MLA STYLE (7TH EDITION)

Plan of the work

 Introduction
 Why use MLA ?
 General MLA Guidelines
 In_Text or Parenthetical Citation in MLA
 Works Citation
 Conclusion
introduction
 When writing a research paper, we “enter into a community
of writers and scholars” (Gibaldi xiii) who agree to follow
“rules” in writing and using sources. These rules are written
down in handbooks like the MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers (MLA), which offer guidelines for
everything from how the research is presented (the style),
to how it looks (the format), and how to incorporate
sources (citation).

 MLA is most commonly used by scholars and writers in the
humanities and liberal arts. This style requires writers to
acknowledge each source use in two ways: 1. In the body of
the paper—known as in-text citations or parenthetical
citations 2. On a works cited list at the end of the paper—
known as the works cited page
WHY USE MLA?

 Generally, MLA is known for its simplicity, flexibility

and ease of use, but, more specifically, using MLA
allows you to:
 1 Establish your credibility or ethos;
 2Be responsible in how you use sources;
 3 Help your readers find the sources you used
 4 Help your readers distinguish your ideas from
those of others
 5 And, finally, “protect [yourself] from accusations
of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental
uncredited use of source material by other writers”
(The Purdue Owl).
GENERAL MLA GUIDELINES

 The MLA recommends the following format

for the manuscript of a research-based essay
or project. It’s always a good idea, however,
to check with your instructor about
formatting issues before preparing your final
draft.
 Cite all the sources you have consulted and the
ideas you derived whether they are direct
quotations, paraphrases, or summaries.
 Begin the works cited list on a separate page.
 Double-space all the paper including the works
cited page.
 Use Times New Roman and 12 font.
 Set the paper at 1 inch on all the margins.
 Indent the first line of each paragraph.
 In right upper corner of the header, type your
surname and number all the pages.
IN-TEXT OR PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS IN MLA

 Whether you are quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing, you need to cite the
ideas you borrow from each source and indicate where in the source you
found the ideas—we call these in-text citations. Usually, MLA requires
writers to include the author’s name and page number(s) in parentheses, but
the rules vary.
a) The information you provide about any
source in the parenthetical citation must match
with the information you provide about the
source in the works cited page. See the
following example:

Medieval Europe was a place both of "raids,

pillages, slavery, and extortion" and of
"traveling merchants, monetary exchange,
towns if not cities, and active markets in grain"
(Townsend 10).
b) You could use a signal phrase to introduce a
source or include all the source information in
the parenthetical citation. See the following
examples:
Chan claims that "Eagleton has belittled the
gains of postmodernism" (par. 41).
In-text references provide a means for you to give credit when using other's words, facts, or ideas. MLA documentation
uses parenthetical notations to identify the source (author's surname) and the specific location (page reference) from
which you borrow material.
Place the parenthetical reference where a natural pause would occur, as near as possible to the material documented.
You can provide the author's last name and page number at the end of the sentence enclosed in parenthesis, or the author's
last name can appear as part of the sentence with the page number at the end of the sentence enclosed with
parenthesis. Do not repeat the author's name.
Example:
The most recent report on the use of experiments shows a correlation between results and participants (Brown 152-54).
OR
Brown's recent report on the use of experiments shows a correlation between results and participants (152).
Use a brief parenthetical reference in your paper whenever you are incorporating
the words, thoughts, or ideas of someone else in your paper.
Keep parenthetical references as brief as possible. Give only enough information to
identify a source.
Each in-text or parenthetical citation should clearly correspond to a citation in the
list of 'Works Cited' at the end of the paper.
Identify the location of the information that you are citing as specifically as
possible (usually page number).
One author
You may cite a single author’s name in the
text.
Briton admonished supporters of
capital punishment (47-53).

Or, you can use a parenthetical reference

with the author’s name and page number.
Supporters of capital punishment
specialize in the abolition of truth (Briton
47-53).
Two or three authors
Use ‘and’ (not ‘&’) between the last two author names.
(Smith and Houston 43). Give the last name of
each author separated by commas, as in
(Romano, Dokoupil, and Olander vii).

Or, include the authors’ names in the text and reference

only the page number in the parenthetical citation, as
in
Romano, Dokoupil, and Olander presented their
position . . . (vii).
Four or more authors
If the work has more than three authors, follow the form in
the works cited reference. Give all of the authors’ last names
in the text or list the first author’s name followed by et al.
According to James, Cameron, Smith, Hawthorne, and
Cushing, social customs in the southern United States . . . .
(157-165).
OR
James et al. claim that social customs prevalent in the
southern United States have . . . 157-165).
OR
Social customs in the southern United States have become .
. . (James et al. 157-165).
Multiple works by the same author
In the parenthetical citation, put a comma after the author’s name,
then a shortened version of the title and the page reference.

In-text:
The fluidity of poetry can be compared to the . . . (Brown, Poetry in
Motion 47).
Brown compares the fluidity of poetry to the movement . . . (Poetry
in Motion 47).
Authors with same surname
If the works cited list contains two or more
authors with the same surname, include the
author’s first initials in the parenthetical
reference.
(T. Blake and R. Blake)
A WORKS CITED PAGE

 A list of works cited is an alphabetical list of the

sources you have referred to in your essay. (If your
instructor asks you to list everything you have read
as background, call the list Works Consulted.) Here
are some guidelines for preparing such a list:
 • Start your list on a separate page after the text of
your essay and any notes.
 • Continue the consecutive numbering of pages.
 • Center the heading Works Cited an inch from the
top of the page; do not underline or italicize it or
enclose it in quotation marks. Doublespace between
the heading and the first entry, and double-space
the entire list.
 If more than one city of publication is listed in
the book you are citing, use the first one
listed
 . If you do not know the date of publication,
use the abbreviation "n.d.“
 If you do not know the place of publication or
the publisher use the abbreviation "n.p."
Book with One Author: Last name, First Name. Title of
Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Medium.

Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresis: British Literary History,

1883-1924. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2008. Print.

Two or More Works by the Same Author(s): Works

listed under the same name are alphabetised by title.

Borroff, Marie. Language and the Poet: Verbal Artistry in

Frost, Stevens and Moore. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979.
Print ---, trans. Pearl. New York: Norton, 1977. Print.
Book with Two Authors:
Author 1, and Author 2. Title of Book. Place of Publication:
Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium.

Broer, Lawrence R., and Gloria Holland. Hemingway and

Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice. Tuscaloosa: U
of Alabama P, 2002. Print.

Book with More Than Three Authors:

Either give all authors in the order they are named on the
cover page or reference as follows:

Author 1, et al. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher,

Year of Publication. Medium.

Plag, Ingo, et al. Introduction to English Linguistics. Berlin:

Mouton, 2007. Print.
 Book in a Series:
The series name is usually added after all the usual information.

Neruda, Pablo. Canto General. Trans. Jack Schmitt. Berkeley: U of

California P, 1991. Print. Latin Amer. Lit. and Culture 7.

Article from a Reference Rook: If the article is unsigned/ name of the author is
unknown, give the title first.
If the reference book is widely known and published in several editions, condense the
usual information.
“Ginsburg, Ruth Bader.” Who’s Who in America. 62nd ed. 2008. Print.
In case of a rare and specific reference book or one that appeared in only one edition,
give a full-length entry, excluding page numbers.

Allen, Anita L. “Privacy Health Care.” Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Ed. Stephen G. Post. 3rd
ed. Vol. 4. New York: Macmillan-Thompson, 2004. Print.
 Introduction, Foreword, Preface, etc.:
Author. Section. Title of the Publication. By Publication’s Author.
Editor’s Name(s). Place: Publisher, Year. Page Numbers.
Medium.

Borges, Jorge Luis. Forword. Selected Poems, 1923-1967. By

Borges. Ed. Norman Thomas Di Giovanni. New York: Delta-Dell,
1973. xv-xvi. Print.

A Work in an Anthology:
Author. “Title of Work.” Editor’s Name(s). Title of Collection. Edition. Place of Publication:
Publisher, Year of Publication, Pages. Medium.

Bordo, Susan. “The Moral Content of Nabokov’s Lolita.” Aesthetic Subjects. Ed. Pamela R.
Matthews and David McWhirter. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. 125-52. Print.
 An Anthology:
Editor’s Name, Role. Title of Anthology. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of
Publication. Medium.

Kepner, Susan Fulop, ed. and trans. The Lioness in Bloom: Modern Thai Fiction about
Women. Berkeley: U of California P, 1996. Print.

Magazine Article:

Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Day Month Year: Pages. Medium.

McEvoy, Dermot. “Little Books, Big Success.” Publishers Weekly 30 Oct. 2006: 26-28.
Print.
Newspaper Article: If an edition is named on the masthead, add a comma after the date
and specify the edition. For sections labelled with letters and paginated separately, the
section letter is sometimes part of each page number

Leave out the publications’ articles if they are national ones. Keep them in international
publications.

If the article starts on one page and then skips to another, indicate only the page number in
which the article begins and add a “plus”, +.

Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Publication Day Month Year, Edition: Pages. Medium.

Jeromack, Paul. “This Once, a David of the Art World Does Goliath Favor.” New York Times
13 July 2002, late ed.: B7+. Print.

Article in a scholarly journal: Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year):
Pages. Medium.

Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the Book of Everything.” PMLA
121.1 (2006): 124-38. Print.
Book or Article with no Author Named:

Encyclopedia of Virginia. New York: Somerset, 1998. Print.

“It Barks! It Kicks! It Scores!” Newsweek 30 July 2001: 12. Print.

Interview:

Name of Person Interviewed. “Title of Interview.” Publication. Interviewer (if available).

The remaining info as according to the medium.

Blanchett, Cate. “In Character with: Cate Blanchett.” Notes on a Scandal. Dir. Richard
Eyre. Fox Searchlight, 2006. DVD.

For a personal interview:

Reed, Ishmael. Telephone Interview. 10 Dec. 1997.

EDITOR Treat an editor as an author, but add a comma and ed. (or eds.).

UNKNOWN AUTHOR
Begin the entry with the title, and list the work alphabetically by the first word of the
title after any initial A, An, or The.
New Concise World Atlas. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.

BOOK IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH

If necessary, you may provide a translation of the book’s title in brackets. You may
also choose to give the English name of a foreign city in brackets.
Benedetti, Mario.
La borra del café [The Coffee Grind]. Buenos Aires: Sudamericana, 2000. Print.
ELECTRONIC SOURCES:

 Electronic sources such as Web sites differ

from print sources in the ease with which
they can be—and frequently are—changed,
updated, or even eliminated.
 The most commonly cited electronic sources
are documents from Web sites and
databases.
When citing a website in Works Cited, provide as much as possible of the following
information
Author's name. If no author is listed, start with the title of the document.
Title of the document (in quotation marks or italicized)
Title of the overall website (italicized, if distinct from the title of the document).
Publisher or sponsor of the site; if not available, use "N.p."
Date of publication; if not available, use "n.d."
Include the word "Web" after the publisher/N.p., describing that the medium of the site
is the web.
Include the date of access .
If there are no page or paragraph numbers, the MLA guide recommends that you
incorporate the name of the author in the text of your paper. Or you may cite author's
name in parentheses without a page or paragraph number, if you prefer. In the Works
Cited use the abbreviation "n. pag" .
Include a URL only if the site is too difficult to find without it, or if an instructor requires
it. Only break a URL between two lines after a single or double slash. Do not use a
hyphen to connect the URL between the two lines .
Film or Video Recording:

 Title. Director. Screenwriter. Producer.

Performer. Distributor, Year. Medium.

 Like Water for Chocolate [Como agua para

chocolate]. Screenplay by Laura Esquivel. Dir.
Alfonso Arau. Perf. Lumi Cavazos, Marco
Lombardi, and Regina Torne. Miramax, 1993.
Film.
Article in Online Journal or
Magazine:
 Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal.
Volume.Issue (Year): Page. Medium. Date of
Access.
 Ouellette, Marc. “Theories, Memories,
Bodies, and Artists.” Reconstruction 7.4
(2007): n.pag. Web. 5 June 2008.
A Periodical Publication in an
Online Database
 Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal.
Volume.Issue (Year):
Pages/Paragraphs/Sections. Name of
Database. Medium. Date of Access.

 France, Anatole. “Pour la Paix, pour la

Liberté.” New Age 5 Sept. 1907: 297-98. The
Modernist Journals Project. Web. 5 June 2008.
Professional or Business Web
Site:
 Sometimes, the date of the site publication
tends to be the date of the last update.
 Site Title. Date of Site Publication. Name of
Sponsoring Business/Institution. Medium.
Date of Access.

 American Verse Project. 16 May 2001. U of

Michigan Humanities Text Initiative. Web. 21
July 2005.