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MLA style was created by the Modern Language Association for use by writers and students preparing papers for English Studies, Foreign Language studies, other literary studies, as well as cultural studies.
Why use MLA Style? So that those in the discipline listed above have consistency in their exploration of information in their fields of study being able to scan quickly for key points and sources. Understand MLA Style will also help students further explore information and resources in their research.
Papers written in MLA style should be double spaced. Any notes to be included at the end of the paper should be in a section labeled "Notes" on its own page after the text of the paper but before the works cited page. The page with the citations should start a new page and be labeled "Works Cited", any citations longer than one line should be double spaced, for any citations longer than one line, use hanging indents on the second and all subsequent lines of the citation.
The citations in this guide are general citations from the 8th edition of the MLA handbook shown below. For more information and more details on the formatting, writing, and citing of papers see the links below. And remember you can always ask a librarian!
Basic book citation example:
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Alfred A. Knopf, 1987.
This example shows first the author, last name first, then title of the book in italics, followed by the publisher and the year published.
(Citation found on page 236 of MLA Handbook ninth edition.)
In-text citations:
Parenthetical citation: (Morison 35)
Narrative citation: As Morrison writes in Beloved, "Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it's gone, but the place-the picture of it-stays" (35).
For further examples and examples of different types of books follow the links below.
Basic article citation example:
Baron, Naomi. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol.128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.
This example shows first the author's name, last name first, then the title of the article in quotations, the title of the journal in italics, followed by the volume, number, and year of the journal, and then finally the page numbers of the article in the journal.
(Citation found on page 229 of MLA Handbook ninth edition.)
In-text citations:
Parenthetical citation: (Baron 194)
Narrative citation: According to Naomi Baron, reading is "just have of literacy. The other half is writing" (194).
For more examples and other types of article citations see the links and resources below.
A basic example of a website citation:
Film Crit Hulk. “What we talk about When We Talk about Female Filmmaking.” Film Crit Hulk! Hulk Blog!. 16 Mar. 2018, https://filmcrithulk.blog/2018/03/16/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-female-filmmaking/.
In this example we see the creator's name, the title of the article or item in quotes, followed by the title of the webpage in italics, then the date of the article publication, last is the web address, or location, of the webpage.
(Citation found on page 114 of MLA Handbook ninth edition.)
In-text citations:
Parenthetical citation: (Film Crit Hulk)
Narrative citation: According to Film Crit Hulk,.....
For more examples and other types of web and electronic sources citations see the links and resources below.
For all other types of sources Including interviews, paintings, panel discussions, music, movies, and more; as well as in-test citations, other resources, and samples see the resources below.
