MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing by MLA style guides online:
MLA Formatting and Style Guide, Purdue University
The official MLA manual of style is kept in the reference collection on Library North 2, with an additional copy at the Research Support desk:
The basic in-text citation form for MLA style is the author's name and a page number within parentheses, like this: (Lessig 36) or (Asimov and Lazar 55). If the author's name is mentioned in your text, you can omit it from the citation: "Lessig has argued this point (36)."
The bibliography should appear on a new page at the end of the paper, entitled "Works Cited." Alphabetize the works cited list by author's last name, or by title if a work's author is unknown or not given.
Book citations consist of the basic form:
Author's name. Title. Publication information.
The publication information typically includes the city of publication, the publisher name, and the year of publication. The latest edition of the MLA Style Manual dictates including the medium of publication as well -- usually "Print." For example:
Lessig, Lawrence. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy. New York: Penguin Press, 2008. Print.
For books by two or more authors, list subsequent authors first name first (instead of last name, comma, first name). If there are more than three authors, you may optionally list only the first author followed by "et al."
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985. Print.
or
Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman, 1985. Print.
If an editor's name is given instead of an author's, treat it the same as a book with an author but follow the editor's name with a comma plus "ed." (or "eds." if plural), such as "Stanley, Sadie, ed."
Article citations consist of the basic form:
Author's name. "Title of the article." Publication information.
Publication information usually consists of the journal title in italics, the volume and issue number, the year of publication in parentheses, a colon, the page numbers, and a period. The latest edition of the MLA Style Manual dictates including the medium of publication as well (usually "Print"), followed by a period. For example:
Garlick, Mia. "A Review of Creative Commons and Science Commons." EDUCAUSE Review. 40.5 (2005): 78-79. Print.
List multiple authors the same as you would for a book.
When citing an article from an online database, include the same information you would for a print citation, but drop the word "Print." Instead, include the title of the database in italics, the medium of publication ("Web"), and the day, month and year you accessed the article online. The same article cited from the ERIC database would be cited as:
Garlick, Mia. "A Review of Creative Commons and Science Commons." EDUCAUSE Review. 40.5 (2005): 78-79. ERIC. Web. 7 January 2009.
Note: this section doesn't apply to articles from online databases like JSTOR or Academic Search Premier. For online articles, see "Citing Articles" above.
When citing a web page, the basic form is:
Author's name. "Page title." Web site title. Publisher or sponsor (use N.p. if not available), Date of publication (n.d. if no date). Web. Date of access (day, month, and year).
For example:
Young, Jeffrey R. "Number of Data Breaches at Colleges Still on the Rise." Wired Campus. Chronicle of Higher Education, 7 Jan. 2009. Web. 8 Jan. 2009.
If there is no author given, omit the author and list the work alphabetically by title in your bibliography.
