Archival material
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Complete work
Entry in reference list
Author. Title of Source. Date, Location, Manuscript or Item number (optional-element slot).
Note: the elements used in an entry in the reference list will vary depending on the nature of the source being cited and the information that is available.
For example - reference list
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Circa 1400-10, British Library, London, Harley MS 7334.
For example - in text citation
… (Chaucer 14)
Style notes
- In general, first list the author, if given, and then the title or a description of the work.
- If the work is contained in a collection, list the collection name as the title of the container. Include any other elements that apply.
- The library or institution where the collection can be found may be listed as part of the container or as part of the location.
- If the date of a document is uncertain, add a question mark after the date.
- If the material you are citing is in an unprocessed collection, provide in-text citations that include descriptions of the items and omit works-cited-list entries.
The above information is taken from the blog post A Guide to Citing Materials from Physical Archives and Collections, by Jennifer Rappaport, published on the MLA Style Center website on 25 April 2018.
For examples of how to cite digitally archived materials, please refer to the Electronic source section of this guide.
For an explanation of additional optional elements, see Optional Elements; A Primer, by Angela Gibson, published on the MLA Style Center website on 26 July 2017.
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Document in an archival collection
Entry in reference list
Author. "Title of source"/ Description of source. Title of collection, Location, manuscript/ item/ file number (optional-element slot).
Note: the elements used in an entry in the reference list will vary depending on the nature of the source being cited and the information that is available.
For example - reference list
Auden, W. H., and Klaus Mann. Prospectus. Decision Magazine Papers, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale U Library, MS 176, box 1, folder 20.
For example - in text citation
... (Auden and Mann),
Style notes
- In general, first list the author, if given, and then the title or a description of the work.
- If the work is contained in a collection, list the collection name as the title of the container. Include any other elements that apply.
- The library or institution where the item can be found may be listed as part of the container (name of the collection) or as part of the location
- If the date of a document is uncertain, add a question mark after the date.
- If the material you are citing is in an unprocessed collection, provide in-text citations that include descriptions of the items and omit works-cited-list entries.
- If the number in an in-text citation is not a page number or line number, it is usually preceded by a label identifying the type of part that is numbered. A comma separates such a reference from the author's name. (3.6)
The above information is taken from the blog post A Guide to Citing Materials from Physical Archives and Collections, by Jennifer Rappaport, published on the MLA Style Center website on 25 April 2018.
For examples of how to cite digitally archived materials, please refer to the Electronic source section of this guide.
For an explanation of additional optional elements, see Optional Elements; A Primer, by Angela Gibson, published on the MLA Style Center website on 26 July 2017.
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Letter
Entry in reference list
Author. Description of letter. Date, Location, manuscript/ item/ file number (optional-element slot).
Note: the elements used in an entry in the reference list will vary depending on the nature of the source being cited and the information that is available.
For example - reference list
Benton, Thomas Hart. Letter to Charles Fremont. 22 June 1847. John Charles Fremont Papers, Southwest Museum Library, Los Angeles. Manuscript.
For example - reference list
Moore, Marianne. Letter to Bryher. 28 Sept. 1954. Bryher Papers, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale U, GEN MSS 97, box 38, folder 1373.
For example - in text citation
(Benton)
Style notes
- In general, first list the author, if given, and then the title or a description of the letter.
- If the work is contained in a collection, list the collection name as the title of the container. Include any other elements that apply.
- The library or institution where the item can be found may be listed as part of the container (name of the collection) or as part of the location
- When you cite letters, include the date of the letter in the middle optional-element slot after the title or description of the letter.
- If you wish to indicate that the letter is handwritten, list “Manuscript” in the optional-element slot at the end of the entry.
- If the date of a document is uncertain, add a question mark after the date.
- If the material you are citing is in an unprocessed collection, provide in-text citations that include descriptions of the items and omit works-cited-list entries.
The above information is taken from the blog post A Guide to Citing Materials from Physical Archives and Collections, by Jennifer Rappaport, published on the MLA Style Center website on 25 April 2018.
For examples of how to cite digitally archived materials, please refer to the Electronic source section of this guide.
For an explanation of additional optional elements, see Optional Elements; A Primer, by Angela Gibson, published on the MLA Style Center website on 26 July 2017.
MLA guides
This guide is based on the MLA Handbook. 8th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2016. Copies are available from the University of Melbourne Library.
Additional information is taken from the MLA website: "What's new in the Eighth edition." MLA, www.mla.org/MLA-Style/What-s-New-in-the-Eighth-Edition and MLA Style Center, style.mla.org.
These online resources provide more detailed advice on how to cite in the MLA style:
- Blog: "Behind the Style." MLA Style Center, style.mla.org/category/behind-the-style.
- FAQs: "Ask the MLA." MLA Style Center, style.mla.org/category/ask-the-mla.
- MLA's The Source newsletters: "The Source Archive." MLA Style Center, style.mla.org/the-source-archive.
- Blog post: Rappaport, Jennifer. "Styling titles of online works." MLA Style Center, 18 December 2017, style.mla.org/styling-online-works.
MLA's Interactive Practice Template is a tool for learning MLA style, although it is not a citation generator.
Introduction to MLA
The MLA citation style uses parenthetical (in text) citations to identify an alphabetical list of references (Works Cited list) that appears at the end of the paper.
In text citations
MLA format follows the author-page method of in text citation. The author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your Works Cited list.
The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses.
Works Cited list
References in the list of works cited at the end of the paper are to be arranged as follows (2.7):
- Begin each entry flush with the left margin.
- For entries that run for more than one line, indent the subsequent line or lines by half an inch from the left margin. This format is sometimes called hanging indentation.
- References are listed alphabetically by the author's last name.
- If there is no author, alphabetise by the title.
- References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited.
In the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook, 2016, the work’s publication format is not considered. The MLA now recommends a set of guidelines that can be applied to any source. Instead of asking “How do I cite a book [or DVD or Web page]?”, the writer asks “Who is the author? What is the title?” and so forth—regardless of the nature of the source. The writer then creates an entry by consulting the MLA’s list of core elements—facts common to most works—which are assembled in a specific order.
The MLA core elements appear below in the order in which they should appear; each element is followed by the punctuation mark shown unless it is the final element, which should end with a period (20).
- Author.
- Title of source.
- Title of container,
- Other contributors,
- Version,
- Number,
- Publisher,
- Publication date,
- Location.
An element should be omitted from the entry if it is not relevant to the work being documented.
New in the 8th Edition:
Abbreviations
Common terms in the works-cited list like editor, edited by, translator, and review of are no longer abbreviated. The 8th edition provides a list of recommended abbreviations (95–101).
Authors
When a source has three or more authors, only the first one shown in the source is normally given. It is followed by et al. (22).
Books and other printed works
Page numbers in the works-cited list (but not in in-text citations) are now preceded by p. or pp. (46).
For books, the city of publication is no longer given, except in special situations (51).
Journals
Issues of scholarly journals are now identified with, for instance, “vol. 64, no. 1” rather than “64.1” (39–40).
If an issue of a scholarly journal is dated with a month or season, the month or season is now always cited along with the year (45).
Online Works
The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a Web source. Angle brackets are not used around it (48, 110).
The citing of DOIs (digital object identifiers) is encouraged (110).
Citing the date when an online work was consulted is now optional (53).
Placeholders for unknown information like n.d. (“no date”) are no longer used. If facts missing from a work are available in a reliable external resource, they are cited in square brackets (2.6.1). Otherwise, they are simply omitted.
For further guidance on styling titles of online works, see this blog post:
- Rappaport, Jennifer. "Styling titles of online works." MLA Style Center, 18 December 2017, style.mla.org/styling-online-works/.
Publisher
Publishers’ names are now given in full, except that business words like Company (Co.) are dropped and, for academic presses, the abbreviations U, P and UP are still used (97).
When an organization is both author and publisher of a work, the organization’s name is now given only once, usually as the publisher (25). No author is stated.
Source is part of a larger work - Container
When the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source. The container is crucial to the identification of the source. The title of the container is usually italicised and followed by a comma.
The container may be a book that is a collection of essays, stories, poems, or other kinds of works (30).
Miscellaneous
The medium of publication is no longer stated, except when it is needed for clarity (52).
In-text citations
No punctuation is used in a basic parenthetical citation. It consists of an author's last name and a page number. When parenthetical citations are more complex, they must be punctuated for clarity. For example: citations of multiple sources, multiple works by the same author (126).
In the new 8th edition, the principles behind in-text citations in MLA style are unchanged. A few details have been added or clarified:
- For time-based media like video, times are now cited in the text (57).
- The use of my trans. to identify the writer’s translation of a non-English quotation is described (90–91).
- How to shorten long titles when they have to be included in a parenthetical citation is clarified (117–18).
- The common practice of documenting borrowings from Greek, Roman, and medieval works with part numbers, not page numbers alone, is described (122).
- The punctuation used when various items are combined in one parenthetical citation is summarized (126–27).
- Ways of formatting citations in research projects other than traditional papers are suggested (127–28).