Book
-
No author
Entry in reference list
Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Child Care: From Newborn to Preteen. 1st ed. Hearst Books, 1995.
For example - in text citation
A summary is provided (The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Child Care 213)
Style notes
- When a book is published without an author's name, do not list the author as "Anonymous." Instead, skip the author element and begin the entry with the work's title.
- Longer titles can be abbreviated within in text citations. See 3.2.1. of the handbook for details.
- Elements of citation:
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
See Handbook (24).
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One author
Entry in reference list
Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Hassan, Robert. Media, Politics and the Network Society. Open UP, 2004.
In text citation
For the in text citation, provide the author's surname followed by the page(s) cited.
For example - in text citation
In a major study, (Hassan 185-186) it was found that…
Style notes
- Initials used within the names of persons include a full stop followed by a space e.g. J. R. R. Tolkien (1.6)
- Elements of citation:
- Author's name
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
See Handbook (21).
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Two authors
Entry in reference list
Author 1 (Surname, Forename), and Author 2 (Forename Surname). Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Wellman, Barry, and Caroline A. Haythornthwaite. The Internet in Everyday Life. Blackwell Pub., 2002.
In text citation
For the in text citation, provide the authors' surnames followed by the page(s) cited.
For example - in text citation
The internet has impacted on many tasks performed in our daily lives (Wellman and Haythornthwaite 23)…Style notes
- Elements of citation:
- Authors' names
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
- When a source has two authors, list the authors in the same order they are presented in the work.
- In the reference list, invert the name of the first author only.
See Handbook (21).
- Elements of citation:
-
Three or more authors
Entry in reference list
First Author, et al. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Miller, P., et al. Mobile Phone Use by Teenagers. 2nd ed. Fictional Publications, 2000.
In text citation
Surname of first Author et al. Page(s) cited.
For example - in text citation
Teenagers rely on mobile phones for safety (Miller et al. 23)
Style notes
- In the reference list, for works with three or more authors, invert the first author's name, and follow it with a comma followed by et al. (and others)
- Elements of citation
- First author's name
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
See Handbook (22).
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Edited book
Entry in reference list
Name(s) of the editor(s), editor(s). Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Beckman, Karen Redrobe, and Jean Ma, editors. Still Moving: Between Cinema and Photography. Duke UP, 2008.
For example - in text citation
…Beckman and Ma (38) suggest that…
OR
…this theory was disproved (Beckman and Ma 38).
Style notes
- If the source is an edited volume, the "author" for your purposes is the person who assembled the volume - its editor. The name is followed by a descriptive label (editor). A source with multiple editors is cited using the same format as is used for multiple authors, followed by the descriptive label plural (editors).
- Elements of citation:
- Name(s) of the editor(s)
- Editor(s) - descriptive label
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
See Handbook (23).
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Chapter in a book
Entry in reference list
Author(s) of chapter. "Title of chapter." Title of Book, edited by Editor(s). Edition, Publisher, Year, Page numbers.
For example - reference list
Daniels, P. J. "Australia's foreign debt: searching for the benefits." Macroeconomics: Contemporary Australian Readings, edited by Sandra Hopkins, 2nd ed., Harper Educational, 1993, pp. 45-60.
For example - in text citation
Australia needs to maintain its triple A rating (Daniels 36)...
Style notes
- 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 title of the container is normally italicised and is followed by a comma. The container may be a book that is a collection of essays, stories, poems or other kinds of works.
- Use quotation marks for the titles of chapters in a book.
- Elements of citation:
- Author(s) of chapter
- Title of chapter in quotation marks
- Title of book (italicised)
- Name of the editor, translator, or compiler of the book being cited
- Edition if other than first edition (use 2nd ed., 3rd ed., etc)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
- Page numbers
See Handbook (30).
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eBook; eBook chapter
Entry in reference list: eBook
Author. Title of Book. Publisher, year of online publication. Name of database/ website/ eBook package, DOI (or URL).
For example - reference list: eBook
Christian, Karl, and Corey Ross, editors. Mass Media, Culture and Society in Twentieth-Century Germany. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, doi:10.1057/9780230800939.
Entry in reference list: eBook chapter
Author. "Title of chapter." Title of Book, editor, Publisher, year of online publication, page numbers. Name of database/ website/ eBook package, DOI (or URL).
For example - reference list: eBook chapter
Hickethier, Knut. “Television and Social Transformation in the Federal Republic of Germany.” Mass Media, Culture and Society in Twentieth Century Germany, edited by Karl Christian Fuhrer and Corey Ross, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 1-22. Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, doi:10.1057/9780230800939.
In text citation
For the in text citation, provide the author's surname followed by the page(s) cited, so long as the page numbering system appears consistently to other users.
For example - in text citation
In a major study, (Hickethier 12-13) it was found that…
Style notes
- It is usually best to account for all the containers that enclose your source. Each container likely provides useful information for a reader seeking to understand and locate the original source. In the case of the example above, the eBook is part of an eBook package called the Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection.
- When citing an eBook in your text, avoid using device-specific numbering systems. See section 3.3.3 of the MLA handbook for suggestions on alternative ways to identify the parts of a work.
- The DOI is always preferred over the URL. If there is no DOI, then use the URL.
- Elements of citation for an eBook:
- Author's name
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
- Name of database/ website/ eBook package (italicised)
- DOI (preceded by doi) where possible
See Handbook (31). For further examples, see pages 32-36 of the MLA Handbook, 8th edition.
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Corporate author
Entry in reference list
Corporate Author (only if different from publisher- see Style notes). Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Babies and Bosses: Reconciling Work and Family Life. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2002.
For example - in text citation
(Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 56)
OR
In 1988, a federal report observed that ...(United States, Dept. of Labor 147)
Style notes
- A work may be created by a corporate author- an institution, an association, a government agency, or another kind of institution.
- When an organization is both author and publisher, begin the entry with the work's title, skipping the author element, and list the organisation only as the publisher.
- Do not include The before the name of any organization in the works-cited list.
- When an entry starts with a government agency as the author, begin the entry with the name of the government, followed by a comma and the name of the agency. Between them, name any organizational units of which the agency is part (as, e.g. the House of Representatives is part of the Congress). All the names are arranged from the largest entity to the smallest. For example: United States, Congress, House.
- When a corporate author is named in a parenthetical citation, (in text citation) abbreviate terms that are commonly abbreviated, such as Department (Dept.). If the corporate author is identified in the works-cited list by the names of administrative units separated by commas, give all the names in the parenthetical citation.
See Handbook (25, 104, 117).
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Indirect source
Entry in reference list
Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
For example - reference list
Smith, P., et al. Introduction to Psychology: A reader. McGraw-Hill, 1998.
For example - in text citation
Freud (qtd. in Smith 102)
Style notes
- Whenever you can, take the material directly from the original source, not a secondary one. Sometimes, however, only an indirect source is available - for example, an author's published account of another person's spoken remarks.
- Elements of citation:
- Author of indirect source
- Title of book (italicised)
- Publisher's name
- Year of publication
- If what you quote or paraphrase is itself a quotation, put the abbreviation qtd. in ("quoted in") before the indirect source in your parenthetical reference.
See Handbook (24, 3.4).
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Thesis or dissertation
Entry in reference list
Author. Title of Thesis. Year. Granting university, description.
For example - reference list
Cassidy, Mary. Thirteenth-century English Cistercian Monasteries: Monastic spaces and their meanings. 1997. U of Melbourne, PhD dissertation.
If you accessed the dissertation through an online repository, include this fact as the title of the second container (italicised).
For example - reference list
Njus, Jesse. Performing the Passion: A Study on the Nature of Medieval Acting. 2010. Northwestern U, PhD dissertation. ProQuest, search.proquest.com/docview/305212264?accountid=7432.
For example - in text citation
…was found in a recent study (Cassidy 137)
Style notes
- To cite a dissertation, include in the entry the author, title, and date of publication as core elements. As an optional element, list the institution granting the degree and a description of the work.
See MLA Style Center: style.mla.org/2016/07/07/citing-dissertations/
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).
Capitalization of Department Names
See the Ask the MLA article Should department names be capitalized in MLA style? for details.
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).