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MLA Style Guide

MLA Works Cited Examples

There are 4 main elements: Author. "Title." Publication. URL.

Author Entries

  • One Author: Last, First Middle.
  • Two Authors: Last, First Middle, and First Middle Last.
  • Three and more: Last, First Middle, et al.

 

Examples

One Author, in a Database: "Article Title." 

Boggs, Colleen Glenney. Public Reading and the Civil War Draft Lottery.” American Periodicals, vol. 26, no. 2, 2016, pp. 149–66. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=shib&db=lih&AN=117364849&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

One Author, on a Webpage

Incorrect:

Alpert-Abrams, Hannah. “Machine Reading the Primeros Libros.” Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 2016, https://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/4/000268/000268.html.

Correct (Webpages do not include "https://" in the URL)

Alpert-Abrams, Hannah. “Machine Reading the Primeros Libros.” Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 2016, www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/4/000268/000268.html.

Two Authors, with a DOI (DOIs include "https://" in the URL)

Abdo, Diya, and Maria Bobroff. “Cross-Disciplinary Teaching of Mariama Ba's So Long a Letter.” ADFL Bulletin, vol. 45, no. 1, 2018, pp. 171-83, https://doi.org/10.1632/adfl.45.1.171.

Two Authors, Single-Page (single page: use p. #; multiple pages: use pp. #)

Magra, Iliana, and Andrea Zaratemay. “Hikers’ Love of a Rarity in the Andes Takes a Toll.” The New York Times, 3 May 2018, p. A7.

Two Authors, + nonconsecutive pagination

Migone, Andrea, and Michael Howlett. "Policy Shops, Hired Guns, and Gatekeepers: The Organization and Distribution of Policy Analysts in Ontario." Canadian Public Administration, vol. 65, no. 4, Dec. 2022, pp. 690+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A735499158/AONE?u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=3bc7fd3d

Three or more Authors, with e# page number

Frutos, Aaron M., et al. "Modeling the Effects of Atmospheric Pressure on Suicide Rates in the USA Using Geographically Weighted Regression." PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 12, 5 Dec. 2018, p. e0206992. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A564417708/OVIC?u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e3609843. Accessed 25 July 2023.

No Author ("Title" goes first)

"The Mozart Effect Myth: Listening to Music Does Not Help Against Epilepsy." NewsRx Science, 26 Mar. 2023, p. 539. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A741959005/AONE?u=lincclin_bwcc&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=b085d220. 

Written by the Organization - on a Webpage

Mayo Clinic. "Belly Fat in Women: Taking-and Keeping-It Off." Healthy Lifestyle Women’s Health. 28 June 2023, www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/womens-health/in-depth/belly-fat/art-20045809. 

Five elements: Author. "Webpage Title." Website Name, Date, URL. 

*Remove https:// off from the URL

 

Examples

Webpage - with Author and Date

Denchak, Melissa. "Ocean Pollution: The Dirty Facts." Natural Resources Defense Council, 7 June 2022, www.nrdc.org/stories/ocean-pollution-dirty-facts.

Webpage - No Author, No Date - Include an Accessed Date 

"What is Climate Change?" United Nations, www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.

Webpage - Organization 

Folgerpedia. Folger Shakespeare Library, 17 July 18, folgerpedia.folger.edu/Main_Page. 

Webpage - Occupational Outlook Handbook (OOH)

"Registered Nurse." Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor, United States, 8 Sep. 2022, www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/registered-nurses.htm.

Four elements: Author. Title. Publisher, year. URL. 

 

Examples

Book 

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legends and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Pantheon, 1998. 

Book by an Unknown Author, Translated Book 

Beowulf. Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.

Book with Editor(s)

Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al., editors. Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. University of Massachusetts Press/Library of Congress, Center for the Book, 2007.

Book with Edition

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton, 2009.

Book Chapter 

Seyhan, Azade. "Novel Moves." Tales of Crossed Destinies: The Modern Turkish Novel in a Comparative Context, Modern Language Association of America, 2008, pp. 1-22. 

Book - Story/ Poem/ Play 

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. 

Book on a website (with a DOI or URL) 

Miller, Daniel, et al. How the World Changed Social Media. vol. 1, UCL Press, 2016, JSTORhttps://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1g69z35Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.

American Lives: A Reader, edited by Alicia Christensen and Tobias Wolff, University of Nebraska Press, 2010. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/broward-ebooks/detail.action?docID=496570.

E-Book (a downloaded file, typically EPUB, read on a device or computer, NO need for URL) 

O’Connor, Patricia. Woe is I: The Grammarphobee's Guide to Better English in Plain English. E-book ed., Riverhead Books, 2009.

Crystal, David. Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation. E-book ed., St. Martin's Press, 2015.

Video - YouTube

"Air Canada: We're in the Business of You." YouTube, uploaded by Air Canada, 8 Apr. 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE9AFpsg7H8. 

Movie (Netflix, Hulu, Xfinity) 

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Universal Studios, 1982. Netflix.

Television Episode

"The Child." The Mandalorian. Directed by Rick Famuyiwa, Written by Jon Favreau, season 1, episode 2, Disney, 2019.

Video - TED Talk 

Allende, Isabel. "Tales of Passion." TED, Mar. 2007, www.ted.com/talk/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion?language=en. 

Facebook 

World Wildlife Fund. "Five Things to Know on Shark Awareness Day." Facebook, 14 July 2020, www.facebook.com/worldwildlifefund/videos/745925785979440/.

Podcast 

"Yiyun Li Reads 'On the Street Where You Live.'" The Writer's Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker, hosted by Deborah Treisman, podcast ed., The New Yorker/WNYC, 3 Jan. 2017, iTunes app.

X (formerly Twitter) - Tweets are now called Posts

Ng, Celeste [@pronounced_ing]. Photo of a letter from Shirley Jackson. X, 22 Jan. 2018,  twitter.com/pronounced_ing/status/955528799357231104. 

Image from a database (Artstor)

Anti-racism Demonstration. 1989. Artstor, library.artstor.org/public/SS35279_35279_35491196.

Image from a Google search

Sheldon, Natasha. Photograph of The Muleteer. “Human Remains in Pompeii: The Body Casts,” by Sheldon, 23 Mar. 2014. Decoded Past, decodedpast.com/human-remains-pompeii-body-casts/7532.

Slides - D2L 

"Slides 040720." Introduction to Digital Media Theory, taught by Kathleen Fitzpatrick. D2L, Michigan State U, 7 Apr. 2020, d2l.msu.edu/d2l/le/content/909183/viewContent/8746820/View. 

Slides - Website 

Benton, Thomas Hart. Instruments of Power from America Today. 1930-31. The Met, 2012, Metropolitan Museum of Art, www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/from-the-director/2012/benton/slideshow. Slide 1. 

Course Content - (Professor's name is the author)

Smith, Mary. "How to Write Literary Critiques." English Composition, 21 Aug. 2023, Broward College, www.broward.edu/D2L/ENC1101, Accessed 1 Sep. 2023, Class handout. 

Please confirm with your Professor that using a generative AI tool (ex: ChatGPT) is allowed for your assignment. Some Professors do not allow these tools to be used. If a generative AI tool is allowed, you must cite the information to avoid plagiarism.

 

MLA states that you should "cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it." 

For more information, please see:

https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/

 

“Your prompt in quotes” prompt. AI Tool, version date of tool, publisher, date generated. General URL of tool.

Example:

“How does climate change impact the Florida everglades?” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 26 Jan. 2024. chat.openai.com/chat.