Used in English and other Humanities courses

You no longer have to include the service provider, the library through which you accessed a database, or the URL.

Citing a book by one author:

Gilligan, Carol.  In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982. Print.

• Note that for university presses, the words university and press will be abbreviated without periods.

Hilts, Philip J.  Protecting America’s Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation.  New York: Knopf, 2003. Print.

• Note that for a non-academic publisher, only the principal name is used (Knopf for Alfred A. Knopf).  You do not have to include words and abbreviations such as company, inc., publishers, etc.

Citing a book by more than one author:

Lifton, Robert Jay, and Greg Mitchell.  Who Owns Death: Capital Punishment, the American Conscience, and the End of Executions. New York: Morrow, 2000. Print.

• Note that only the name of the first author is inverted.  Do not invert the names that follow. If a book has more than three authors, you may only provide the name of the first author followed by the abbreviation et al.  (from the Latin, meaning “and others”).

Citing more than one work by the same author:

Branch, Taylor.  Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. Print.

---.  Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-1965.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. Print.

• When using more than one work by the same author, alphabetize the works by the first major word in the title.  Instead of writing the author’s name more than once, use three hyphens followed by a period.

Citing a work in an anthology:

Mason, Bobbie Ann.  “Shiloh.”  Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama.  Ed. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.  9th ed.  New York: Longman, 2005.  643-54. Print.

• Note that the editors’ names are not inverted.  In-text citations should list the author of the work cited, not the editor.  Example: (Mason 643).

Citing more than one work from the same anthology:

Chopin, Kate.  “The Storm.” Kennedy and Gioia 127-31.

Kennedy, X. J. and Dana Gioia, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 9th ed.  New York: Longman, 2005. Print.

Mason, Bobbie Ann.  “Shiloh.” Kennedy and Gioia 643-54.

• Note that a full citation for the anthology is only provided once (as its own distinct citation); all other times it is abbreviated using the editors’ last names.  Also note that while the first editor’s name is inverted here, the second editor’s name is not. Place eds. at the end of the names.

Citing an online book (including those from the Net Library)

Haynes, Carolyn A.  Divine Destiny: Gender and Race in Nineteenth-century Protestantism. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1998.  NetLibrary. Web. 3 Mar. 2006.

Citing a short article from a web site

Tyson, Peter.  “Gigantism and Dwarfism on Islands.”  NOVA.  PBS Online, 1 Nov. 2008. Web. 13 Sept. 2009.

• Note that if no author is credited, begin with the title of the article in quotation marks.  The title of the web site is given in italics, followed by the sponsor of the site.  If no date of publication or update is listed, use the abbreviation n. d. (no date).

Citing an entire web site

Celestial Timepiece: A Joyce Carol Oates Homepage. Univ. of San Francisco, 15 Sep. 2009. Web. 19 Oct. 2009.

Citing an article in a subscription database

Rollin, Lucy.  “The Reproduction of Mothering in Charlotte’s Web.” Children’s Literature 18 (1990): 42-52.  Literature Resource Center. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.

• Note that you no longer have to list the service provider, the library which subscribes to the database, or the URL.

Citing a sacred text

The Bible. Print. King James Version.

New American Standard Bible.  Anaheim: Foundation, 1997.

The Qu’ran.  Trans. Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 2004.

• Note that when citing a standard version of the Bible, do not italicize the title or provide publication information.  When citing a specific edition of the Bible, the title is italicized and all publication information is provided.  For sacred texts which have a translator listed on the title page, include that information in your entry.

Citing a government document in print

United States. Office of Management and Budget.  A Citizen’s Guide to the Federal Budget. Washington: GPO, 1999. Print.

• Note that the entry begins with the government (federal or state) followed by the agency issuing the document.  The document title is italicized.  In this example, GPO stands for Government Printing Office, which publishes most federal documents.

Citing a government document online

United States.  Dept. of Agriculture. Forest Service Performance and Accountability Report – Fiscal Year 2004.  USDA, Apr. 2005. Web. 13 Sep. 2007.

Citing a law case

Chavez v. Martinez. 538 US 760 Supreme Court of the US. 2003. Supreme Court Collection.  Legal Information Inst., Cornell U Law School, n. d. Web.  14 Feb. 2006.

• Note that while law cases may require italics in the body of an MLA format paper, they are not italicized in the work cited entry. 

Citing a legislative act

Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments of 1996.  Pub. L. 104-418. 110 Stat. 3048 2 Oct. 1996. Print

• Note that this entry begins with the name of the act without italics.  This is followed by the Public Law number, the Statutes at Large number, the date, and the medium consulted.

Many examples of works cited references are illustrated on this page, but not all possible references are included.  For more examples, see the most recent edition of Keys for Writers section 12 (look for “Includes the 2009 MLA Update” on the cover) or any other reputable handbook.  You may also wish to consult Documenting Sources in MLA Style: 2009 Update available online at http://www.dianahacker.com.