MLA Citation Help
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Below are citation examples for the most commonly cited kinds of resources using MLA rules. For APA and Chicago (Turabian), please see the APA 7th Style Guide or the Chicago (Turabian) .
ALWAYS: check with your instructor if you have questions about citation or other format issues.
Works Cited
Books
Authors. Title of Book, Headline Style Capitalization. Name of publisher, year of publication.
See page 21, 8th ed.
Gaines, Larry K., and Roger LeRoy Miller. Criminal Justice in Action. Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.
See pages 21-22, 8th ed.
Goode, Erich. "Drug Legalization." Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment, Edited by David Levinson, vol. 2, Sage Publications, 2002.
See pages 27, 35, 38, 8th ed.
Periodicals
Authors. "Title of Article, Headline Style Capitalization." Title of Publication, Headline Style Capitalization, volume number, issue number, year, pp. inclusive page numbers. doi:xx.xxxxxxxxxx
Note: All journals should include the issue number, regardless of pagination. Do not give the volume and issue numbers of a magazine or newspaper even if they are listed.
Fodor, Jerry. "How the Mind Works: What We Still Don't Know." Daedalus, vol. 135, no. 3, 2006, pp. 86-94.
See pages 27-28, 8th ed.
Côté, Sophie, and Stephan Bouchard. "Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying Virtual Reality Exposure." CyberPsychology & Behavior, vol. 12, no. 2, 2009, pp. 121-29. Business Source Complete, doi:10.1089/cpb.2008.0008. Accessed 25 Apr. 2012.
See pages 31-32, 53, 8th ed.
Ishitani, Terry T. "Studying Attrition and Degree Completion Behavior Among First-Generation College Students in the United States." Journal of Higher Education, vol. 77, no. 5, 2006, pp. 861-85. Academic Search Complete. Accessed 25 Apr. 2006.
See pages 31-32, 53, 8th ed.
"A Counselor's Resounding Cry, Even From Her Hospital Bed: Go Directly to College." New York Times, 28 Dec. 2005, late ed., p. B10.
See pages 27-28, 8th ed. If author is known, use the author, article title, publication title, date sequence.
Kalb, Claudia. "The Therapist as Scientist." Newsweek, 27 Mar. 2006, pp. 50-51.
See pages 27-28, 8th ed.
Other
Bank, Justin, and Brooks Jackson. "Can You Prevent Global Warming?" FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, 4 Apr. 2006, http://www.factcheck.org/society/can_you_prevent_global_warming.html. Accessed 22 Aug. 2009.
See Rule 5.6.2 on page 184.
United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.
See page 25, 8th ed.
United States, Senate, Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments of the Committee on the Judiciary. Hearings on the "Equal Rights" Amendment. Government Printing Office, 1907 91st Congress, 2nd session, Senate Resolution 61.
See page 105, 8th ed.
Use The Bluebook: A Uniform Style of Citation, Print.
Call number KF245 .B58 (Ref).
See Rule 5.7.14 on pages 205-6.
See also: Texas Rules of Form, Print/
Call number: Z UA345.5 T312RUF 2003 - Texas Documents Shelves
In-text Citation
You should insert citations within your text when you present someone else's ideas in your research papers. In-text citations allow your reader to understand how you reached your conclusions.
You will insert your in-text citation prior to the closing period where you’ve cited a source. For example, if you used the APA style, a citation may look like this: Sam could not convince his companion to eat green eggs and ham (Seuss 50).
The following outlines some of the more common variations of in-text citation, but it does not list every possible variation. If you have any questions about a particular citation please see the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. This manual is kept at the Research & Access Desk in the Cornette Library.
- In parentheses give the author's last name and the relevant page number or numbers.
- Example: (Smith 9-12)
- See the MLA Handbook if you have multiple references that share the same last name.
- See Rule 6.2 on page 214-215.
- For works by 2-3 authors list each one's last name.
- Example: (Smith, Patel, Jones 23)
- For works by more than three authors list the first author's last name followed by "et al."
- Example: (Lopez et al. 236-8)
- See Rule 6.2 on page 214-215
- If no author is given use the title in your citation instead.
- Example: (The Sky is Blue 48)
- See Rule 6.4.4 on page 223.