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Guide to Research: MLA Bibliographic Form

The examples provided in this guide are meant to introduce you to the basics of citing sources using the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (sixth edition). For types of resources not included in this guide (e.g. government documents, manuscript collections, video recordings, etc.) and for further information about the examples included below, please consult the handbook itself (Ref Desk LB 2369 .G53 2003) and/or a Reference Librarian. For help with layout, margins, spacing, and page numbering, see the handbook (pages 320-321). This guide can be found online at http://www.library.georgetown.edu/guides/mla

Note:   There are some disciplines (such as art, history, music, religion, theology) that use bibliographic footnotes or endnotes in conjunction with a bibliography rather than the parenthetical notations / works cited page method covered in this Guide.  Appendix B of the MLA Handbook discusses the construction of footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies in detail.  * It is best to consult with your professor to determine the preferred citation style.

 

 

I. PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION

When using MLA documentation style, you need to reference your sources by using a combination of a list of works cited (see below) and parenthetical notation.  Whenever you refer to or use another's words, facts or ideas in your paper, you are required to cite the source. Generally, brief parenthetical notations consisting of the author's last name and a page reference are sufficient.  For example:  (Drucker 30).

Note:  If you mention the author in your sentence, then you need only cite the page number.  And if you cite more than one work by the same author, include the title of the work in your notation.  For example:  (Drucker, Management Cases 30).

Examples:

1. ONE AUTHOR

The character Folly denies satirizing Christianity when she says, "it is no part of my present plan to rummage through the lives of popes and priests," yet she spends much of her encomium doing just that (Erasmus 115).

2. TWO OR MORE AUTHORS

Max Weber purported that value systems could be studied "without the social scientist's own values distorting such studies" (Keat and Urry 196).

According to Russell Keat and John Urry in Social Science as Theory, Max Weber believed that value systems could be studied "without the social scientist's own values distorting such studies" (196).

Max Weber believed that individuals can objectively study values without their own values interfering with their judgment (Keat and Urry 196).

3. CORPORATE AUTHOR

Children of Central and Eastern Europe have not escaped the nutritional ramifications of iron deficiency, a worldwide problem (UNICEF 44).

4. NO AUTHOR

Marketers of health services and products will find the National Center for Health Statistics' site useful, particularly its statistics on mortality rates.  Discovering a population's leading causes of death "tells the researcher a lot about its underlying health problems" ("Information to Die For" 40).

5. WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY
Cite the author of the essay or story and not the editor of the anthology unless they are the same.

Although some critics disliked Mel Brook's 1993 parody of Robin Hood, it is actually "in the mainstream of the Robin Hood tradition" (Knight 461).

6. INDIRECT QUOTATION

Chief Joseph concluded his surrender by stating eloquently:  "[. . .] I will fight no more forever" (qtd. in Safire 108).

7. ONLINE RESOURCE
If the work is not paginated, include the name of the author or editor within the context of your sentence (for example, from a discussion list).

Karen O'Connell mentioned a relevant novel by Wilkie Collins that deals with the 19th-century use of arsenic as a complexion improver.

If the work is paginated, cite it as you would a print resource.

Marketers of health services and products will find the National Center for Health Statistics' site useful, particularly its statistics on mortality rates.  Discovering a population's leading causes of death "tells the researcher a lot about its underlying health problems" ("Information to Die For" 40).

Imagine that the sentences above could somehow be synthesized and
used in a single paper.  The
works cited page would look like this:

                                                           WORKS CITED

Erasmus, Desiderius.  The Praise of Folly.  Trans.  Clarence H. Miller.  New Haven:  Yale
        University Press, 1979.

"Information to Die For."  Marketing Health Services 22.1 (2002): 40-42.  ABI/Inform.
       ProQuest.  Georgetown U. Lib.  4 Mar.  2002 <http://proquest.umi.com/>.

Keat, Russell, and John Urry.  Social Theory as Science.  2nd ed.  London:  Routledge and
        K. Paul, 1982.

Knight, Stephen.  "Robin Hood:  Men in Tights:  Fitting the Tradition Snugly."
        Robin Hood:  An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism.  Ed.  Stephen
        Knight.  Woodbridge:  D. S. Brewer, 1999.  461-467.

O'Connell, Karen.  "Re:  Poisoning."  Online posting.  3 Nov. 2000.  Victoria.  19 Feb.  2002
        <http://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0011A&L=victoria&P=R1693>.

Safire, William.  Lend Me Your Ears:  Great Speeches in History.  New York:  W. W. Norton
       and Company, 1992.

UNICEF.  Generation in Jeopardy:  Children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former
        Soviet Union.  Ed.  Alexander Zouev.  Armonk:  M. E. Sharpe, 1999.

II. PREPARING THE LIST OF WORKS CITED

As demonstrated above, a works cited page consists of an alphabetical listing of the books, articles, etc. to which you parenthetically noted in your paper.  The works cited page occurs at the end of your paper; however, it is useful to create a draft of it before you begin writing.  Following are typical examples of the types of references you will use in your research. 

A. Books

Include some or all of the following elements in your book citation:

1. Author or editor
2. Title
3. Translator or compiler
4. Edition
5. Volume(s) used
6. Name of series
7. Place of publication, publisher, and date of publication
8. Page numbers
9. Supplementary information and annotation

Examples:

1. ONE AUTHOR OR EDITOR

Cather, Willa.  The Professor's House.  New York:  A. A. Knopf, 1925.

UNICEF.  Generation in Jeopardy:  Children in Central and Eastern Europe
         and the Former Soviet Union.  Ed.  Alexander Zouev.  Armonk:  M. E.
         Sharpe, 1999.

Hudson, Valerie, N., ed.  Culture and Foreign Policy.  Boulder:  L. Rienner
         Publishers, 1997.

2. TWO OR MORE AUTHORS OR EDITORS
    Names should be given in the order in which they appear on the title page.

Keat, Russell, and John Urry.  Social Theory as Science.  2nd ed.  London:  Routledge
         and K. Paul, 1982.

Kennedy, Mary, Kathy Lubelska, and Val Walsh, eds.  Making Connections:  Women's
         Studies, Women's Movements, Women's Lives.  Gender and Society.  London:
         Taylor and Francis, 1993.  

3. ELECTRONIC BOOK
    Include the URL and the date of access.

Rae, John.  Statement of Some New Principles on the Subject of Political Economy.  Boston:
        Hillard, Gray and Company, 1834.  11 Feb.  2002 <http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/
        ~econ/ugcm/3ll3/rae/newprin.html>.

    If the book is accessed from a SCHOLARLY PROJECT, also include the project
    name, place of publication, and the date of the electronic publication if available.

Cather, Willa.  The Professor's House.  New York:  A. A. Knopf, 1925.  Humanities
        Text Initiative.  1993.  U. of Michigan.  10 Feb.  2002  <http://www.hti.umich.edu/
        cgi/p/pd-modeng/pd-modeng-idx?type=header&idno=CatheProfH>.

4. ANTHOLOGY

Knight, Stephen.  "Robin Hood:  Men in Tights:  Fitting the Tradition Snugly."
        Robin Hood:  An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism.  Ed.  Stephen
        Knight.  Woodbridge:  D. S. Brewer, 1999.  461-467.

Barrick, Richard, John Sullivan, and Alexander White.  "The American Bloody Register."
       Pillars of Salt:  An Anthology of Early American Criminal Narratives.  Comp.  Daniel
       E. Williams.  Madison:  Madison House, 1993.  233-258.

5. INTRODUCTION, PREFACE, FOREWORD, OR AFTERWORD

Ritterson, Michael.  Introduction.  The Odin Field:  A Story.  By Wilhem Raabe.
      Trans.  Michael Ritterson.  Studies in German Literature, Linguistics, and Culture.
      Rochester:  Camden House, 2001.  xi-xxvii.

6. MULTIVOLUME WORK

Tomkins, Silvan S.  Affect, Imagery, Consciousness.  4 vols.  New York:  Springer,
         1962-1992.

7. EDITION

Anthony, Robert N., and James S. Reece.  Accounting Principles.  7th ed.  Chicago:
        Irwin, 1995.

8. TRANSLATION

Erasmus, Desiderius.  The Praise of Folly.  Trans.  Clarence H. Miller.  New Haven:
        Yale, 1979.

9. ARTICLE IN A REFERENCE BOOK

"Audubon, John James."  The New Encyclopaedia Britannica:  Micropaedia.  15th
        ed.  2002.

"Audubon, John James."  Encyclopaedia Britannica Online.  Encyclopaedia
        Britannica.  11 Feb.  2002.  <http://www.search.eb.com/bol/
        topic?eu=11353&sctn=1>.

Crisp, Roger.  "Ethics."  Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.  CD-ROM.
       London:  Routledge, 1998.

10. SERIES

Ebeling, Richard, ed.  Global Free Trade:  Rhetoric or Reality?  Champions of
       Freedom.  20.  Hillsdale, MI:  Hillsdale College Press, 1993.

B. Articles in Periodicals

Include some or all of the following in your article citation:

1. Author
2. Article title
3. Periodical title
4. Volume number
5. Series/Issue number or name
6. Publication date
7. Page numbers

For online periodicals, add:
8. Date of access and URL, or
9. Database name, database provider, library providing access to the
    database, date of access, and URL of database provider's homepage

Examples:

1. SCHOLARLY JOURNAL

Freedman, L.  "The Changing Forms of Military Conflict."  Survival 40.4 (1998):  39-56.

     If a journal has CONTINUOUS PAGINATION within a volume, you do not need to
     include the issue number.

Kirby, John T.  "Aristotle on Metaphor."  American Journal of Philology 118 (1997):  517-554.

   Electronic Periodical - Include the date of access and the URL of the article.

Freedman, L.  "The Changing Forms of Military Conflict."  Survival 40.4 (1998):
        39-56.  12 February 2002 <http://www3.oup.co.uk/surviv/hdb/Volume_40/
        Issue_04/pdf/400039.pdf>.

Kirby, John T.  "Aristotle on Metaphor."  American Journal of Philology 118 (1997):
       517-554.  11 Feb.  2002 <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_journal_of_philology/
       v118/118.4kirby.pdf>.

     Fulltext of an article from a Database - Include the name of the
     database, the name of the database provider, the library providing access,
     the date of access, and the URL of the database provider's homepage.
     Either state a page number range or the total number of pages if that
     information is provided.     

Freedman, Lawrence.  "The Changing Forms of Military Conflict."  Survival 40.4 (1998):
        18 pp.  ProQuest General Reference.  ProQuest.  Georgetown U. Lib.  17 Nov.  2003
        <http://proquest.umi.com/>.

2. MAGAZINE

     Monthly or Bimontly

Goldberger, Paul.  "Machines for Living:  Architectonic Allure of the Automobile."  
        Architectural Digest Oct.  1996:  82.

     Weekly

Levy, Steven, and Brad Stone.  "Silicon Valley Reboots."  Newsweek 25 Mar.
        2002: 42-50.

Levy, Steven, and Brad Stone.  "Silicon Valley Reboots."  Newsweek 25 Mar.
        2002: 42-50.  27 Mar.  2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/724796.asp?cp1=1>.

3. ANONYMOUS ARTICLE

"Information to Die For."  Marketing Health Services 22.1 (2002): 40-42.

"Information to Die For."  Marketing Health Services 22.1 (2002): 40-42.  ABI/Inform.
       ProQuest.  Georgetown U. Lib.  4 Mar.  2002 <http://proquest.umi.com/>.

4. NEWSPAPER

Pianin, Eric.  "Use of Arsenic in Wood Products to End."  The Washington Post 13 Feb.  2002,
        final ed.: A2.

Pianin, Eric.  "Use of Arsenic in Wood Products to End."  The Washington Post 13 Feb.  2002.
       13 Feb.  2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1149-2002Feb12.html>.

Pianin, Eric.  "Use of Arsenic in Wood Products to End."  The Washington Post 13 Feb.  2002,
       final ed.: A2.  LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe.  Georgetown U. Lib.  13 Feb.
       2002 <http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe>.

5. REVIEW

Nash, Alanna.  "Hit 'em with a lizard!"  Rev.  of  Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen.  The New York
        Times 3 Feb.  2002, late ed., sec. 7: 24.

Nash, Alanna.  "Hit 'em with a lizard!"  Rev.  of  Basket Case by Carl Hiaasen.  The New York
        Times 3 Feb.  2002, late ed., sec. 7: 24.  LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe.
        Georgetown U. Lib.  20 Feb.  2002 <http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe>.

C. Web Sites

Following are elements to include when citing entire Web sites.  Keep in mind that
if you cannot find all of the elements, you should include whatever is available on
the site
.

1. Title of Web site
2. Author or editor
3. Date of site's publication or date of last update
4. Organization responsible for site
5. Date of access
6. URL

Examples:

1. SCHOLARLY PROJECT

The Perseus Digital Library.  Ed.  Gregory Crane.  Dept. of the Classics, Tufts U.
      18 Feb.  2002 <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/>.

2. PROFESSIONAL SITE

Financial Accounting Standards Board.  Feb.  2002.  18 Feb. 2002 <http://www.fasb.org/>.

3. PERSONAL SITE

Lewis, Paul.  Wilkie Collins.  18 Feb.  2002 <http://www.deadline.demon.co.uk/
        wilkie/wilkie.htm>.

See also Electronic Book and Periodicals above.

D. Online Postings

To cite a posting from a discussion list, include the following elements if available:

1. Author of posting
2. Title of posting (from subject line of posting)
3. Date of posting
4. Name of discussion list
5. Date of access
6. URL of list's Internet site or archive

Example:

O'Connell, Karen.  "Re:  Poisoning."  Online posting.  3 Nov. 2000.  Victoria.  19 Feb.  2002
        <http://listserv.indiana.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0011A&L=victoria&P=R1693>.

III. A BRIEF NOTE ON FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES

Long explanatory footnotes or endnotes can distract the reader.  Nevertheless, you may occasionally need to clarify a citation with a bibliographic note.  Or you may wish to incorporate information that might interest your reader but would seem tangential if included within the text of your paper.  In this case, you would use a content note.  Notes are indicated with consecutive superscript numbers within the text of your paper.  The actual note is indented and can occur either as a footnote at the bottom of the page or as an endnote at the end of the paper.

Examples:

1. BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE

Text

Nineteenth-century critics of cheap, mass-produced fiction feared that the gory subject matter of stories like Sweeney Todd would lead a generation of youth into depravity.1

Note

         1For a selection of penny fiction as well as 19th-century criticism of it, see Haining's  The Penny Dreadful.

2. CONTENT NOTE

Text

Charles Knight did not rely solely on the cheaply printed word in publications like the to educate people; he also mass-produced images to diffuse knowledge visually.2

Note

          2Patricia Anderson's  The Printed Image and the Transformation of Popular Culture, 1790-1860 provides examples of Penny Magazine images, such as depictions of flamingos, reproduced portraits of people like Benjamin Franklin, and engravings of famous artworks like "The Dying Gladiator" and "Laocoon" (50-83).

IV. WEB SITES

Following are links to sites that have either additional information or alternative examples:

1.Web MLA Formatting and Style Guide <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/>

2. Web Citing Sources <http://library.duke.edu/research/guides/citing/>
Duke University's guide to citing sources.  The site offers comparison citation tables with examples from APA, Chicago, MLA and Turabian for both print and electronic works.

3. WebHow to Cite Electronic Sources  <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/start/cite/index.html>
Provides MLA and Turabian examples of citing formats like films, photographs, maps, and recorded sound that are accessed electronically.


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Content updated: 3/02,ko'c
Links updated: 3/08, sh

 

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