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Citing Sources

Introduction and resources for citing information.

MLA Handbook, 9th edition

MLA style, or Modern Language Association, refers to a set of citation and paper formatting standards first established in 1951. Disciplines using MLA include literature, language, and cultural studies.

Works Cited

Important Notes
  • The Works Cited page is the final section of your paper or project.
  • Works Cited page requires the same last name, page number header as the rest of your paper, each line is double spaced with the second (and any following) trailing lines of a reference entry indented.
  • Title the page Works Cited and center the title.
  • The page contains the citations for the sources of information you used in your paper. Every source in your paper should appear on the Works Cited page and correspond to an in-text citation in the body of your paper.
General Formatting

MLA style uses a core-container approach to citations. Core elements are author and title. Container refers to "when the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source. For example, a short story may be contained in an anthology. The short story is the source, and the anthology is the container" (MLA Style).

For Works Cited, include as much of the following information as possible with the appropriate punctuation. Not every element will apply to your sources.

Author. Title. Title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location.

Source Reference Entry In-Text Citation Narrative Citation

Electronic 

(Journal Article, Ebook, Webpage, Image, Video)

Author Last Name, First Name Middle Initial. "Title." Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

*electronic sources that do not have prescribed page numbers should not be assigned page numbers for MLA formatting. Do not use the print preview function to create page numbers for electronic sources if they are not already provided.

 (Author Last Name Page Number) According to Author Last Name, ... (Page Number).
Ebook Silva, Paul J. How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing. E-book, American Psychological Association, 2007. (Silva 103)

 

 Silva argues "direct quote" (117).
Online Journal Article

Collins, Ross. "Writing and Desire: Synthesizing Rhetorical Theories of Genre and

Lacanian Theories of the Unconscious." Composition Forum, vol. 33, spring 2016,

compositionforum.com/issue/33/writing-desire.php.

(Collins)

*note that this article does not contain page numbers, therefore none are referenced in in-text citation 

**note that the link does not contain https:// or www. MLA omits these.

 According to Collins, ...
Webpage on a Website

Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow,

www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.

 (Lundman) As Lundman instructs...
Image and Multimedia

Creator of the image. Title of the image. Date of composition, Location of the image (URL if online)

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA,

www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

 (Bearden) In Romare Bearden's work The Train, ...

Print Sources

(Book, Journal, Print Image)

Sennett, Richard, and Jonathan Cobb. The Hidden Injuries of Class. Vintage

Books, 1973.

 (Sennett and Cobb 58) According to Sennett and Cobb, "direct quote" (32).
Other Sources and Questions

Paper Format

  • Margins: 1-inch
  • Font: use a clear font between 11 and 13 points. One example is Times New Roman font.
  • Running header: Add a running head in the upper right-hand corner with your last name, a space, and then a page number. Pages should be numbered consecutively with Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin.
  • Line spacing: double-space all of the text of your paper (including entries within Works Cited). 
  • First page: list your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the date double-spaced in the upper left-hand corner of the first page. This is your header. There is no cover page.
  • Title: center the title on the next double-spaced line after the header.
  • Sample student papers 
  • MLA Style checklist

In-Text Citations

MLA requires in-text or parenthetical citations in author-page format. In-text citations are required for all direct quotations and paraphrases. Page numbers should be copied exactly as they are in the source (for instance, 422, D32, xxxii). If source contains no page numbers, or is only one page, do no include page numbers.

Remember, your in-text citation should match that of the corresponding bibliographic entry. A reader should be able to move from your in-text citation to the Works Cited entry.

Examples

  • At the end of the day Wilbur made “in excess of half a million dollars” (Marx 43).
  • According to Marx, Wilbur made “in excess of half a million dollars” (43).

For less common sources (no known author, work in anthology, work with multiple authors, etc.), see Purdue OWL or Excelsior OWL.