American School of Valencia Library

MLA STYLE GUIDE FOR BIBLIOGRAPHICAL CITATIONS

Used primarily for:

Liberal Arts and Humanities.

Some general things to know:

MLA calls the list of bibliographical citations at the end of a paper the “Works Cited” page, and not a bibliography. Also, like APA, MLA style does not use bibliographical footnotes, favoring instead in-text citations. Footnotes and endnotes are only used for the purposes of authorial commentary. For full entries, titles of books are italicized*, and in-text citations tend to be as brief as possible. See some common examples below. If you don’t see an example that fits the kind of source you have, consult an MLA style guide in the Library, or ask the Librarian.

Every line after the first is indented in the full citation. And remember, pay close attention to the examples. Punctuation is very important.

* (This reflects a change made in 2009. All information provided in this document is based on the 7th edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, available in the Library)

For all examples below, the information following “Works Cited:” is what goes into your Works Cited page. The information following “In-Text:” is what goes at the end of your sentence that includes a citation.

A BOOK:

Author’s last name, First name. Title of the book. City: Publisher, year. Medium (Print).

(Example) Works Cited: Smith, John G. When citation is almost too much fun. Trenton: Nice People Publications, 2007. Print.

In-Text: (Smith 13) or (13) *if it’s obvious in the sentence’s context that you’re talking about Smith+ or (Smith, Citation 9-13) [to differentiate from another book written by the same Smith in your Works Cited]

[If a book has more than one author, invert the names of the first author, but keep the remaining author names as they are. See example below.]

(Example) Works Cited: Smith, John G., and Donald M. Brown. What to do when, indeed, citation has been too much fun. Morristown: Foxed Paper Press, 2009. Print.

In-Text: (Smith and Brown 21)

ELECTRONIC BOOK/ E-BOOK:

Author’s last name, First name. Title of the book. City: Publisher, year. Source of E- Book. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: Harrington, Clifford R. When I am away from the card catalog: Poems, 1831-1837. Hackensack: Pen and Sword Books, 1838. Project Gutenberg.. Web. 19 Oct. 2007.

[E-books do not have page numbers, so you must cite the chapter or section number. See example below.]

In-Text: (Harrington, sec. 9)

[For E-books downloaded and read on an E-book reader, include the type of reader/software file after the main citation. See example below.]

(Example) Works Cited: Smith, John G. Road trips with my incunables. Metuchen: Nimble Scribe Book Co., 2002. Kindle digital file.

In-Text: (Smith Ch.3, location 4, par. 5)

A BOOK, EDITED:

Editor’s last name, First name, ed. Title of the book. City: Publisher, year. Medium.

(Example) Works Cited: Smith, John G., ed. Editing a book alone. Newark: Lonely Guy Books, 2009. Print.

In-Text: (Smith 54)

(Example) Works Cited: Smith, John G., and Donald M. Brown, eds. Editing a book with friends. Camden: Cooperative People Press, 2011. Print.

In-Text: (Smith and Brown 112)

CHAPTER IN AN EDITED BOOK:

Author’s last name, First name. “Title of essay.” Title of book. Ed. Editor’s name. City: Publisher, Year. Page range. Medium.

(Example) Works Cited: Brown, Donald M. “Worthwhile and rewarding alternatives to alphabetizing.” Strategies for sorting things in the 21st century and beyond. Ed. John G. Smith. Edison: Streamlined Book Group, 2012. 119-148. Print.

In-Text: (Brown 143)

MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:

Author’s last name, First name. “Title of article.” Title of newspaper/magazine Day Month Year: Page range. Medium.

(Example) Works Cited: Carluccio, Ellen T. “How to laminate the previously unlaminatable: Breaking new ground in plastic coverage.” Bibliophile Weekly 23 May 2010: 13-21. Print.

In-Text: (Carluccio 17)

(Example) Works Cited: Walker, Rita F. “Man runs out of downtown bookstore with a foot and a half of Samuel Beckett in his arms.” New York Times 19 Sept. 2010: A19. Print.

In-Text: (Walker A19)

JOURNAL ARTICLE, PRINT:

Author’s last name, First name. “Title of article.” Title of journal Volume No. Issue (Year): Page range. Medium (Print).

(Example) Works Cited: Sterling, Hayden J. “Why it’s not funny to use the Dewey Decimal System in your jokes with librarians.” Journal of Contemporary Bibliographic Concerns 12.7 (July 2011): 46-57. Print.

In-Text: (Sterling 47)

*The ’12.7’ in the example above refers to Volume 12, Issue 7. Always include this information for scholarly journals when it is available.]

JOURNAL ARTICLE RETRIEVED FROM A DATABASE (for example, anything you get through JSTOR):

Author’s last name, First name. “Title of article.” Title of journal Volume No. Issue (Year): Page range. Name of database. Medium (Web). Date of access.

(Example) Works Cited: Gibbons, Hank. “Why I dream about bibliographies: Journeys into a most fascinating world of numerals and semicolons.” The Journal of Frightening Precision 49.2 (Spring 2004): 36-41. JSTOR. Web. 12 Mar. 2011.

In-Text: (Gibbons) or (Gibbons 39)

*The ‘49.2 ’ in the citation above means Volume 49, Issue 2, so if the journals on your Works Cited page are ordered that way, adapt those numbers accordingly.]

FILM, DOCUMENTARY:

Name of film/documentary. Dir. Director’s name. Name of film studio or Distributor, Year. Medium (Film).

(Example) Works Cited: Going cardboard: a board game documentary. Dir. Lorien Green. T-Cat Productions, 2012. Film.

In-Text: (Going Cardboard)

[When relevant, you can add the name of performers in a film. These are placed after the Director’s name, following the abbreviation ‘Perf.’. Also, when consulting a reprinted version of a film (for example, a DVD), include information about the distributor of the reprint, as well as the medium. This goes after the initial entry for the film. See example below.]

(Example) Works Cited: Barton Fink. Dir. Joel Coen. Perf. John Turturro, John Goodman. Circle Films-Working Title Films, 1991. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 2003. DVD.

In-Text: (Barton Fink)

ARTWORK, ORIGINAL (Painting, Sculpture, Photograph etc.):

Artist’s last name, First name. Title of artwork. Date of creation. Institution and city housing the artwork. Name of website providing the image. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: Boccioni, Umberto. Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. 1913. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Museum of Modern Art. Web. 10 Apr. 2011. .

In-Text: (Boccioni) or (Boccioni, Unique Forms)

*If the artwork you are referring to is something you’ve examined in person, simply end your citation after the institution and city housing the original artwork.]

INTERVIEW:

Last, first name of person interviewed. Description of communication. Date of communication.

(Example) Works Cited: Walker, Rita F. Personal interview. 2 Mar. 2012.

In-Text: (Walker)

E-MAIL (including interviews conducted via E-mail):

E-mail author’s last name, First name. “Subject-line of the E-mail.” Name of message’s recipient. Date of E-mail. Medium (E-mail).

(Example) Works Cited: Williams, William W. “Re: Please stop making fun of my name.” Message to author. 3 June, 2011. E-mail.

In-Text: (Williams)

ENTIRE WEB SITE:

Editor or author’s name (if available). Name of web site. Version no. (if available). Name of publisher or sponsor, date of content (if given). Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc., 1990-2012. Web. 29 Feb. 2012. .

In-Text: (Internet Movie Database) or (IMDb)

WEB PAGE, WITH STATED AUTHOR (the kind of thing you get through normal internet searches):

Author’s last name, First name. “Title of web page.” Name of web site. Publisher, date of content. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: White, Frederick. “Citing things just for fun: Strategies for getting by when there is no bibliography to actively compile.” Bibliographic Matter. BibGroup, 2008. Web. 9 Feb.2011. .

In-Text: (White) or (White, “Citing”)

[As above, break the URL only after a slash in the address. Creator information for websites, when available, will usually be at the bottom of the page. If this information is not available, use ‘N.p’ to indicate there is no stated publisher, and ‘n.d.’ to indicate no date has been given for the content. See example below:]

(Example) Works Cited: Snöring, Jonathan. “Barcoding non-book items in your home: A dream no longer.” The Confident Cataloger. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2012. .

In-Text: (Snöring) or (Snöring, “Barcoding”)

WEB PAGE, WITHOUT STATED AUTHOR (same as immediately above, but for websites where single authorship isn’t available):

(Example) Works Cited: “The Citation Palace: An e-environment.” The Bibliographer’s Guild. Librarians For Life, n.d. Web. 12 Apr. 2010. .

In-Text: (“Citation Palace”)

IMAGES (from a web page):

Creator’s name/nickname (if known). Title/caption of image. Medium. Name of website providing the image. Publisher, date of content. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: Dakota L. Common Snapping Turtle Close Up. Digital image. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 2011. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .

In-Text: (Dakota L.)

*If the creator’s name is unknown, begin with the title of the image. If there is no title or caption available the image, create a brief descriptive title of the image yourself, but in these cases, do not italicize the title. Break the URL of the website providing the image only after a slash in the address. Creator information for websites, when available, will usually be at the bottom of the page. If this information is not available, use ‘N.p’ to indicate there is no stated publisher, and ‘n.d.’ to indicate no date has been given for the content. See example below:]

(Example) Works Cited: Still image of Lee Marvin. Digital image. The actor’s compendium. Aveleyman, n.d. Web. 1 Mar. 2012. .

In-Text: (“Still image of Lee Marvin”)

BLOG ENTRY:

Editor/Author’s name/screen name (if available). “Title of posting.” Name of website. Publisher/sponsor, date of content. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: Gavin, Jennifer. “Hold your nose while you read this.” Library of Congress Blog. Library of Congress, 11 Mar., 2011. Web. 17 May, 2011. .

In-Text: (Gavin)

TWITTER POST:

Twitter handle/name of poster. Medium of post. Name of website. Date of post. Medium (Web). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: TheBeckettStealer. Weblog post. “I’m coming down to a store near you.” Twitter. Twitter, 18 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2012. .

In-Text: (TheBeckettStealer)

[Use the Tweet itself, or an identifiable portion of it, as the title.]

YOUTUBE:

Editor/Author’s name (if available). “Title of posting.” Name of website. Date of content. Medium (Online video clip). Date of access. .

(Example) Works Cited: mushk45. “Japanese way of folding T-shirts!” YouTube. Online video clip. 20 June, 2006. 12 Jan. 2012. .

In-Text: (mushk45)

While the majority of examples provided above are fictitious, the following non-fictitious works were consulted as reference in preparing this guide:

Lipson, Charles. Cite right: a quick guide to citation styles—MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and more. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2006. Print.

MLA Handbook for writers of research papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009.

MLA Style, 7th Edition. Williams College Libraries, 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .

Purdue Owl: MLA Formatting and Style Guide. The Writing Lab & The Owl at Purdue University, 1995-2012. Web. 18 Feb. 2012. .