Guide to MLA Style
Table of contents
MLA is an academic citation style that is commonly used in humanities. We provide this brief guide following the recommendations of the 9th edition, which is the newest in the MLA Handbook (2021).
Citing sources is important, and you need to know how to compose the in-text citations and lists of Works Cited. The former provides the author’s last anime and the number of the page, while the latter adds more details to every source.
There are other features required by the MLA format. They involve double spacing, the first page that contains the paper’s heading, indented paragraphs, and one-inch margins.
What Is a Works Cited List in MLA?
The list of sources you have used in your paper is called the Works Cited. It consists of the sources’ names and full details. This list has other names in different styles, such as ‘Reference List’ or ‘Bibliography.’
There is a distinct template for the Works Cited list that consists of nine key elements for providing complete information about the source. Do not confuse this list with an annotated bibliography. This is another separate part of an academic paper, and we are going to speak about it here.
The nine key features of a source entry involve:
- Author
- “Source Title.”
- Container Title
- Other contributors
- Version
- Number
- Publisher
- Publication date
- Location
Let’s consider each of these elements in detail.
Author
You should start every entry with the full name of the author or creator. The first (or the only) author’s name starts with the last name and then goes the first name. If there are two or more authors, the name of the first author is inverted in the same way, while the other author’s name starts with the first and then the last name. If there are three or more authors, indicate only the name of the first author, and then use ‘et al’ (Latin for ‘others’).
Example- one author: Peterson, Robert.
- two authors: Peterson, Robert, and Laura Stevens
- three and more authors: Peterson, Robert, et al.
If the author of a source is not a person but an organization, you need to indicate the name of this organization. Nevertheless, if this organization is also a publisher of the source, start your entry with the title.
Title
The source’s title should be indicated in full, with subtitles that you need to separate with a colon. The space after the colon is also obligatory.
The title is used with all the meaningful words capitalized. You do not capitalize prepositions, articles, and conjunctions. There may not be a title in the source. So, write a short description of it but without the title capitalization.
You have to use different styles to indicate the title. They depend on the source, for example:
- Use italics when it is a separate self-containing source - a book, movie, or website.
- If the source is a part (a chapter, an article, or a web page) of something larger, use quotation marks.
- When you describe a source without a title, do not use any specific styling.
Container
When your source is a part of a larger work, the latter is called a container. It can be a chapter of a book, an article in a scientific journal, or a web page of a site.
You do not need to use this element in your citation if the source is self-contained, for instance, if it is a book. The title of such a container is italicized.
Examples- A journal article: “A Theory of Artistic Expression.” American Journal of Arts
- A short story: “Happy Farmer.” The Anthology of the American Short Story of the 19th Century
- A TV episode: “In the Garage.” Hold Your House
- An online article: “Peter Pan.” Wikipedia
All the other information coming after the container’s title will be about this container.
What If There Are Two Containers?
You can come across the source with two containers, for instance, if you watch an episode from the series of science programs on YouTube. The series’ title here is the first container, and YouTube is the second container. Or you may have used an article from the journal from the JSTOR database. In this case, the name of the journal is the first container, and JSTOR is the second container.
You need to indicate the DOI or URL of the second container only because databases like JSTOR do not provide much information about their publishers, dates, contributors, or issues.
ExampleWilson, Michael, et al. “The Outcomes of Fundraising in Local Communities”. Business Journal, vol. 43, no.3, July 2020, pp. 134-161. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/52941195.
Punctuation is important for your entries. The author’s name and the title have a period at the end, while the informative elements about the container have commas to distinguish them, and we use a period only to show that all the information about the container is complete.
Different Contributors
You need to add contributors after the title of the container and put a comma after them. You should also add a description of the contributors before their names, for instance, ‘illustrated by’ or ‘translated by.’
ExampleHollow, James. The Wonders of the Free World: How to Become Responsible for the Community. Translated by Susan Wheeler, Oxford UP, 2011.
If your source has three and more contributors, add the full name of the first, and use ‘et al’. If contributors are not indicated, you do not need this element at all.
Version
The version of the source is its edition, expansion, or director’s cut if it is about the movie. The version should be indicated.
Examples
Lowrance, Edgar. Business Strategies That Work Properly: Case Studies and Conclusions. 2nd ed., Green
World, 2002.
Morris, Luke, director. The Lost World. Director’s cut, ELT Studio, 2009.
Number
You can see numbers in journal articles, magazines, or TV shows. These are the numbers of their parts or issues, and you need to indicate them in entries.
ExampleJohnson, Mike, et al. “Making Up Communication Strategies: How to Become More Socialized.” Psychology Journal, vol. 54, no. 3, 2019, pp. 11-56.
If a source has different numbers for editions, volumes, and issues, separate them with commas.
Publisher
When you need to cite a book or movie, it is important to indicate a publisher. The publisher is an organization or individual who is responsible for distribution (or sometimes, creation) of the source. It can be a book publisher or a cinema production company, for example, Oxford University Press or Paramount Pictures. ‘University Press’ has an abbreviation of ‘UP’ which is usually used in Works Cited.
You may encounter cases when you do not need to add a publisher. It can be a part of the container title or included in the name of an author. It is common for online sources because the name of the website usually coincides with the publisher’s name. In all these cases, you just skip this element and go on. Therefore, you don’t have to indicate a publisher when you have:
- a website
- a journal
- a newspaper or magazine
- a streaming platform like YouTube, JSTOR, or Netflix
Date of Publication
You need to indicate a year of publication if it is available. If a month or day is indicated, include them too. You may also see the exact time of publication as in the case of online sources. Use all this information to help a reader to find the source more easily. You may even include a range of dates if they have it in the source. Let’s have a look at the following examples:
- 2011
- 21 Dec. 2009
- 12 Oct. 2017, 5:32 p.m.
- Feb. 2012 - Sep. 2012
You may also encounter sources with more than one publication date. It happens when there are several editions of the source. Indicate the most relevant date to the edition of the used source.
If there is no publication date (normally when you use an online source), indicate the date when you found and use the information, for instance: Accessed 24 March 2021.
Location
The location of the information you have used is usually indicated in page numbers, but it mostly depends on the type of your source.
Example- a chapter of a book - page ranges of this chapter - pp. 143-202
- a web page - URL without ‘https://’ - www.scribbr.com/apa-style/quick-guide/
- an article from a journal - DOI with ‘https://’ or constant URL without ‘https://’ - https://doi.org/12.1051/04137771.2013.1240228. or www.jstor.org/stable/24391348.
- a live event or physical location - the name of this location or event and the place/city - National Heritage Center, Saskatoon, or The National Museum of Fine Arts, Edinburg.
In-Text Citations in MLA
These are short references within the text that indicate the full reference in the Works Cited at the end of your paper. You need to include them in the text when you make a citation or paraphrasing of some source.
An MLA in-text citation is simple - you need to indicate the last name of the author and the number of a page/pages in parentheses. The page number is important when you cite a paper book or journal because it shows the exact location of the information you are using in your writing.
“Only 24 % of all STEM students understand the importance of writing assignments” (Garrow 73).
You may already name the author in the text, so you include only the page number in parentheses, for example:
According to Garrow, only 24 % of all STEM students understand the importance of writing assignments (73).
Several Authors
When you cite a source with two authors, indicate the last names of both of them. If there are three or more authors, write the name of the first of them and continue with ‘et al.’ in the parentheses. Or you can also use ‘and colleagues’ if you include the names in the text.
Examples- Robertson and Wells argue that “The psychological pressure is much heavier on the students with poor command of English” (243).
- According to Gershwick and colleagues, social backgrounds are the crucial factor of career success (28-31).
No Author
If there is no author of the source, the in-text citation has to use the first words of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited. It can be the organization’s name or the title of the source. The format of such titles needs to be the same as you have put it in the Works Cited, preserving the quotation marks and italics if needed. You have to use the full title of the source if you mention it in the text and the shortened title if you put it in the parentheses.
Examples- The article “The Main Principles of Emotional Intelligence Development” argues that… (39).
- The person’s social background affects a lot the initial stage of their emotional intelligence formation (“The Main Principles” 39)
No Page Number
The source you use may not have page numbers. Instead, it can be divided into numbered sections, numbered paragraphs or chapters.
Examples- Harrow has indicated that the social behavior of an individual depends on… (par. 45).
- Williams devotes a separate chapter to the economic rise in Eastern Asian nations in the late 1990s (ch.3).
If you deal with YouTube or other audiovisual sources, indicate the timestamp, like this:
In her latest podcast, Molders explains the reasons for sufficient decrease in the number of juvenile delinquency cases in Florida nowadays (05:32-07:06).
If you do not see any numbers in the source, use the author’s name only.
Final Thoughts
MLA is the second widely used academic citation format that is mostly required in humanities. You need to know how to format the in-text quotes and Works Cited lists in this format.
Now, you can see the most specific rules in this short guide. If you need to deal with nuances or find it difficult to follow all the requirements, you may use the help from the reliable online Citation Generator. It will make your work faster and less effort-consuming.