Skip to Main Content

ENGL 1101 Randolph - For & Against Essay Research: MLA Citation Help

MLA In-Text Citation Basics

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.

Citing Articles

Article citations consist of the basic form:

Author's last name, first 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, the page numbers, and a period. If the article is retrieved online, the 8th edition of the MLA Style Manual dictates including the location from which the article was retrieved, followed by a period. For example:

Monk, Craig. "The Political F. Scott Fitzgerald: Liberal Illusion and Disillusion in This Side of Paradise and The Beautiful and Damned." American Studies International, vol. 33, no. 2, 1995, pp. 60-70. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=mzh&AN=1997060111&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=gsu1.

 

 

Citing Books

Book citations consist of the basic form:

 

Author's last name, first name.  Title of the book.  Publication information.

 

The publication information typically includes the publisher name, and the year of publication. If the work is an e-book, the 8th edition of the MLA Style Manual dictates including the database from which the book was retrieved, followed by a period.  For example:

 

Zauditu-Selassie, K. African Spiritual Traditions in the Novels of Toni Morrison. UP of Florida,  2009. 

EBSCOHost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,shib&db=e000xna&AN=380225&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=gsu1.

 

Cite book chapters and essays in books as follows:

 

Careri, Elisabetta."Home, Streets, Nature: Esperanza's Itineraries in Sandra

Cisneros' The House on Mango Street."  Landscapes of Writing in Chicano Literature, edited by Imelda Martín-Junquera, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, pp. 13-22.

 

Citing Web Pages

Note:  The examples here do not apply to articles retrieved from online library databases, such as JSTOR and MLA International Bibliography.

 

To cite an entire web site, include:

Author or compiler name (if available). Name of site. Name of institution or organization affiliated with the site

(sponsor or publisher), date of site creation (if available), URL, DOI, or permalink. Date of access (if applicable).

 

For example:

Victorian Women Writers Project. Indiana University, https://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/ vwwp/welcome.do;jsessionid

=EF6E5C7368B07CAAAF93A4509B363499. Accessed 23 October 2020.

 

To cite a page on a web site, include:

Author (if available). "Name of page." Name of site, Date of page creation (if available), URL. Date of access

(if applicable).

 

For example:

"Mahogany L. Browne." Poets.org, https://poets.org/poet/mahogany-l-browne. Accessed 26 October 2020.