychological Record 53.1 (2003): 33-49.

Article: Newspaper.   MLA 5.7.5

Template:
Author. "Article Title." Name of Newspaper [City] Date Month Year, Edition: Pages.
Example:
Perlez, Jane. "Vienna to Go Ahead With Holocaust Shrine." New York Times 4 Mar. 1998: A8.

Article: Magazine.   MLA 5.7.6

Template:
Author. "Article Title." Name of Magazine Date: Pages.
Example:
Loomis, Carol J. "Everything in History Was Against Them." Fortune 13 Apr. 1998: 64-85.

Article: Encyclopedia.   MLA 5.6.8

Template:
Author (if available). "Article Title." Title of Encyclopedia. Edition Number. Date.
Example:
Silverstein, Josef. "Burma." Encyclopedia Americana. 2000 ed.

Excerpts from books or articles reprinted in anthologies.   MLA 5.6.7

Template: (Use the appropriate template above and add)
Excerpted and Reprinted in Title of Collection. Ed. Name of editor. Vol. #. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.

Example: (From a book)

Glicksbert, Charles I. Modern Literary Perspectivism. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1970. Excerpted and Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Carolyn Riley. Vol. 3. Detroit: Gale, 1975. 254-255.


Example: (From an article)
Seligman, Craig. "'Maus' Redux." Village Voice (3 December 1991): 65-66. Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism. ed. James P. Draper. Vol.76. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993. 242.

Film or Video   MLA 6.8.3

Template:
Title. Dir. Name of Director. Perf. Names of Performers. Name of Distributor, Year of Release.
Example:
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. Dir. Mark Jonathan Harris. Perf. Judi Dench. Warner Brothers, 2000.

Online Resources

General Websites: Not from a Database.   MLA 5.9.1-5.9.4

Template:
Title of Site. Author, Editor or Sponsoring Organization. Date of Publication. Date of Access. ‹url›.
Example:
Anne Frank: Her Life and Times. The Anne Frank Center, Inc. 1995. 13 May 1998. ‹www.annefrank.com›.

Article from a Database.    MLA 5.9.7

Template: (Use the appropriate template above and add)
Name of Database. Database Vendor. Library Name, City, State. Date Month Year article accessed ‹URL›.
Examples:
Ben-Bassat, Nurith. "Holocaust Awareness and Education in the United States." Religious Education 95.4 (2000). Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. RVCC Library, North Branch, NJ. 5 November 2001. ‹search.epnet.com›.

Slatalla, Michelle. "Dress-Up Dreams Fulfilled." New York Times 14 October 2004, Late Ed. (East Coast): G4. Proquest Newspapers. Proquest. RVCC Library, North Branch, NJ. 2 November 2004. ‹proquest.umi.com›.

Larson, Thomas. "In Spite of Everything: The Definitive Indefinite Anne Frank." The Antioch Review 58 (Winter 2000): 40-54. OmniFullTextMega. WilsonWeb. RVCC Library, North Branch, NJ. 9 December 2000. ‹hwwilsonweb.com›.

Kelly, Gary. "Jane Austen," in Dictionary of Literary Biography, v. 116: British Romantic Novelists, 1789-1832, Bradford K. Mudge (ed.). The Gale Group, 1992: 3-35. Contemporary Literary Criticism Select. Literature Resource Center. GaleNet. RVCC Library, North Branch, NJ. 15 Feb. 2001. ‹www.galenet.com›.

Root, Dean L.. "Schickele, Peter." Dictionary of Music (2001). Grovemusic.com. RVCC Library, North Branch, NJ. 20 November 2001. ‹www.grovemusic.com›.

National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Abner Morgan, Jr. 122 S. Ct. 2061. Supreme Court. 2002. Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. Lexis-Nexis. RVCC, North Branch, NJ. 27 September 2002. ‹web.lexis-nexis.com/universe›.

2.    Citing Sources in the Text of the Paper

• Supply the author's last name and a page number in parentheses just next to the material that you are citing.  Or, if you mention the author's name in your text, simply provide the page number.
• If there is no page number, provide just the author's name.
• If you have two or more entries by the same author in your bibliography, provide a brief title as well.
• Online and print sources are cited the same way.

Example:

The works cited section for these paragraphs would appear:

Works Cited

• If there is no author, provide the full title, if brief, or a shortened title with a page number (if available).
• Online and print sources are cited the same way in the text.

A New York Times editorial called Ralph Ellison "a writer of universal reach" ("Death" A18).

Works Cited