MLA
General style notes
Before selecting a referencing style check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by the School or Department.
About 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. The style uses a template of core elements common to most sources, such as author, title and publication date.
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Access to the full style manual
This guide is based on the MLA Handbook Plus. 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.
The handbook is available from the library as an eBook. Print copies are also available from Baillieu library. Please consult the official manual for more information.
Handbook references in Re:cite are given for sections of the manual (eg: 5.1, 6.22), rather than page numbers. Section numbers are consistent across print and online formats.
For further information about the style, see https://www.mla.org/MLA-Style.
These online resources provide more detailed advice on how to cite in the MLA 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.
MLA's Interactive Practice Template is a tool for learning MLA style, although it is not a citation generator.
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In text citations
MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citations. The author's surname 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.
eg. (Hassan 128-9)
In-text citations are brief, unobtrusive references that direct readers to the Works Cited list entries for the sources you consulted and, where relevant, to the location in the source being cited (6.1).
Do not precede a page number with p. or pp., as you do in the list of works cited list (6.16).
An in-text citation begins with the information that directs your reader to the entry in the Works Cited list. The in-text citation begins with whatever comes first in the Works Cited list: the author’s name or the title of the work. The citation can appear in your prose or in parentheses (6.2).
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Works cited list
The Works Cited list is arranged in alphabetic order by the first element of each entry. This is usually an author surname or, for works listed by title, the first eligible word in the Title of Source element (5.123).
References in the list of works cited at the end of the paper are to be arranged as follows (1.6):
- 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.
Entries in the Works Cited list are created using the MLA template of core elements - author, title, and publication date, etc. (fig. 5.1).
The MLA style uses the concept of “containers”. A container is a work that contains another work. For example, a book is the container for a book chapter, YouTube is the container of a video clip (See 5.31 and fig. 5.2 of the Handbook for further explanation). Print novels are self-contained.
There can be more than one container. For further explanation see 5.33 of the Handbook.
The MLA elements are listed below in the order they should appear in your citations. The highlighted elements below represent the “container” part of the citation.
Periods are used after the Author element, after the Title of Source element, at the end of each container string, and at the end of each entry. Commas are used mainly between elements within each container and between the surname and the first name when the name in the Author element is inverted (5.120).
Omit any element that does not apply except Title of Source (5.1).
Note: an element name is not always literal and can be applied to a range of situations. For example, Publication Date can include an actual date of publication, a date of composition for unpublished material, the date a performance was attended, and other dates relevant to the work you are citing (5.2).
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A note about DOIs and URLs
- DOIs are more reliable locators than URLs (the web addresses that appear in your browser window), because DOIs remain attached to their sources even if the URLs change. DOIs are therefore more stable, and often more concise (5.84).
- In deciding when to include a URL, follow the preferences of your instructor, institution, or publisher (5.84: see also 5.96 for guidance on shortening URLs).
- An access date for an online work should generally be provided if the work lacks a publication date or if you suspect that the work has been altered or removed (5.111).
Explore resources to help with reference management and enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks .
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Archival material
Material type
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Books, book chapters, theses
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DVD and videos
Format for in-text citation
In-text citation example
("Schindler's List" 00:21:16-17)
Format for reference list
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Title of DVD/ video/ film. Directed by Director's name, production company, date of recording or year of release.
Reference list example
Schindler's List. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Universal, 1993.
Style notes for this reference type
Citations in Forms Other Than Print
The standards for source documentation in nonprint forms will change as media themselves change, but the aims will remain the same: to provide information that enables you to give credit to those whose work influenced yours and that allows your audience to both understand and retrieve the sources that you discuss (6.78).
Basic elements of citation:
These will change depending on what is being cited. For example, you are focusing on a key contributor to a work, such as Screenwriter, Director, Actor and so on, rather than the author.
- Title (in italics).
- Director,
- Production company,
- Year of release/ recording.
See Handbook
- If your discussion of a work focuses on the contribution of a particular person, place that contributor in the Author element, followed by an appropriate label – Spielberg, Steven, director. (5.40)
- If you are writing about a film or television series without focusing on an individual’s contribution, begin with the title. You can include information about the director and other key participants in the position of other contributors. (5.39)
- For works in a time-based media, such as audio and video, cite the relevant time span if it is displayed. Give the numbers of the hours, minutes and seconds as displayed in your media player, separating the numbers with colons, with no space on either side. (6.28).
- The location of a television episode in a DVD set is indicated by the disc number. (5.84)
For more specific information, consult the Handbook’s index under the type of work you are citing, or the element you are trying to find.
Explore resources to help with reference management and enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks .
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Journal articles
Journal article type
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Newspaper articles
Newspaper article type
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Non-English language sources
- In the works-cited list, translations of titles in languages other than English are usually unnecessary, especially if your audience is composed primarily of people who know the language (e.g. when you are writing a paper for a class studying the language or for a specialist journal) (5.30).
- If your audience is likely to include readers unfamiliar with the language, however, it may be helpful to provide a translation, placed in square brackets after the original title and with the same formatting as the original title (here, italics) (5.30).
Hao, Chunwen 郝春文. Tang houqi wudai Songchu Dunhuang sengni de shehui shenghuo 唐后期五代宋初敦煌僧尼的社会生活 [The social existence of monks and nuns in Dunhuang during the late Tang, Five Dynasties and early Song]. Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1998.
Kondō, Shigekazu 近藤成一. " Yēru Daigaku Shozō Harima no Kuni Ōbe no Shō Kankei Monjo ni tsuite" イェール大学所蔵播磨国大部庄関係文書について [On Harima no Kuni Ōbe no Shō Kankei Monjo at Yale University Collection]. Tōkyō: Tokyō Daigaku Shiryō Hensanjo Kenkyū Kiyō 23 (March 2013) : 1-22.
Webpages, blog posts and social media
Reference type
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Sample Works Cited List/Bibliography
Works Cited list style notes
For formatting the Works Cited List, see Handbook: 1.6, 1.7, Fig. 1.4.
References in the list of works cited at the end of the paper are to be arranged as follows
- 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.
- Initial articles (a, an, the) should be omitted in the works-cited-list entry (5.18).
Incorrect
The Beatles . Revolver . EMI Records , 1966.
Beatles, The. Revolver. EMI Records , 1966.
Correct
Beatles. Revolver. EMI Records, 1966.
- For more information, consult the index in the Handbook under Works-cited list
Works Cited List
Bockelman, Brian. “Buenos Aires Bohème: Argentina and the Transatlantic Bohemian Renaissance, 1890–1910.” Modernism/Modernity, vol. 23, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 37 – 63. Project Muse, https://doi.org/10.1353/mod.2016.0011.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Circa 1400-10, British Library, London, Harley MS 7334.
Fisher, Margaret. “The Music of Ezra Pound.” Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 80, nos. 3–4, Apr. 2006, pp. 139 – 60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40859548. PDF download.
Gill, Jane [@persiankiwi]. “We have a report of large street battles in east & west of Tehran now - #iranelection.” Twitter, 23 June 2009, twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/2298106072.
Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Child Care: From Newborn to Preteen. 1st ed. Hearst Books, 1995.
Hassan, Robert. Media, Politics and the Network Society. Open UP, 2004.
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, pp. 1-22. Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies Collection, https://doi:10.1057/9780230800939.
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.
Kissane, K. “Brumby calls for tough sentences”. The Age, 29 Oct. 2008, p. 8.
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.
Schindler's List. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Universal, 1993.
University of Melbourne Archives. UMA: bulletin of the University of Melbourne Archives. No. 1, 1994, University of Melbourne, Baillieu Library Special Collections, 027.79451 UNIV.
Explore resources to help with reference management and enable you to effectively integrate and cite sources into your writing and assessment tasks .
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Further help
If you are unsure about which referencing style to use, check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by your Faculty, School or Department.
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