MLA Style

Key Elements

When you use others' ideas--whether quoting, summarizing, or paraphrasing--cite them in your writing by including:

• Author's Last Name

• Page Number of Cited Material

In-text citations direct the reader to the full citation with publication details on the Works Cited list. I.e., If you want to refer your readers to see page 214 of the work authored by the Modern Language Association that is on your Works Cited list, you would write something like the following, 

"Usually the author's last name and a page reference are enough to identify the source and the specific location from which you borrowed material" (Modern Language Association 214).

Some sources do not have authors or page numbers. The below examples and those on the tabbed pages will clarify what to do.

To maximize the effectiveness of your writing, you are encouraged to word your in-text citations in several ways.

Author Name(s) in Parenthetical Citation:

"When his father told him that he was to go back to school again, Charles's eyes filled with tears of gratitude" (Hibbert 83).

Author Name(s) in Your Text:

According to Andrea Tone, President John F. Kennedy took up to eight medications a day to treat illness and stress (112).

The tabbed pages have more examples of in-text citations.

One Author - Quote or Paraphrase

If there is no author included on your source, but there is an editor, put the editor's name first on the Works Cited entry. Follow their name with a comma and the word editor. Then use the editor's last name in your in-text citation.

One Author: Direct Quotes

• Include the author's last name and page number.
• Put the exact quoted text inside quotation marks.
• If the quoted text ends with a comma or period do not include it in the quotation marks. That punctuation goes after the parenthetical citation.

E.g., "When his father told him that he was to go back to school again, Charles's eyes filled with tears of gratitude" (Hibbert 83).

One Author: Paraphrasing

• Include the author's last name and page numbers of the section being paraphrased.
• Your paraphrased text does not go in quotation marks.

E.g., Many insects and animals have a larger spectrum of color vision than humans, including ultraviolet and infrared (Kimura 163-65).

Two Authors

Include each author's last name followed by the page number(s).

E.g., Facebook's influence over online privacy standards reaches far beyond its 500 million users; its privacy policies, "more than those of any other company, are helping to define standards for privacy in the Internet age" (Helft and Wortham B1).

Three or More Authors

Give the first author's last name followed by "et al.," which means "and others," and then the page number(s).

E.g., Part of the problem, one study asserts, is people "might not realize the potential consequences of publishing personal information for public view in an online social networking community" (Foulger et al. 1-2).

No Author

• When a source has no author or editor use its title first in its entry in the Works Cited. The title will then be used in the in-text citation. 
• When you must cite the title in the text of your paper, italicize book and other entire item titles and put quotation marks around article, poem, chapter and other subsection titles.
• The title in the in-text citation should match the title in the Works Cited list unless it is long. If it is long it can be shortened or abbreviated according to the guidance in these sections of the MLA Handbook, 9th edition [6.13, 6.14].

E.g., Although many online social networking services are free to users, "they are run by commercial enterprises that want, quite reasonably, to make money. Since they cannot charge entry fees, they harvest data" ("Online Privacy" 28).

No Page Numbers

• Do not make up page or paragraph numbers.
• Cite the chapter name/number, line, act/scene/line, or other markers when provided in the text. For multimedia formats, include the time stamp.
• In the text of your paper, include as much information as possible, including title, author, etc.

E.g., Kurosawa's Throne of Blood adapts Shakespeare's MacBeth to the Japanese audience (Evans).

Multiple Editions [6.21, 6.23-6.25]

• If a work has been published in many editions, possibly by different publishers, include the author, page number, and any division name/number in your text.
• Additional special guidelines apply to sacred, ancient, and Shakespearean works. See Appendix 1 of MLA Handbook, 9th ed.

E.g., Julia is foreshadowed in Winston's dream as a dark-haired girl: "Her body was white and smooth, but it aroused no desire in him, indeed he barely looked at it" (Orwell 56; ch. 3).

Quoting a Quote

• Follow this format when using a quote from a different source that is mentioned in the source you actually read.
• Ideally, you would find the original source, read it, then cite it. This would help make sure you are not citing out of context.

It is recommended that you put both the author and page number(s) in the parenthetical citation.

• Start the parenthetical citation with "qtd. in," which stands for quoted in, followed by the last name of author of the text you read and the page number.
• In the text of the sentence, include the name of the author of the quotation you are citing.
• In this example, you read a work by Chahine who quoted Anders and you are requoting Anders.

Ex. Despite several dalliances, Anders claims "Gala was secure in her role as Dali's primary lifelong partner and muse" (qtd. in Chahine 13).

Two Citations in One Citation

• When you find the same information in two or more sources, you can cite them together in the same sentence in the same parenthetical citation.
• Include each set of authors and page numbers separated by a semicolon.

Ex. Eating a vegetarian or vegan diet has been linked to many health benefits; however, eating a diet of primarily fresh foods is too expensive for most poor people (Nejem 12; McRay 153).