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MLA Citation Style Guide

This guide will provide outlines, examples, and tips for citing in 9th Edition MLA citation style.

Book References: Examples

Citations for whole books that are not part of a multi-volume set require all elements of book references if they exist. For example, ebooks require DOIs or URLs, while print books do not.

The Template provides elements in order with appropriate punctuation and italicization where required. Each of the Examples shows a fully formatted example.

Template: Books

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.

Example: Book with One Author

Hardman, John. The Life of Louis XVI. Yale UP, 2016.

Example: Book with Two Authors

King, Stephen and Peter Straub. The Talisman. Putnam, 1984.

Example: Book with 3 or more authors

Nagasaki, Masao, et al. Foundations of Systems Biology: Using Cell Illustrator and Pathway Databases. Springer, 2009.

Example: Book with a Corporate or Organizational author

International Association of Fire Chiefs. Live Fire Training: Principles and Practice. Jones & Bartlett, 2012.

Example: Book with no author

Dosage Calculations: An Incredibly Easy! Workout. Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2009.

Example: Edition of a Book

Patten, Mildred. Understanding Research Methods: An Overview of the Essentials. 7th ed., Pryczak Publishing, 2009.

Template: If there is one translator

Last name, First name. Title of Work. Translated by Full Name, Publisher, Year.

Example:

Murakami, Haruki. Norwegian Wood. Translated by Jay Rubin, Vintage International, 2000.

Template: If the translation is the focus

Last name, First name, translator. Title of Work. By Author Name, Publisher, Year.

Example:

Felber, Christian. Change Everything: Creating an Economy for the Common Good. Translated by Susan Nurmi, Zed Books Ltc., 2015.

Template: Anthologies

Last name, First name. "Title of section." Entire work Title. Edited by (optional), Publisher, Year, Page Numbers.

Example: Anthology or Collection of Essays

Leroux, Louis Patrick and Charles R. Batson, editors. Cirque Global: Quebec's Expanding Circus Boundaries. McGill-Queen's UP, 2016.

Example: Work in an anthology

Ashe, Fred. "The really Big Sleep: Jeffrey Lebowski as the Second Coming of Rip Van Winkle." The Year's Work in Lebowski Studies. Edited by Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe, Indiana UP, 2009, 41-57.

Template: Dissertations and Master's Thesis

Last Name, First Name. Title of Thesis or Dissertation. Type of Thesis, Name of University, Year.

Example: Dissertations and Master’s Thesis

Alrayes, Tareq. Attitudes of Lamar University Faculty Toward Deaf Adults. MA Thesis, Lamar University, 2004.

Template: Dissertations and Master's Thesis from a Database

Last Name, First Name. Title of Thesis or Dissertation. Type of Thesis, Name of University, Year. Database Name, URL.

Example: Dissertations and Master’s Thesis from a Database

Carello, Anna. The Impact of School Library Design on the Development of Multiple Literacy Skills in Early Childhood Students, University of Pennsylvania, 2017. ProQuest, https://libproxy.lamar.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/impact-school-library-design-on-development/docview/1911980251/se-2.

Template: Article in Reference Book

"Title of Entry." Title of Reference Book. Publisher, Year.

Example: Article in Reference Book

"Zambia." Geography of the World. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., 2009.

Template: Multivolume Work

Author(s). Title of Work. Publisher, Year. # Vols.

Example: Multivolume Work

Pont, Beatriz, et al. Improving School Leadership.  OECD, 2008. 2 Vols.

Template: Electronic book from a Database

Author(s). Title of Book. Edition (if any), Publisher, Year. Name of Database, URL.

Example: Electronic book from a Database

Hall, Stephen. Rules of Thumb for Chemical Engineers. 5th ed., Butterworth-Heinemann, 2012. Knovel, app.knovel.com/web/toc/id:kpRTCEE002/rules-thumb-chemical/rules-thumb-chemical. 

If you have more than one resource by the same author, list the author’s name for the first item only. After, place three hyphens followed by a period (---.) for each subsequent item by the author. The title follows the period. If the individual performed a role other than author for a work, place a comma after the three hyphens (instead of the period) and list the role (editor, translator, etc.) before moving on to the title.

Organize resources alphabetically by title (terms describing person's roles are not considered in alphabetization).

Template:

Last name, First name. Title of First Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium.

---. Title of Second Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium.

Example:

Sedaris, David. Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary. New York: Little, Brown, and Co., 2010. Print.

---. When You are Engulfed in Flames. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2008. Print

Tips

The purpose of citations is to make items easily retrievable for others so it is important to fill them out as completely and accurately as possible. If an item is irrelevant or missing, omit it from the citation.

The following abbreviations are recommended for use in the works-cited list, and in in-text citations.  Where confusion may result, spell out the words instead.  The plurals of the noun abbreviations given here other than p. are formed through the addition of s (e.g., chs.).

ch.: chapter

dept.: department

ed.: edition

e.g.: for example (from the Latin exempli gratia; set off by commas, unless preceded by a different punctuation mark)

et al.: and others (from the Latin et alii, et aliae, et alia)

etc.: and others so forth (from the Latin et cetera; like most abbreviations, not appropriate in text)

i.e.: that is (from the Latin id est; set off by commas, unless preceded by a different punctuation mark).

no.: number

P: Press (used in documentation in names of academic presses: "MIT P")

p., pp.: page, pages

par.: paragraph

qtd. in: quoted in

rev.: revised

sec.: section

trans.: translation

U: University (also French Université, German Universität, Italian Università, Spanish Universidad, etc.; used in documentation: "U of Tennessee, Knoxville")

UP: University Press (used in documentation: "Columbia UP")

vol.: volume

(Curtesy of PurdueOWL)

November: Nov.

December: Dec.

January: Jan.

February: Feb.

March: Mar.

April: Apr.

May: May

June: June

July: July

August: Aug.

September: Sept.

October: Oct.

November: Nov.

December: Dec.

(Curtesy of PurdueOWL)