Mla Format Typical Language Arts Class in the 1980s

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Summary:

MLA (Modern Language Clan) mode is nigh unremarkably used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9^thursday ed.), offers examples for the full general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited folio.

The following overview should help y'all better sympathise how to cite sources using MLA nine^th edition, including how to format the Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Please apply the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. Come across besides our MLA vidcast serial on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel.

Note: For more data about services for the Purdue University community, including one-to-one consultations, ESL conversation groups and workshops, please visit the Writing Lab site.

Creating a Works Cited list using the ninth edition

MLA is a style of documentation that may exist applied to many unlike types of writing. Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several unlike sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices.

Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. While the handbook still describes how to cite sources, it is organized co-ordinate to the process of documentation, rather than by the sources themselves. This gives writers a flexible method that is near-universally applicable.

Once you are familiar with the method, you can use it to document any type of source, for any type of paper, in any field.

Here is an overview of the procedure:

When deciding how to cite your source, get-go by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the post-obit order:

Author.
Title of source.
Title of container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication date,
Location.

Each element should exist followed by the respective punctuation mark shown to a higher place. Earlier editions of the handbook included the place of publication and required different punctuation (such as periodical editions in parentheses and colons later on issue numbers) depending on the blazon of source. In the current version, punctuation is simpler (simply commas and periods separate the elements), and information nigh the source is kept to the basics.

Writer

Begin the entry with the author's final proper noun, followed past a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. Terminate this element with a period.

Bhabha, Homi G. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Championship of source

The title of the source should follow the writer's name. Depending upon the type of source, it should be listed in italics or quotation marks.

A book should be in italics:

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House . MacMurray, 1999.

An individual webpage should be in quotation marks. The name of the parent website, which MLA treats as a "container," should follow in italics:

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

A periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper) article should be in quotation marks:

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi'due south Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. ane, 1996, pp. 41-50.

A song or piece of music on an album should be in quotation marks. The proper noun of the anthology should then follow in italics:

Beyoncé. "Pray Y'all Catch Me." Lemonade, Parkwood Entertainment, 2016, world wide web.beyonce.com/anthology/lemonade-visual-album/.

*The MLA handbook recommends including URLs when citing online sources. For more than data, see the "Optional Elements" section beneath.

Championship of container

The 8th edition of the MLA handbook introduced what are referred to as "containers," which are the larger wholes in which the source is located. For example, if you lot want to cite a verse form that is listed in a collection of poems, the individual poem is the source, while the larger collection is the container. The title of the container is usually italicized and followed by a comma, since the information that follows next describes the container.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Daughter." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.

The container may as well be a boob tube serial, which is made up of episodes.

"94 Meetings." Parks and Recreation, created past Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, performance past Amy Poehler, season ii, episode 21, Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2010.

The container may also exist a website, which contains articles, postings, and other works.

In some cases, a container might exist within a larger container. You might take read a book of curt stories on Google Books, or watched a television set series on Netflix. You lot might have found the electronic version of a journal on JSTOR. It is of import to cite these containers within containers then that your readers can find the verbal source that you used.

"94 Meetings." Parks and Recreation , flavor 2, episode 21, NBC, 29 Apr. 2010. Netflix, www.netflix.com/lookout man/70152031?trackId=200256157&tctx=0%2C20%2C0974d361-27cd-44de-9c2a-2d9d868b9f64-12120962.

Langhamer, Claire. "Honey and Courting in Mid-Twentieth-Century England." Historical Journal, vol. l, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest, doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

Other contributors

In addition to the author, there may be other contributors to the source who should be credited, such equally editors, illustrators, translators, etc. If their contributions are relevant to your research, or necessary to identify the source, include their names in your documentation.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard, Vintage-Random Business firm, 1988.

Woolf, Virginia. Jacob'south Room. Annotated and with an introduction by Vara Neverow, Harcourt, Inc., 2008.

Version

If a source is listed as an edition or version of a work, include it in your citation.

The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Aboriginal Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. tertiary ed., Pearson, 2004.

Number

If a source is part of a numbered sequence, such equally a multi-volume book or journal with both volume and issue numbers, those numbers must be listed in your citation.

Dolby, Nadine. "Inquiry in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Hereafter Directions." Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. vi, no. ii, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/threescore/362. Accessed twenty May 2009.

"94 Meetings." Parks and Recreation, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, functioning by Amy Poehler, season ii, episode 21, Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2010.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. two, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

Publisher

The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public. If there is more than one publisher, and they are all are relevant to your research, list them in your citation, separated by a frontward slash (/).

Klee, Paul. Twittering Automobile. 1922. Museum of Mod Fine art, New York. The Artchive, www.artchive.com/artchive/Thousand/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive Arrangement. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006.

Daniels, Greg and Michael Schur, creators. Parks and Recreation. Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2015.

Note : The publisher's name need non be included in the following sources: periodicals, works published past their writer or editor, websites whose titles are the aforementioned name as their publisher, websites that make works available just exercise not actually publish them (such asYouTube,WordPress, orJSTOR).

Publication date

The aforementioned source may have been published on more than one engagement, such equally an online version of an original source. For case, a tv series might accept aired on a broadcast network on one date, simply released onNetflix on a unlike engagement. When the source has more one date, it is sufficient to employ the date that is most relevant to your writing. If you're unsure about which date to use, become with the engagement of the source'southward original publication.

In the following example, Mutant Enemy is the principal production visitor, and "Hush" was released in 1999. Below is a general citation for this television episode:

"Hush." Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, flavor 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999.

However, if you are discussing, for example, the historical context in which the episode originally aired, you should cite the full engagement. Considering yous are specifying the date of airing, you would and then use WB Goggle box Network (rather than Mutant Enemy), because it was the network (rather than the product company) that aired the episode on the appointment you're citing.

"Hush." Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created past Joss Whedon, performance past Sarah Michelle Gellar, flavour four, episode 10, WB Television Network, xiv December. 1999.

Location

You should be as specific every bit possible in identifying a work'south location.

An essay in a book or an commodity in a journal should include page numbers.

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. "On Monday of Last Week." The Thing effectually Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94.

The location of an online work should include a URL.Remove any "http://" or "https://" tag from the first of the URL.

Wheelis, Marking. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/commodity/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

When citing a physical object that you experienced immediate, identify the place of location.

Matisse, Henri. The Pond Puddle. 1952, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Optional elements

The 9th edition is designed to be equally streamlined as possible. The author should include any information that helps readers hands identify the source, without including unnecessary data that may exist distracting. The post-obit is a listing of optional elements that tin can be included in a documented source at the writer's discretion.

Date of original publication:

If a source has been published on more than i appointment, the writer may desire to include both dates if information technology will provide the reader with necessary or helpful information.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

City of publication:

The seventh edition handbook required the metropolis in which a publisher is located, but the eighth edition states that this is only necessary in item instances, such as in a work published before 1900. Since pre-1900 works were unremarkably associated with the city in which they were published, your documentation may substitute the city name for the publisher's proper noun.

Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions. Boston, 1863.

Engagement of access:

When you cite an online source, the MLA Handbook recommends including a date of access on which you lot accessed the cloth, since an online work may change or motility at whatsoever time.

Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed iv May 2009.

URLs:

As mentioned above, while the MLA handbook recommends including URLs when you cite online sources, you lot should always check with your instructor or editor and include URLs at their discretion.

DOIs:

A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a series of digits and letters that leads to the location of an online source. Articles in journals are often assigned DOIs to ensure that the source is locatable, fifty-fifty if the URL changes. If your source is listed with a DOI, use that instead of a URL.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. "Toxicity of Nitrite to Iii Species of Freshwater Invertebrates." Ecology Toxicology, vol. 21, no. i, 3 February. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library, doi: 10.1002/tox.20155.

Creating in-text citations using the previous (8th) edition

Although the MLA handbook is currently in its ninth edition, some information about citing in the text using the older (eighth) edition is being retained. The in-text commendation is a brief reference inside your text that indicates the source you consulted. Information technology should properly attribute any ideas, paraphrases, or direct quotations to your source, and should direct readers to the entry in the Works Cited list. For the near part, an in-text commendation is theauthor'south name and the folio number (or only the page number, if the author is named in the judgement) in parentheses:

Imperialism is "the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory" (Said ix).

Co-ordinate to Edward Westward. Said, imperialism is divers past "the practice, the theory, and the attitudes of a dominating metropolitan center ruling a distant territory" (9).

Work Cited

Said, Edward Westward. Civilization and Imperialism. Knopf, 1994.

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds y'all program to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

Again, your goal is to aspect your source and provide a reference without interrupting your text. Your readers should be able to follow the flow of your argument without becoming distracted by extra information.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in MLA

Entire Website

The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 2019.

Individual Resources

Contributors' names. "Title of Resources." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab, Last edited appointment.

The new OWL no longer lists most pages' authors or publication dates. Thus, in most cases, citations volition begin with the title of the resource, rather than the programmer'south proper noun.

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab. Accessed 18 Jun. 2018.

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Source: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html