The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University is a trusted source for help on citation styles. They have completely updated to the MLA 8th edition style.
This video shows where to find citation information in the catalog and databases. The video shows MLA 7 and an older version of the catalog (not to mention the GPC homepage!), but the gist is still true.
Here are some commonly used reference citation examples. If you cannot find an example that applies to your source, a librarian is available to help via chat, in-person, or the phone.
Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. City where published: Publisher, copyright date. Medium.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.
E-Book
* Add the name of the database the e-book is housed, after the copyright date, before the medium.
Walsh, John Evangelist. Emily Dickinson In Love : The Case For Otis Lord. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2012. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web.
Edited Book
Aidoo, Ama Ata, ed. African Love Stories: An Anthology. Banbury: Ayebia Clarke, 2006. Print.
Series
Weintrab, Erica Beth. "Caryl Churchill." British Dramatists Since World War II Part 1: A-L. Detroit: Gale, 1982. Print. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 13.
Anthology or Textbook
BASIC FORMAT
Delbanco, Nicholas, and Alan Cheuse. Literature: Craft & Voice. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw, 2012. Print.
AN EXCERPTED ARTICLE
Spiegel, Lynn. “Osama Bin Laden Meets the South Park Kids.” The Pop Culture Zone: Writing Critically about Popular Culture. Allison D. Smith, Trixie G. Smith, and Stacia Rigney Watkins. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2009. 704-14. Print. Excerpt from “Entertainment Wars: Television Culture After 9/11.” American Quarterly (2004): 235-70.
Academic Journal
Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Journal Title volume number.issue number (year): page number range of entire article. Database name. Medium.
Miller, Kathleen E. "Wired: Energy Drinks, Jock Identity, Masculine Norms, and Risk Taking." Journal of American College Health 56.5 (2008): 481-90. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
Magazine
Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Magazine Title month (abbreviated) year: page number range of entire article. Database name. Medium.
Lee, Elaine. "Do Good, Get Rich." Black Enterprise May 2008: 72-75. Business Source Complete. Web. 15 June 2009.
Newspaper
Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Newspaper Title day month (abbreviated) year: section and page number of article (add + if more than one page). Database name. Medium.
Jacobson, Louis. "Obama Overstates on Use of Renewable Energy." Tampa Bay Times 16 Sept. 2012: 2D. LexisNexis. Web.
Author. “Title of Web Page or Article .” Name of Website. Institution or organization sponsoring the site, Date of creation or update. Web. Date of access.
*If the web page does not have a creation date use n.d. for no date.
General Website
Barry, Patrick L. “The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire.” Science@NASA. NASA,15 Nov. 2004. Web. 25 June 2007.
YouTube
Shimabukuro, Jake. "Ukulele Weeps by Jake Shimabukuro." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 9 Sept. 2010.
Online Newspaper
Walker, Marlon. “Do Metro Atlanta Schools Need More Black Male Teachers.” AJC.com. Atlanta Journal Constitutional, 8 April 2016. Web. 11 April 2016.
Other
Interview
Scott, Mary. Personal interview. 8 Apr. 2015.
Film
* Include the film title, director, distributor, year of release, and medium in each video citation.
“Swing : The Velocity of Celebration.” Jazz. Dir. Ken Burns. Episode 6. PBS, 2000. DVD.
Performance (Play, Concert, etc.)
Our Town. By Thornton Wilder. Dir. Mark Schultz. Cole Auditorium, Fine Arts Building, Clarkston. 10 April 2015. Performance.
Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph
Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald. 1946. American Memory, Lib. of Cong. William P. Gottlieb - Photographs from the Golden Age of Jazz. Web. 9 Feb. 2009.
PowerPoint Presentation
Pausch, Randy. “Time Management.” University of Virginia, 2007. Microsoft PowerPoint file.
While writing your assignment remember that any sources used, whether quoted or paraphrased, must include a parenthetical citation (AKA in-text citation). This citation often only requires the author's last name and the page number from where the information was taken. Each parenthetical citation will correspond with a citation in your Works Cited page.
Direct Quote
"Far too tough, even for Rudy's animal like choppers." (Zusak 155).
Indirect Sources
When you paraphrase or quote a information that has been quoted from another source, put "qtd. in" before the indirect source.
Example: John Lennon once said, "Before there was Elvis, there was nothing (qtd. in "Quotes about Elvis").
Paraphrase
In 1956, Elvis’s self-titled debut album was released; the cover would both define the accepted rock and roll persona and determine the important positioning of the genre’s lead instrument, the guitar (Rodman 28).
Two or Three Authors
“The vegan diet, as defined by the Vegan Society, refers to a diet that excludes all animal produce such as meat, fish, poultry, eggs, animal milks, honey and their derivatives.” (Hood and Ford).
Three or More Authors
Active markets existed in Medieval Europe (Lassiter et al. 67).
No Author
If there is no author, cite only the title and page number. If the title is longer than three words it can be shortened.
Example: Likewise, in 2002, one fan paid $115,000 for a jar of Elvis’s hair (“What They Got it For”).
Organization
Corporate authors or organizations may be abbreviated. Common abbreviations are Amer. (America, American), Assn. (association), Dept. (department), Natl. (national), Org. (organization) and Univ. (university).
Example: New diseases are a constant threat and “research needs to have more funding in order to keep up” (Natl. Research Council on Health and Medicine 2-4, 6-9).
Website
Websites generally do not have page numbers; therefore, no pagination is given.
Poetry
When citing 2-3 lines of poetry, insert a "/" (without the quotes) between the lines.
Example:
Reflecting on the "incident" in Baltimore, Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened there / That's all that
I remember" (11-12).
When citing more than three lines of poetry, begin the quotation on a new line and indent each of the lines one inch from the left margin.
Example:
In "High Noon," by Andy Wainwright, the speaker concludes:
today my entire generation
is a poet
it travels in packs
& word is spreading
I am alone (7-11)
