Using MLA Documentation Style

Writers in the liberal arts and some business areas usually document their work using the MLA style developed by the Modern Language Association and explained in The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 5^th edition (1999). The MLA style uses a system of parenthetical citations within the text to refer readers to a page called "Works Cited" at the end of the text; footnotes or endnotes are used only rarely, presenting material that cannot easily be fit into the text.

Here's what parenthetical citation looks like in MLA style:

Baumrind criticized Milgram's experimental set up because participants were not fully informed of the risks to them (34).

Note that the reference goes at the end of the clause in which the reference occurs (usually at the end of the sentence) so as not to interrupt the syntax. If the author's name is not mentioned in the text, it appears first in the parenthetical citation, followed by a space and the page number or numbers. No punctuation or "pp" abbreviations are used:

A leading scholar criticized Milgram's experimental set up because participants were not fully informed of the risks to them (Baumrind 34).

If you cite the source again in the same paragraph, you need not repeat the reference as long as the page number is the same and it is clear that you are using the same source. If there is a direct quote involved, put the quotation marks before the parenthetical citation. If the quotation is a set-off or "block" quotation, omit the punctuation after the parentheses.

Most composition handbooks show the forms for MLA references for a variety of sources; the Writing Center has many examples, including the MLA Handbook, for your consultation.

The Works Cited page at the end of your manuscript includes the full publication information on every source cited in your paper. Because the humanities value both the identity of the researcher and the content of the source, MLA references put these items first. Here are the basic rules for MLA reference forms.

• Arrange sources alphabetically by the author's last name; if the author is not named, alphabetize by the first word of the title other than "a", "an", or "the".
  
  
• Double-space all entries. In a typed paper, put the first word of the first line flush at the left margin, then indent each following line five spaces. This can be done using the hanging indent feature of most word processing programs.
  
  
• Begin with the first author's last name, followed by a comma, her first name and any middle name or initial. Omit titles like "M.D." and "Ph.D", but include titles like "Sr." and "IV". If there are additional authors, add a comma, then the author's first, middle, and last names. Use and before the name of the last author. Finish the author entry with a period and two spaces.
  
  
• Add the full title of the book or article, capitalized as it appears in the publication. Separate the main and subtitles of books with a colon followed by a space. Underline or italicize the titles of books and the names of magazines, journals, and newspapers; put quotation marks around the titles of articles. If you are citing an essay, story or poem in a book, give the title, in quotation marks, before the underlined book title. Finish the title information with a period and two spaces.
  
  
• For books, give the city (and state or country if not obvious) of publication, followed by a colon and one space. Give the name of the publisher, followed by a comma. Shorten most publishers' names to one word (e.g. Harper for Harper Collins College Publishers). For university presses, use the abbreviation "UP" for the full words. Follow with a comma, a space, and the year.
  
  
• For journals, leave out the punctuation after the journal name, skip a space, and put the volume number. If each issue is paginated separately, follow the volume number with a period and the issue number, followed by a space. If each issue is paginated continuously, skip the issue number and put the year of publication in parentheses, followed by a colon and a space. Finally, put the page numbers, condensing repeated numbers (e.g. 321-33). Finish the entry with a period.
  
  
• For magazines and newspapers, leave out the punctuation after the publication name, skip a space, and include the date (in the form "7 Sept. 1997" or "Aug. 1997") followed by a colon and single space, then the page numbers (45-52). If the article begins on one page, then skips several pages before continuing, you can condense this form to "45+".

Again, the Writing Center has many examples of the MLA documentation style for different kinds of references; if you can't extrapolate the form you need from the following examples, please feel free to come by and consult our reference collection.

Sample Works Cited Forms

An Anthology With Two Editors

Hawisher, Gail E. and Cynthia L. Selfe (Eds.). Literacy, Technology, and Society: 
	Confronting the Issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997.

An Article in a Magazine

Burr, Chandler. "Homosexuality and Biology." The Atlantic Monthly  Mar. 1993: 47+.

An Article in a Newspaper

Breisacher, George. "Finding Dilbert (and his buddies) on the Net."  Charlotte Observer 
	23 Jul. 1997: D2.

A Work in an Anthology

Sculley, J. "The Relationship Between Business and Higher Education: A Perspective on 
	the 21st Century."  In Literacy, Technology, and Society: Confronting the issues. Ed. 
	Gail E. Hawisher and Cynthia L. Selfe. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997. 142-8.

An Article in a Scholarly Journal that Pages Each Issue Separately

Fox, Tom. "From Freedom to Manners: African American Literacy Instruction in the 19th 
	Century." Composition Forum 6.1 (1995): 1-12.

A Professional Website

DiStefano, Vince. Guidelines for better writing. 6 Jan. 1996. 
	<http://www.usa.net/vinced/home/better-writing.html>.

An E-Mail Communication

Smith, Jane B. "Expectations for assessment of writing." E-mail to  
	Josephine Koster Tarvers.  3 Sept. 1997.

Material for this handout was taken from the following sources: The MLA Handbook, 6^th  ed. by Joseph Garibaldi; The Little Brown Handbook, 6^th ed. by H. Ramsey Fowler, Jane C. Aaron, and Jo Koster Tarvers; On-line! by Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger; and The Columbia Guide to Online Style  by Janice Walker <http://www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html>.