Type of reference |
Exact Wording
Enclose in quotes, with the author and page number in parentheses |
Ideas
Paraphrase with attribution to original author with page number, no quotation marks |
Long Quotes (4+ lines or 3+ lines of verse)
Indent full quotation with (Author page number) after period, no quotation marks (unless part of quote) |
Works Cited
Include everything you quoted or were influenced by in the list of works cited |
Examples |
“My cat’s fur is brown” (Smith 23). |
Smith observed that the fur on his cat was brown (23). |
My cat… scratched me. (Smith 23) |
Smith, Max. “My Cat.” Journal of Feline Felicities, vol. 43, no. 2, Jan. 1999, pp. 19-34. |
Author(s).“Title of Source.” Title of Container, version, number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. Database, Location. Accessed __.
Author - see box below for uses of author names
"Title of Source" - article, website, blog post, book chapter, essay in anthology, tweet.
Title of Container - journal, webpage, blog, book, Twitter.
Version - edition, volume.
Location - page numbers (pp.), URL, DOI. Database locations should be DOI or permalink URLs.
Accessed - use for websites and social media posts.
Example:
Smith, Max. “My Cat.” Journal of Feline Felicities, vol. 43, no. 2, Jan. 1999, pp. 19-34.
Smith, Max. All About My Cat. Clear Mountain Publishers, 1999.
MLA Handbook by Example:
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How to list the authors if given the following conditions:
| 1 author | Lastname, Firstname. |
| 2 | Lastname, Firstname, and Firstname Lastname. |
| 3+ | Lastname, FIrstname, et al. |
| editor/translator, performer/etc. | Lastname, Firstname, editor. |
| 2+ | Lastname, Firstname, and Firstname Lastname (or et al.), editors. |
| Pseudonym | @username./Online username. |
| No author | Title of Source. |
| Corporate author | Organization Name. |
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When using images in a paper, you must include a full citation of the image in your list of works cited.
Fairchild Aerial Surveys, Inc. Aerial View of Hoboken. N.d., New York Public Library Digital Gallery, digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/id?1630052.
-- Purdue OWL
Musical works are cited in different ways depending on their medium. Sound recordings are different from sheet music which is different from .mp3 files, so it's important to be specific when you cite a work you have used.
Sound recording
Beethoven, Ludwig van. The 9 Symphonies. Performance by NBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, RCA, 2003.
-- Purdue OWL
When citing a review of a work (music recording, film, artwork, book, etc.), it's important to include the name of the work being reviewed as well as citation information about the review itself.
Review Author. "Title of Review (if there is one)." Review of Performance Title, by Author/Director/Artist. Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, page.
Dickar, Maryann. "Coming of Age in New Jersey." Review of Teenage New Jersey, 1941-1975, by Kathryn Grover. American Quarterly, Mar. 2000, pp. 127-44.
-- Purdue OWL
IN-TEXT
When mentioning a poem in-text, cite it by division (art, scene, canto, book, part), stanza, and line number if possible, separating the division and line by periods (example: Iliad 9.19 means book 9, line 19 of the Iliad; 1.2.15-16 means part 1, stanza 2, lines 15 and 16) with the name of the poem in quotes, and use a / to indicate a line break (or // to indicate a stanza break). More than three lines of verse should be inset as a block quote.
In "The Lady of Shalott," Tennyson notes that "Four gray walls, and four gray towers, / Overlook a space of flowers" (1.2.15-16).
-- MLA Handbook, 8th ed., 2016: 1.3.3 Poetry; see also 3.3.2 and 1.2.2
WORKS CITED
To cite a poem in your list of works cited, think of it as a work in a larger anthology or as a book chapter. If it's from an online source, include that information:
Tennyson, Alfred. "The Lady of Shalott." The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900, edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch,
Clarendon, 1919, n. pag. Bartleby.com, http://www.bartleby.com/101/700.html.
-- MLA Handbook, 8th ed., 2016, p. 27
FOCUS ON ORIGINAL WORK
Cite a work in another language as if it were in English, giving the translated title in square brackets if it seems necessary for clarification. If citing a poem in an anthology, include all relevant information:
Hanzlik, Josef. "Vengeance." Translated by Ewald Osers. Interference: The Story of Czechoslovakia in the Works of Its Writers,
edited by Peter Spafford, New Clarion, 1992, p. 54.
-- MLA Handbook, 8th ed., 2016, p. 37
FOCUS ON TRANSLATION
If you're citing the translation of the work specifically, list the translator as the author:
Sullivan, Alan, and Timothy Murphy, translators. Beowulf. Edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.
-- MLA Handbook, 8th ed., 2016, p. 23