Electronic source
You may need to consult more than one section to accurately represent the source used. (eg. Number of authors and source descriptions)
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Web page with author
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Title of website, date of publication (if available), URL.
Example - reference list
Hollmichel, Stefanie. "The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print." So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print.
Example - in text citation
The brain perceives the entirety of a text as a physical landscape (Hollmichel).
Style notes for this reference type
- Citing the date when an online work was consulted is now optional. However, since online works can be changed or removed at any time, the date on which you accessed online material is often an important indicator of the version you consulted. The date of access is especially crucial if the source provides no date specifying when it was produced or published. (53)
- If your source uses explicit paragraph numbers rather than page numbers, precede the relevant number(s) with the label par. or pars. eg (Chan, par. 41). (56)
- For more guidance on citations not using page numbers, see 3.3.3 of the Handbook.
- The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a web source. Angle brackets are not used around it. (48, 2.5.2)
See Handbook 17, 48, 53, 56.
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Web page with no author
Example - in text citation
("Eocene fossils")…
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Title of website, Publisher or sponsor of site, date of publication (if available), URL.
Example - reference list
"Eocene fossils." Colorado Mountain College, accessed 5 Apr. 2002, www.coloradomtn.edu/campus_rfl/staff_rfl/kohls/eocene.html.
Style notes for this reference type
- When a work is published without an author's name, skip the author element and begin the entry with the work's title. (24)
- Citing the date when an online work was consulted is now optional. However, since online works can be changed or removed at any time, the date on which you accessed online material is often an important indicator of the version you consulted. The date of access is especially crucial if the source provides no date specifying when it was produced or published. (53)
- If your source uses explicit paragraph numbers rather than page numbers, precede the relevant number(s) with the label par. or pars. eg (Chan, par. 41). (56)
- For more guidance on citations not using page numbers, see 3.3.3 of the Handbook.
- The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a web source. Angle brackets are not used around it. (48, 2.5.2)
See Handbook 17, 24, 28, 48, 53, 56.
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Comments on an online forum posting
Example - in text citation
Kindle does not replace the physicality of a book (Jeane)...
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Title of blog/ website/ webpage/ forum etc., date of post, time of post, URL.
Example - reference list
Jeane. Comment on “The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print.” So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, 10:30 p.m., somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/#comment-83030.
Style notes for this reference type
- Comments on blogs and web pages are usually dated. If an article, a comment, or another source on the Web includes a time when the work was posted or last modified, include the time along with the date. (44)
- The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a web source. Angle brackets are not used around it. (48, 2.5.2)
See Handbook 44, 48.
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Blog post
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Title of website, date of post, URL.
Example - reference list
Hollmichel, Stefanie. "The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print." So Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013, somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-and-print/.
Example - in text citation
The brain regards letters as physical objects (Hollmichel)…
Style notes for this reference type
- The title of the post should be in quotation marks, and the name of the website should be in italics.
- Comments on blogs and web pages are usually dated. If an article, a comment, or another source on the Web includes a time when the work was posted or last modified, include the time along with the date. (44)
- The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a web source. Angle brackets are not used around it. (48, 2.5.2)
See Handbook 27-29.
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Tweet post
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Twitter, date of publication, time of publication, URL.
Example - reference list
@persiankiwi. "We have report of large street battles in east & west of Tehran now - #iranelection." Twitter, 23 June 2009, 11:15 a.m., twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/2298106072.
Example - in text citation
@persiankiwi states that...
Style notes for this reference type
- Identify a short untitled message, such as a tweet, by reproducing its full text, without changes in place of a title. Enclose the text in quotation marks. (24)
- Pseudonyms including online usernames are mostly treated as regular author names. (24)
- If you know the real name of an author listed under a pseudonym, you may add it in parenthesis eg @jmittell (Jason Mittell). (2.1.1)
- The URL (without http:// or https://) is now normally given for a web source. Angle brackets are not used around it. (48, 2.5.2)
See Handbook 24.
For examples of how to cite a twitter thread or conversation, see How do I cite aTwitter thread or conversation in my text and in my works-cited list? published on the MLA Style Center website on 2 April 2018.
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Digitized archive material
Example - in text citation
("Langston Hughes" 3)
Format for reference list - including elements, punctuation & capitalisation
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 further examples and a summary of points to consider, please see Citing Artifacts in a Digital Archive, published on the MLA Style Center website.
Example - reference list
Civil war veterans’ card for William Gant. Pennsylvania State Archives, www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveItems&ArchiveID=17&FL=G&FID=1185185&LID=1185234. Item 6.
Example - reference list
Thomas de Cantimpré. Sermo generalis de naturis rerum.,14th century, MS Riant 19, Houghton Library, Harvard U, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Harvard University, iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45440668$1i.
Example - reference list
“Langston Hughes.” FBI file for Langston Hughes, part 4, document no. 100-25776, 4 Oct. 1944. The FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation, US Department of Justice, vault.fbi.gov/langston-hughes/langston-hughes-part-04-of-04/view.
Style notes for this reference type
- This category focuses on digital archives that embed artifacts (whether documents or other forms of media) as non-HTML objects on a Web site.
- When a source is untitled, provide a generic description of it, neither italicized nor enclosed in quotation marks. (28)
- The in text citation should include the first element of the work-cited list entry, and provide the page number of the document you are citing. (54)
- 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 eg (Chan, sec. 2). A comma separates such a reference from the author's name. (3.6)
- For in text citations, use page or section numbers only when they are visible in the document and consistent for all users of the document. When a source has no page numbers or any other kind of explicit part number, no number should be given in a parenthetical citation. (56)
- For more guidance on citations not using page numbers, see 3.3.3 of the Handbook.
Information in this section is sourced from the Handbook, and from the blog post Citing Artifacts in a Digital Archive, by Angela Gibson, published on the MLA Style Center website on 25 April 2018.
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.
Before selecting a referencing style check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by the School or Department.
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).
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