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Citing and Writing Guide: MLA Style

Information on writing and grammar, copyright, and citation styles.

Helpful MLA Guides

Formatting References for Reference Page

Books

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.

Example: Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City. Crown Publishers, 2003.​

Book Chapters

Last Name, First Name. "Chapter or Essay Title." Title of the Book, edited by Editor's Name, Publisher, Year, Page Range.

Example: Bhabha, Homi. "Narrating the Nation." Nationalism, edited by John Hutchinson & Anthony D. Smith, Oxford University Press, 1994, 306-312.

Articles

Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Journal Title, volume number, issue number, Year, Page Range. Database Name, DOI or URL if no DOI exists. Accessed Date written as Day Month Year. 

Example: 

Brinkman, Britney G. and Allison Jedinak. "Exploration of a Feminist Icon: Wonder Woman's Influence on U.S. Media." Sex Roles, vol. 70,

no. 9-10, 2014, pp. 434-435. PsycINFO, doi: 10.1007/s11199-014-0364-x.

Websites

Author Last Name, First Name. "Title of Web Page." Title of Web Site, If it has a published date put that here  as day month, year, URL. If there is no published date then put the date you accessed the website here.

Example: 

Larson, Erik. "The Devil in the White City." Erik Larson Books. eriklarsonbooks.com/the-books/the-devil-in-the-white-city/. Accessed on May 24,

2018.

Movies

Tile of Film. Directed by Director Name, performances by Names of Performers, Name of Production Company, Year.

OR To put emphasis on the Director or a specific performer you can do the following. 

Last Name, First Name, Title of Person. Title. Name of Production Company, Year.

Example: 

Wonder Woman. Directed by Patty Jenkins, performances by Gal Gadot and Chris Pine, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 2017.

In-Text Citations

For citing in-text quotations, the basic format is the author's last name and page number within parentheses.

Example: Beethoven was considered "unnaturally gifted" in this matter (Sipe 65).

 

If you reference the author's name within your sentence, you only need to put the page number within parentheses.

Example: Sipe argues that theoretical arguments must be "balanced by a historical perspective" (24).

 

Aside from citing parenthetically, you should also include a Works Cited page at the end of your paper.