Bibliographical Citation Models
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of print source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
(After the first listing of the author's name, use three hyphens and a period for the author's name. List books alphabetically.)
Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.
---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.
If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.
Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993.
"Cigarette Sales Fall 30% as California Tax Rises." New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17.
For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Encyclopedia 235) and ("Cigarette" A17).
Peterson, Nancy J., ed. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34.
Cross-referencing: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited collection, you should cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. To do so, include a separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name. For individual essays from that collection, simply list the author's name, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page numbers. For example:
L'Eplattenier, Barbara. "Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on WPAs." Rose and Weiser 131-40.
Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser 153-167.
Rose, Shirley K, and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.
"Jamaica." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Source Day Month Year: pages.
When citing the date, list day before month; use a three-letter abbreviation of the month (e.g. Jan., Mar., Aug.). If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (e.g. 17 May 1987, late ed.).
Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.
Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent 5 Dec. 2000: 20.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Vol (Year): pages.
"Vol" indicates the volume number of the journal. If the journal uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume, only volume and year are needed, e.g. Modern Fiction Studies 40 (1998): 251-81. If each issue of the journal begins on page 1, however, you must also provide the issue number following the volume, e.g. Mosaic 19.3 (1986): 33-49.
Allen, Emily. "Staging Identity: Frances Burney's Allegory of Genre." Eighteenth-Century Studies 31 (1998): 433-51.
Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53.
The New Jerusalem Bible. Susan Jones, gen. ed. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
For more about citing print sources in your works cited page, visit Works Cited in MLA Style (from A Research Guide for Students), an MLA List of Works Cited (from Research and Documentation Online), view a Sample Works Cited Page (from A Research Guide for Students), or visit some of the links in our additional resources section.
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of electronic source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
If no author is given for a web page or electronic source, start with and alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
Author(s). Name of Page. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. Date of Access <electronic address>.
It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.
Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue University. 15 Nov. 2000 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7Efelluga/theory2.html>. Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 10 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.
It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.
Author(s)."Article Title." Name of web site. Date of posting/revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with site. Date of access <electronic address>.
Poland, Dave. "The Hot Button." Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <http://www.roughcut.com>.
"Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 6 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.eduhandouts/research/r_mla.html>.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume. Issue (Year): Pages/Paragraphs. Date of Access <electronic address>.
Some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; include them if available. This format is also appropriate to online magazines; as with a print version, you should provide a complete publication date rather than volume and issue number.
Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 33 pars. 5 Dec. 2000 <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm>.
Artist if available. "Description or title of image." Date of image. Online image. Title of larger site. Date of download. <electronic address>.
Smith, Greg. "Rhesus Monkeys in the Zoo." No date. Online image. Monkey Picture Gallery. 3 May 2003. <http://monkeys.online.org/rhesus.jpg>.
Author. "Title of the message (if any)" E-mail to person's name. Date of the message.
This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."
Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2000.
Neyhart, David. "Re: Online Tutoring." E-mail to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000.
Author. "Title of Posting." Online posting. Date when material was posted (for example: 18 Mar. 1998). Name of listserv. Date of access <electronic address for retrieval>.
Karper, Erin. "Welcome!" Online posting. 23 Oct. 2000. Professional Writing Bulletin Board. 12 Nov. 2000 <http://linnell.english.purdue.edu/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000001.html>.
If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database that your library subscribes to, you should provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access).
Provide the following information in your citation:
The generic citation form would look like this:
Author. "Title of Article." Publication Name Volume Number (if necessary) Publication Date: page number-page number. Database name. Service name. Library Name, City, State. Date of access <electronic address of the database>.
Here's an example:
Smith, Martin. "World Domination for Dummies." Journal of Despotry Feb. 2000: 66-72. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group Databases. Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, IN. 19 February 2003 <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com>.
"World War II." Encarta. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 1999.
Reed, William. "Whites and the Entertainment Industry." Tennessee Tribune 25 Dec. 1996: 28. Ethnic NewsWatch. CD-ROM. Data Technologies. Feb. 1997.
For more about citing electronic sources, check out MLA Documentation: Citing Electronic Sources (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center), Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Internet Sources (from Bedford St. Martin's Online!), MLA Style: Electronic Formats (from Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey), and Citing Electronic Sources-- MLA (from Middlebury College). The Gale Group also has a page about how to cite publications retrieved from their databases in MLA format that includes examples of different kinds of publications.
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of other source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter four. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
United States Dept. of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health. Washington: GPO, 2000.
Office of the Dean of Students. Resources for Success: Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, 2000.
Purdue, Pete. Personal Interview. 1 Dec. 2000.
To cite a lecture or a speech, "give the speaker's name, the title of the lecture or speech (if known) in quotation marks, the meeting and the sponsoring organization (if applicable), the location [including place and city, if available], and the date. If there is no title, use an appropriate descriptive label (e.g., Lecture, Address, Keynote speech), neither underlined nor enclosed in quotation marks" (MLA Handbook, 206).
Harris, Muriel. "Writing Labs: A Short History." 2003 Writing Center Conference. National Writing Centers Association. La Swank Hotel, Seattle. 28 March 2003.
Lufthansa. Advertisement. Time 20 Nov. 2000: 151.
"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox. WXIA, Atlanta. 19 Jul. 1998.
U2. All That You Can't Leave Behind. Interscope, 2000.
The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro. Polygram, 1995.
Staples. Advertisement. CBS. 3 Dec. 2000.
Because long explanatory notes can be distracting to readers, most academic style guidelines (including MLA and APA) recommend limited use of footnotes/endnotes. An exception is Chicago-style documentation, which relies on notes for all citations as well as explanatory notes. But even in that case, extensive discursive notes are discouraged. Proper use of notes would include:
1. evaluative bibliographic comments, for example:
1 See Blackmur, especially chapters three and four, for an insightful analysis of this trend.
2 On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens pp. 120- 35; for a contrasting view, see Pyle.
2. occasional explanatory notes or other brief additional information that would seem digressive if included in the main text but might be interesting to readers, for example:
3 In a 1998 interview, she reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an artist, not a politician!" (Weller 124).
Footnotes in MLA format are indicated by consecutive superscript arabic numbers in the text. The notes themselves are listed by consecutive superscript arabic numbers and appear double-spaced in regular paragraph format (a new paragraph for each note) on a separate page under the word Notes (centered, in plain text without quotation marks).
It's always best to consult the MLA Style Manual or the Handbook for Writing Research Papers first for any MLA question. If you are using MLA style for a class assignment, it's a good idea to consult your professor, advisor, TA, or other campus resources for help -- they're the ones who can tell you how the style should apply in your particular case. For extraordinary questions that aren't covered clearly in the style manual or haven't been answered by your teacher or advisor, contact the Writing Lab for help at (765) 494-3723 or email us at this form. Here are some other resources for using MLA style and writing research papers that might also help answer your questions.
Here are some print resources for using MLA style. Click on the links to be taken to a page with more information about the book. The Purdue OWL does not make any profit from nor does it endorse these agencies; links are merely offered for information. Most of these books are probably available in your local library. The Writing Lab also has some of them available for use in the Lab.
From the Modern Language Association
From other presses
From the Modern Language Association:
Formatting your paper and writing in MLA style
MLA style templates and sample papers
Documenting and referencing sources
On Purdue's OWL:
Other online resources
Other citation styles
Purdue's OWL also offers information about other citation methods and electronic sources. We have the following handouts:
HOME ART ENGLISH SCIENCE SOCIAL STUDIES