Research Papers, MLA Format
Updates to this section were made to correspond with the Eighth Edition of the MLA Handbook
MLA Format for Research Papers
Citing Online Resources
*THIS SECTION HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT CHANGES IN MLA FORMAT 8TH EDITION
INFORMATION FOR THIS SECTION CAN BE SEEN ONLINE @ PURDUE OWL
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
CITING ELECTRONIC RESOURCES
*MLA now requires the www. address; eliminate all https:// when citing URLs.
Internet sites – such as information databases, scholarly projects, etc. vary significantly in the publication information they provide. Below is the suggested order for documentation. If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available in the following order:
- Author’s last name, first name. Place a period after the author’s first name.
- Article name in quotation marks ” “
- Title of the website, project, or book, Italicized.
- Version or edition (ed.), revisions, posting dates, volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
- Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date.
- Take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.).
- URL (without the https://) DOI or permalink.
- Date of access—the date you looked at the material (day, month, year).
Example:
Burrell, Allison. “Even in the IPhone Age, School Librarians Are a Vital Link to Learning:” PennLive.com, PA Media Group, /www.pennlive.com/opinion/2016/10/even_in_the_iphone_age_school.html. Accessed 7 March 2017.
- It is a good idea to list the date of access, because web pages are often updated.
- If the publisher is the same as the website name, list it only once.
- To cite articles from online databases (e.g. LexisNexis, ProQuest, JSTOR, ScienceDirect), provide the title of the database italicized before the DOI or URL. If a DOI is not provided, use the URL instead. Provide the date of access if you wish.
- Many scholarly journal articles found in databases include a DOI (digital object identifier). If a DOI is available, cite the DOI number instead of the URL.
Citing Print Materials
*THIS SECTION HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT CHANGES IN MLA FORMAT 8TH EDITION
INFORMATION FOR THIS SECTION CAN BE SEEN ONLINE @ PURDUE OWL
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
BASIC BOOK FORMAT
The author’s name or a book with a single author’s name appears in last name, first name format. The basic form for a book citation is:
Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
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Author’s name: Last name, First name.
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Note: If the middle name is used, it goes after the first name with no punctuation separating it. ( ex: Harris, Maria Anne.)
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Title of book in italics. If you are hand-writing this section, underline the book title.
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Publisher. Omit articles (a, an, the), business abbreviations (Co., Corp., Inc.) and descriptive words (House, Press, Publishers).
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Year of publication. If the year is not recorded, use the latest copyright date.
Example:
Sachar, Louis. Holes. Scholastic,1998.
BOOK WITH AN EDITOR
Cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor after the title with the label, “Edited by”
Example:
The American Revolution. Edited by Charles W. Carey. Greenhaven, 2004.
BOOK WITH MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR
Give the authors’ names in the same order as they appear on the title page, which may not be in alphabetical order. Reverse only the name of the first author, type a comma, and give the other name or names in normal form. Place a period after the last author’s name.
Example:
Hansen, Joyce and Gary McGowan. Freedom Road: Searching the Underground Railroad. Crickett, 2003.
ARTICLE IN A REFERENCE BOOK
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If the article is signed, list the author’s name first. (You can usually find the author at the end of the article.)
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If the article is unsigned, list the title of the article first. The article should be in quotation marks. ” “
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Title of encyclopedia, italicized. (If hand-writing this section, underline the title of the encyclopedia. The title is followed by volume used.
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Publication date, followed by a period.
* If the reference book is organized alphabetically, do not list the volume or the page number of the article or item.
Examples:
Vehrencamp, Sandra L. “Junco.” World Book, 2005.
“University of King’s College.” World Book, 2005.
CITING A MULTI-VOLUME WORK
When citing only one volume of a multi-volume work, include the volume number after the work’s title, or after the work’s Editor
Examples:
“Douglas Adams.” Lives and Works: Young Adult Authors. Vol. 1. Grolier, 1999.
“Laurie Halse Anderson.” Biography Today: Author Series. Edited by Cherie D. Abbey. Vol. 15. Omnigraphics, 2002.
Paranthetical Citations
*THIS SECTION HAS BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT CHANGES IN MLA FORMAT 8TH EDITION
INFORMATION FOR THIS SECTION CAN BE SEEN ONLINE @ PURDUE OWL
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
GENERAL RULES:
- Any information that you provide in your parenthetical citation must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. Whatever word or phrase you use in the citation must be the first thing that appears in the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List.
- The author’s last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the citation; a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page.
- The author’s name should appear in either the citation or the paraphrase. The page number always appears in the paraphrase.
- Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
- Unless you must list the Web site name in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like CNN.com .
Websites for Citation Help