MLA Documentation Style
Widely used in English, foreign languages, the arts, and other humanities, the MLA
documentation style originates with the Modern Language Association and is published in
the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 4th edition (1995). Models for
electronic sources not covered by MLA appear in this hand-out.
*Double space all entries. Type the first line of each entry at the left margin, and indent all subsequent lines one-half inch or five spaces.
*List the author's name last-name first. If there are two or three authors, list all names after the first in normal order. Separate the names with commas.
*Give full titles, capitalizing all important words. Underline the titles of books and periodicals; place titles of periodical articles in quotation marks.
*Provide publication information after the title. For books, give place of publication, publisher's name, and date.
*Separate the main parts of an entry with periods followed by one space.
Books
A BOOK WITH ONE AUTHOR
Gilligan, Carol. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development.
Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982.
A BOOK WITH TWO OR THREE AUTHORS
Frieden, Bernard J., and Lynne B. Sagalyn. Downtown, Inc.: How America Rebuilds
Cities. Cambridge: MIT, 1989.
A BOOK WITH MORE THAN THREE AUTHORS
Lopez, Robert S., et al. Civilizations: Western and World. Boston: Little, 1975.
TWO OR MORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR(S)
Gardner, Howard. The Arts and Human Development. New York: Wiley, 1973.
- - -. The Quest for Mind: Piaget, Levi-Strauss, and the Structuralist Movement.
New York: Knopf, 1973.
A BOOK WITH AN EDITOR
Ruitenbeek, Hendrick, ed. Freud as We Knew Him. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1973.
A BOOK WITH AN AUTHOR AND AN EDITOR
Melville, Herman. The Confidence Man: His Masquerade. Ed. Hershel Parker. New
York: Norton, 1971.
A TRANSLATION
Alighieri, Dante. The Inferno. Trans. John Ciardi. New York: NAL, 1971.
A BOOK WITH A CORPORATE AUTHOR
Lorenz, Inc. Research in Social Studies Teaching. Baltimore: Arrow, 1992.
A LATER EDITION
Bollinger, Dwight L. Aspects of Language. 2nd ed. New York: Harcourt,
1975.
A BOOK WITH A TILE IN ITS TITLE
Eco, Umberto. Postscript to The Name of the Rose. Trans. William Weaver. New
York: Harcourt, 1983.
A WORK IN MORE THAN ONE VOLUME
Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Ed. Roy P. Basler. 8 vols. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1953.
Lincoln, Abraham. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. Ed. Roy P. Basler.
Vol. 5. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1953. 8 vols.
A WORK IN A SERIES
Bergman, Ingmar. The Seventh Seal. Modern Film Scripts Series. New York: Simon,
1968.
A SELECTION FROM AN ANTHOLOGY OR COLLECTION
Plath, Sylvia. "Lorelei." The Collected Poems. By Sylvia Plath. Ed.
Ted Hughes. New York: Harper, 1981. 94-95.
TWO OR MORE SELECTIONS FROM THE SAME ANTHOLOGY
Brooks, Rosetta. "Streetwise." Martin 38-39.
Martin, Richard, ed. The New Urban Landscape. New York: Rizzoli, 1990.
Plotkin, Mark J. "Tropical Forests and the Urban Landscape." Martin 50-51.
AN INTRODUCTION, PREFACE, FOREWORD, OR AFTERWORD
Donaldson, Norman. Introduction. The Claverings. By Anthony Trollope. New York:
Dover, 1977. vii-xv.
AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OR ALMANAC
"Mammoth." The Columbia Encyclopedia. 1993.
Mark, Herman F. "Polymers." The New Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropaedia.
16th ed. 1991.
Periodicals: Journals, magazines, newspapers
A SIGNED ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL WITH CONTINUOUS PAGINATION THROUGHOUT THE ANNUAL VOLUME
Lever, Janet. "Sex Differences in the Games Children Play." Social
Problems 23 (1976): 478-87.
A SIGNED ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL THAT PAGES ISSUES SEPARATELY OR THAT NUMBERS ONLY ISSUES, NOT VOLUMES
Dacey, June. "Management Participation in Corporate Buy-Outs." Management
Perspectives 7.4 (1994): 20-31.
A SIGNED ARTICLE IN A MONTHLY OR BIMONTHLY MAGAZINE
Stein, Harry. "Living with Lies." Esquire Dec. 1981: 23.
A SIGNED ARTICLE IN A WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY MAGAZINE
Stevens, Mark. "Low and Behold." New Republic 24 Dec. 1990: 27-33.
A SIGNED ARTICLE IN A DAILY NEWSPAPER
Ramirez, Anthony. "Computer Groups Plan Standards." New York Times 14
Dec. 1993, late ed.: D5.
AN UNSIGNED ARTICLE
"The Right to Die." Time 11 Oct. 1976: 101.
AN EDITORIAL OR LETTER TO THE EDITOR
"Bodily Intrusions." Editorial. New York Times 29 Aug. 1990, late ed.: A20.
Dowding, Michael. Letter. Economist 5-11 Jan. 1985: 4
A REVIEW
Dunne, John Gregory. "The Secret of Danny Santiago." Rev. of Famous All
over Town, by Danny Santiago. New York Review of Books 16 Aug. 1984: 17-27.
AN ABSTRACT OF A DISSERTATION
Steciw, Steven K. "Alterations to the Pessac Project of Le Corbusier." Diss.
U of Cambridge, England, 1986. DAI 46 (1986): 565C.
Other Sources
A GOVERNMENT DOCUMENT
United States. Cong. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Medicare Payment for
Outpatient Physical and Occupational Therapy Services.
102nd Cong., 1st sess. Washington: GPO, 1991.
A MUSICAL COMPOSITION OR WORK OF ART
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Piano Concerto no. 20 in D Minor, K. 466.
Sargent, John Singer. Venetian Doorway. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
A FILM OR VIDEO RECORDING
Spielberg, Steven, dir. Schindler's List. Perf. Liam Neeson and Ben Kingsley. Universal, 1993.
Serenade. Chor. George Balanchine. Perf. San Francisco Ballet. Dir. Hilary
Beane. 1981. Video-cassette. PBS Video, 1987.
A TELEVISION OR RADIO PROGRAM
A Life Together. With Donald Hall and Jane Kenyon. Bill Moyers' Journal. PBS. WNET, New York. 17 Dec. 1993
Teenage Suicide. With Bob Edwards. Morning Edition. NPR. KCCU, Lawton, Oklahoma.
16 June 1997.
A PERFORMANCE
The English Only Restuarant. By Silvio Martinez Palau. Dir. Susan Tubert. Puerto
Rican Traveling Theater, New York. 27 July 1990.
A RECORDING
Mithcell, Joni. For the Roses. Asylum, 1972.
Brahms, Johannes. Concerto no. 2 in B-flat, op. 83. Perf. Artur Rubinstein. Cond.
Eugene Ormandy. Philadelphia Orch. RCA, 1972.
A LETTER OR E-MAIL
Buttolph, Mrs. Laura E. Letter to Rev. and Mrs. C.C. Jones. 20 June 1857. In The Children of Pride: A True Story of Georgia and the Civil War. Ed. Robert Manson Myers. New Haven: Yale UP, 1972. 334.
Packer, Ann E. Letter to the author. 15 June 1988.
James, Jonathan. E-mail to the author. 4 Feb. 1996.
A LECTURE OR ADDRESS
Carlone, Dennis J. "Urban Design in the 1990's." Sixth Symposium on Urban
Issues. City of Cambridge. Cambridge City Hall, 16 Oct.
1988.
AN INTERVIEW
Graaf, Vera. Personal interview. 19 Dec. 1996.
Martin, William. Interview. "Give Me That Big Time Relgion." Frontline.
PBS. WGBH, Boston. 13 Feb. 1984.
A SOURCE ON CD-ROM, DISKETTE, OR MAGNETIC TAPE
CD-ROM PERIODICAL ALSO PUBLISHED IN PRINT:
Ramirez, Anthony. "Computer Groups Plan Standards." New York Times 14
Dec. 1993, late ed.: D5. New York Times Ondisc.
CD-ROM. UMI-ProQuest. June 1994.
CD-ROM PERIODICAL NOT PUBLISHED IN PRINT:
"Vanguard Forecasts." Jan. 1994. Business Outlook. CD-ROM. Information
Access. May 1994.
NON-PERIODICAL SOURCE:
Project Scheduler 8000. Ver. 3.1. Diskette. Orlando: Scitor, 1995.
THE FOLLOWING ONLINE SOURCES ARE THOSE DISCUSSED IN THE MLA HANDBOOK. FOR
ADDITIONAL MODELS OF ELECTRONIC SOURCES, SEE THE NOTES BELOW.
AN ONLINE SOURCE
SOURCE ALSO PUBLISHED IN PRINT:
Ramirez, Anthony. "Computer Groups Plan Standards." New York Times 14
Dec. 1993, late ed.: D5. New York Times Online.
Online. Nexis. 16 July 1996.
SOURCE NOT PUBLISHED IN PRINT:
"Vanguard Forecasts." Jan. 1994. Business Outlook. Online. America
Online. 27 Mar. 1996.
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OR NEWSLETTER:
"Palfry, Andrew. "Choice of Mates in Identical Twins." Modern
Psychology 4.1 (1996): 12 pars. Online. Internet. 25
Feb. 1996.
SOURCE ON A COMPUTER NETWORK:
Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Ronald Blythe. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972. Online.
Oxford Text Archive. Internet. 15 Dec. 1995. Available black.ox.ac.uk.
NOTE: Provide the date on which you consulted any online source (the last full
date in all the models above). Also, your instructor would like for you to include the
electronic address (the final element in the last model, beginning with
"Available").
ACW models for online sources: The MLA models for online sources do not include some electronic sites that you may find useful. Filling this gap, Janice R. Walker of the University of South Florida prepared models for these sites that have been endorsed by the Alliance for Computers and Writing (ACW). The models are based on the MLA style, with a few important differences:
*The electronic address always appears in the entry.
*The address includes only the punctuation required to reach the source (for example, there's no final period if it's not part of the address).
*The date on which you consulted the source falls at the end of the entry, in
parentheses.
When you must break a line inside a long electronic address, do not divide words or add any hyphen that is not part of the address.
For ease of reference, these models are numbered in sequence with the previous MLA
models.
AN FTP (FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL) SITE
Clarke, Kirsty. "A 'Near' Contract Experience." E Law--Murdoch Electronic
Journal of Law. ftp.infolib.murdoch.edu.au/pub/subj/law/jnl/elaw/comment/clarke.txt
(29 Feb. 1996).
A TELNET SITE OR SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION (MOO, MUD, ETC.)
Chartreuse_Guest. Tuesday cafe session. gopher logos.daedalus.com:70/11/Alliance for
Computers and Writing/NETRORIC/Tuesday Cafe log 13Feb. (7 Mar. 1996).
A GOPHER SITE
Goetsch, Sallie. "And What About Costume?" Didaskalia: Ancient Theater
Today2.2 (1995): n. pag. gopher /University of Warwick/Didaskalia/Didaskalia: Ancient
Theater Today/02Features/Goetsch (17 Apr. 1996).
A LISTSERV OR NEWSLIST CITATION
Cramer, Sherry. "Recent Investment Practices." e_invest@vm.temple.edu (19 Jan. 1996).
Tourville, Michael. "European Currency Reform." eunet.politics (11 Oct.
1995).
A WORLD WIDE WEB (WWW) SITE
"On the Battlefields of Business, Millions of Casualties." New York Times 3 Mar. 1996. http://www.nytimes.com/specials/downsize/03down1.html (17 Apr. 1996).