MLA Style for Research Papers

(and any other papers you write in which you use outside sources for information)

What is MLA Style?

MLA style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing. It is a standard way of writing, documenting and citing the sources you use when writing a paper.

There have been some recent changes to MLA style,

so pay attention!

Citing a Book

The basic format for citing a book: Author’s last name, first name.

Title of Book

. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Type of publication.

Example – Book with One Author: Carré, John.

The Tailor of Panama

. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Print.

*Punctuation is very important! Follow the guidelines exactly!

Book with more than one author

First author name is written last name first; subsequent author names are written first name, last name.

Example: Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner.

The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring

. Boston: Allyn, 2000. Print.

Book with more than three authors

If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others"; no period after "et") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page. Example: Smith, Anne Frances, et al.

Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition

. Logan, UT: Utah State UP, 2004. Print.

Book with no author

List and alphabetize by the title of the book. Example:

Encyclopedia of Indiana

. New York: Somerset, 1993. Print.

Citing a Book – Other Special Circumstances

A Subsequent Edition

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the number of the edition after the title.

Crowley, Sharon and Debra Hawhee.

Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students

. 3rd ed. New York: Pearson/Longman, 2004. Print.

A Work Prepared by an Editor

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor after the title.

Bronte, Charlotte.

Jane Eyre

. Ed. Margaret Smith. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.

Article in a Reference Book or Encyclopedia

For entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works, cite the piece as you would any other work in a collection but do not include the publisher information. Also, if the reference book is organized alphabetically, as most are, don't list the volume or the page number of the article or item.

Example: "Ideology."

The American Heritage Dictionary

. 3rd ed. 1997. Print.

Magazine Article

Cite by listing the article's author, putting the title of the article in quotations marks, and italicizing the periodical title. Follow with the date and remember to abbreviate the month. Basic format: Author(s). "Title of Article."

Title of Periodical

Year: pages.

Day Month Examples: Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call."

Time

Nov. 2000: 70-71. Print.

20 Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education."

Good Housekeeping

Mar. 2006: 143-8. Print.

Newspaper Article

Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine article, but note the different pagination in a newspaper. If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (e.g., 17 May 1987, late ed.).

• • Examples: Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients."

Washington Post

LZ01. Print.

24 May 2007: Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." May 2007 late ed.: A1. Print.

New York Times

21

Journals/Scholarly Publications

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Type of publication.

Examples: Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's

Bashai Tudu

."

Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature

15.1 (1996): 41-50. Print.

Aldrich, Frederick A. and Margueritte L. Marks. “Wyman Reed Green, American Biologist.”

Bios

23.1 (1952): 26 35. Print.

Online Sources Some General Information

Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Always include as much information as is available/applicable: • • • • • • Author and/or editor names Name of the database, or title of project, book, article Any version numbers available Date of version, revision, or posting Publisher information Date you accessed the material

Citing an Entire Website

Basic format: Name of Site. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sometimes found in copyright statements). Date you accessed the site. Type of publication (in this case, Web).

Example:

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites.

26 Aug. 2005. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. 23 April 2006. Web.

A Page from a Website

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author if known, followed by the information covered above for entire Web sites. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili."

eHow.com

. 10 May 2006. Web.

Online Periodical (magazine/newspaper)

Online periodicals include both the name of the website in italics and the website publisher. Note that some sites will have different names than their print formats, such as ones that include a domain name like

.com

or

.org

. If

no publisher

is listed, use

N.p.

to denote no publisher name given. Follow with date of publication,

Web

as medium of publication, and date of access.

Lubell, Sam. “Of the Sea and Air and Sky.”

New York Times

. New York Times, 26 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2008.

Cohen, Elizabeth. “Five Ways to Avoid Germs While Traveling.”

CNN.com

. CNN, 27 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2008.

Scholarly Journal from an Online Database

Cite online journal articles from an online database as you would a print one. Provide the database name in italics. Library information is no longer required. List the medium of publication as

Web

and end with the date of access.

Berger, James D. and Helmut J. Schmidt. “Regulation of Macronuclear DNA Content in Paramecium Tetraurelia.”

The Journal of Cell Biology

76.1 (1978): 116-126.

JSTOR

. Web. 20 Nov. 2008.

Online Only Publication

For articles that appear in an online-only format or in databases that do not provide a page number, use the abbreviation

n. pag.

for

no pagination

. End the citation with the medium of publication,

Web

, and the date of access.

Example: Kessl, Fabian, and Nadia Kutsche. “Rationalities, Practices, and Resistance in Post-Welfarism. A Comment on Kevin Stenson.”

Social Work & Society

6.1 (2008): n. pag. Web. 10 Oct. 2008.

How to set up your paper

• • • • •

General Guidelines

Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper, Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font like Times Roman. The font size should be 12 pt. Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks (unless otherwise instructed by your instructor). Set the margins of your document to 1 inch on all sides. Indent the first line of a paragraph one half-inch (five spaces or press tab once) from the left margin. Use italics for titles – underlining is no longer accepted (except in rough draft)

Formatting Your Paper

• • • • • • Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested. In the upper right corner of the first page, put a proper heading.

Double space and center the title. Don't underline your title or put it in quotation marks; do not use all capital letters for the title.

Use quotation marks and italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text.

Double space between the title and the first line of the text. Use inverted indentation in your Works Cited page.

Sample MLA Works Cited Page

Works Cited Aldrich, Frederick A. and Margueritte L. Marks. “Wyman Reed Green, American Biologist.”

Bios

23.1 (1952): 26-35. Print.

Berger, James D. and Helmut J. Schmidt. “Regulation of Macronuclear DNA Content in Paramecium Tetraurelia.”

The Journal of Cell Biology

76.1 (1978): 116-126.

JSTOR

. Web. 20 Nov. 2008.

Carré, John.

The Tailor of Panama

. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996. Print.

Cohen, Elizabeth. “Five Ways to Avoid Germs While Traveling.”

CNN.com

. CNN, 27 Nov. 2008. Web. 28 Nov. 2008. Kline, Daniel T., ed.

Geoffrey Chaucer Online: The Electronic Canterbury Tales

. U of Alaska Anchorage, 30 Jul. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2008.

Lubell, Sam. “Of the Sea and Air and Sky.”

New York Times

. New York Times, 26 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2008.

In-Text Citations

In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done by using what's known as parenthetical citation. Immediately following a quotation from a source or a paraphrase of a source's ideas, you place the author's name followed by a space and the relevant page number(s).

Example: Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).

Citation and Works Cited Link

Your in-text citation will correspond with an entry in your Works Cited page, which, for the Burke citation above, will look something like this: Burke, Kenneth.

Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method

. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966 .

When can I skip the in-text citation?

You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations or common knowledge. An example of common knowledge: George Washington was the first president of the United States.

For More Information on MLA Style

Purdue OWL. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide."

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue

. 10 May 2008. Purdue University Writing Lab. 12 May 2008.