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Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.
MLA style also specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and using the English language in writing and also provides a writers with a system for cross-referencing their sources--from their parenthetical references to their works cited page. This cross-referencing system allows readers to locate the publication information of source material. This is of great value for researchers who may want to locate your sources for their own research projects. The proper use of MLA style also shows the credibility of writers; such writers show accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism--the purposeful or accidental use of source material by other writers without giving appropriate credit.
If you are asked to use MLA format, the book to consult is The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th edition). Copies of this book are on the reference shelves in the Writing Lab (226 Heavilon Hall) and in the HSSE Library; it is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and at the MLA web site at http://www.mla.org.Our additional resources section also has a list of other helpful books and resources on using MLA style. Included here is a brief summary of MLA style for the research paper.
The preparation of manuscripts in MLA style is covered in chapter four of the MLA Style Manual, as well as in chapter three of the Handbook for Writing Research Papers. Here are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style. For additional help with formatting a document in MLA style, see our additional resources section.
Here is a sample first page of an essay in MLA style:
Purdue 1 Pete Purdue Building a Dream: Reasons to Expand Ross-Aide Stadium During the 2000 football season, the Purdue Boilermakers won the Big Ten Conference Title, earned their first trip to the Rose Bowl in thirty-four years, and played consistently to sold-out crowds. Looking ahead... |
Formatting your works cited list
If you're looking for more help with MLA format, Diana Hacker provides an excellent guide to MLA Manuscript Format in Research and Documentation Online (available at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/manuscript.html). Wright University provides MLA Research Paper Templates in Microsoft Word and Rich Text formats (available at http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/rptemp.htm)that you can download and use guides for writing your papers.
Making reference to works of others in your text
Referring to the works of others in your text by using MLA style is covered in chapter seven of the MLA Style Manual, and chapter five of the Handbook for Writing Research Papers. Both chapters include extensive examples, so it's a good idea to read them over if you want to become familiar with the guidelines or if you have a particular question.
In MLA style, referring to the works of others in your text is done in two ways. When you make reference to someone else's idea, either through paraphrasing or quoting them directly, you:
This allows people to know which sources you used in writing your essay and then be able to look them up themselves, so that they can use them in their scholarly work. Here are some basic guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text. For additional help with citing the works of others, see our additional resources section.
MLA format follows the author-page method of citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear in your works cited list (see Your Works Cited Page, below). The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence.
For example:
| Wordsworth stated that Romantic poetry was marked by a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (263). Romantic poetry is characterized by the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth 263). Wordsworth extensively explored the role
of emotion in the creative process (263). |
If the work you are making reference to has no author, use an abbreviated version of the work's title. For non-print sources, such as films, TV series, pictures, or other media, or electronic sources, include the name that begins the entry in the Works Cited page.
For example:
| An anonymous Wordsworth
critic once argued that his poems were too emotional ("Wordsworth Is
A Loser" 100). |
Sometimes you may have to use an indirect quotation. An indirect quotation is a quotation that you found in another source that was quoting from the original. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source.
For example:
| Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as "social service centers, and they don't do that well" (qtd.in Weisman 259). |
Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even her or his full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. If you cite more than one work by a particular author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the other works by that same person.
For example:
Two authors with the same last name: Although some medical ethicists claim that cloning will lead to designer children (R. Miller 12), others note that the advantages for medical research outweigh this consideration (A. Miller 46). Two works by the same author: Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38), though he has acknowledged that early exposure to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a child's second and third year ("Hand-Eye Development" 17). |
For more about using parenthetical citations, visit MLA In-Text Citations (at Research and Documentation Online, available at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/intext.html) or MLA Documentation: Citations in Text (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center, available at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLACitation.html), or see our additional resources section.
When you directly quote the works of others in your paper, you will format quotations differently depending on whether they are long or short quotations. Formatting quotations using MLA style is covered in section 3.9 of the MLA Style Manual (which begins on page 102), and section 2.7 of the of the Handbook for Writing Research Papers (which begins on page 80). Here are some basic guidelines for incorporating quotations into your paper.
To indicate short quotations (fewer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse) in your text, enclose the quotation within double quotation marks and incorporate it into your text. Provide the author and specific page citation (in the case of verse, provide line numbers) in the text, and include a complete reference in the works-cited list. Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation. Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.
For example:
| According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree. According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184). Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)? Cullen concludes, "Of all the things that happened there/ That's all I remember" (11-12). |
Place quotations longer than four typed lines in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented one inch from the left margin, and maintain double-spacing. Your parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark. When quoting verse, maintain original line breaks. (You should maintain double-spacing throughout your essay.)
For example:
Nelly Dean treats Heathcliff poorly and dehumanizes him throughout her narration:
In her poem "Sources," Adrienne Rich explores the roles of women in shaping their world:
|
If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text.
For example:
| Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states: "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78). |
If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or word by using ellipsis marks surrounded by brackets.
For example:
| In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale [...] and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78). |
If there are ellipsis marks in the quoted author's work, do not put brackets
around them; only use brackets around ellipsis marks to distinguish them from
ellipsis marks in the quoted author's work.
In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and italicize or underline the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter and verse. For example:
| Ezekiel saw "what seemed to be four living creatures," each with faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5-10). |
All future references can then just cite book, chapter, and verse, since you've established which edition of the Bible you will be using.
For more about formatting quotations, check out the links to guides for formatting in our additional resources section.
The works cited list should appear at the end of your essay. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and be able to read any sources you cite in the essay. Each source you cite in the essay must appear in your works-cited list; likewise, each entry in the works-cited list must be cited in your text. Preparing your works cited list using MLA style is covered in chapter six of the MLA Style Manual, and chapter four of the Handbook for Writing Research Papers. Here are some guidelines for preparing your works cited list.
For more about formatting your works cited page, visit MLA List of Works Cited (from Research and Documentation Online, available at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/list.html), view a Sample Works Cited Page (from A Research Guide for Students, available at http://www.aresearchguide.com/10works.html#sampleworks), or visit some of the links in our additional resources section.
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of print source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
(After the first listing of the author's name, use three hyphens and a period for the author's name. List books alphabetically.)
Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin's, 1997.
---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.
If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.
Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993.
"Cigarette Sales Fall 30% as California Tax Rises." New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17.
For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Encyclopedia 235) and ("Cigarette" A17).
Peterson, Nancy J., ed. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34.
Cross-referencing: If you cite more than one essay from the same edited collection, you should cross-reference within your works cited list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. To do so, include a separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name. For individual essays from that collection, simply list the author's name, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page numbers. For example:
L'Eplattenier, Barbara. "Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on WPAs." Rose and Weiser 131-40.
Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser 153-167.
Rose, Shirley K., and Irwin Weiser, eds. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1999.
"Jamaica." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1999 ed.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Source Day Month Year: pages.
When citing the date, list day before month; use a three-letter abbreviation of the month (e.g. Jan., Mar., Aug.). If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late edition of a newspaper), identify the edition following the date (e.g. 17 May 1987, late ed.).
Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.
Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent 5 Dec. 2000: 20.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Vol (Year): pages.
"Vol" indicates the volume number of the journal. If the journal uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume, only volume and year are needed, e.g. Modern Fiction Studies 40 (1998): 251-81. If each issue of the journal begins on page 1, however, you must also provide the issue number following the volume, e.g. Mosaic 19.3 (1986): 33-49.
Allen, Emily. "Staging Identity: Frances Burney's Allegory of Genre." Eighteenth-Century Studies 31 (1998): 433-51.
Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly 50.3 (1994): 127-53.
The New Jerusalem Bible. Susan Jones, gen. ed. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
For more about citing print sources in your works cited page, visit Works Cited in MLA Style (from A Research Guide for Students, available at http://www.aresearchguide.com/12biblio.html), an MLA List of Works Cited (from Research and Documentation Online, available at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/list.html), view a Sample Works Cited Page (from A Research Guide for Students, available at http://www.aresearchguide.com/10works.html#sampleworks), or visit some of the links in our additional resources section.
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of electronic source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
If no author is given for a web page or electronic source, start with and alphabetize by the title of the piece and use a shortened version of the title for parenthetical citations.
Author(s). Name of Page. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. Date of Access <electronic address>.
It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.
Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 Dec. 1999. Purdue University. 15 Nov. 2000 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7Efelluga/theory2.html>.
Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 10 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.
It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available at one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Also, note the use of angled brackets around the electronic address; MLA requires them for clarity.
Author(s)."Article Title." Name of web site. Date of posting/revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with site. Date of access <electronic address>.
Poland, Dave. "The Hot Button." Roughcut. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 <http://www.roughcut.com>.
"Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 6 Feb. 2003 <http://owl.english.purdue.eduhandouts/research/r_mla.html>.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume. Issue (Year): Pages/Paragraphs. Date of Access <electronic address>.
Some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; include them if available. This format is also appropriate to online magazines; as with a print version, you should provide a complete publication date rather than volume and issue number.
Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 33 pars. 5 Dec. 2000 <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm>.
Artist if available. "Description or title of image." Date of image. Online image. Title of larger site. Date of download. <electronic address>.
Smith, Greg. "Rhesus Monkeys in the Zoo." No date. Online image. Monkey Picture Gallery. 3 May 2003. <http://monkeys.online.org/rhesus.jpg>.
Author. "Title of the message (if any)" E-mail to person's name. Date of the message.
This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."
Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2000.
Neyhart, David. "Re: Online Tutoring." E-mail to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000.
Author. "Title of Posting." Online posting. Date when material was posted (for example: 18 Mar. 1998). Name of listserv. Date of access <electronic address for retrieval>.
Karper, Erin. "Welcome!" Online posting. 23 Oct. 2000. Professional Writing Bulletin Board. 12 Nov. 2000 <http://linnell.english.purdue.edu/ubb/Forum2/HTML/000001.html>.
If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database that your library subscribes to, you should provide enough information so that the reader can locate the article either in its original print form or retrieve it from the online database (if they have access).
Provide the following information in your citation:
The generic citation form would look like this:
Author. "Title of Article." Publication Name Volume Number (if necessary) Publication Date: page number-page number. Database name. Service name. Library Name, City, State. Date of access <electronic address of the database>.
Here's an example:
Smith, Martin. "World Domination for Dummies." Journal of Despotry Feb. 2000: 66-72. Expanded Academic ASAP. Gale Group Databases. Purdue University Libraries, West Lafayette, IN. 19 February 2003 <http://www.infotrac.galegroup.com>.
"World War II." Encarta. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 1999.
Reed, William. "Whites and the Entertainment Industry." Tennessee Tribune 25 Dec. 1996: 28. Ethnic NewsWatch. CD-ROM. Data Technologies. Feb. 1997.
For more about citing electronic sources, check out MLA Documentation: Citing Electronic Sources (from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center, available at http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/elecmla.html), Using MLA Style to Cite and Document Internet Sources (from Bedford St. Martin's Online, available at http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite5.html), MLA Style: Electronic Formats (from Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey, available at http://www.westwords.com/guffey/mla.html), and Citing Electronic Sources-- MLA (from Middlebury College, available at http://www.middlebury.edu/~lib/citing.mla.html). The Gale Group also has a page about how to cite publications retrieved from their databases in MLA format (available at http://www.galegroup.com/customer_service/technical_information/citing.htm) that includes examples of different kinds of publications.
The MLA Style Manual provides extensive examples of other source citations in chapter six; The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides extensive examples covering a wide variety of potential sources in chapter six. If your particular case is not covered here, use the basic forms to determine the correct format, consult the MLA Handbook, visit the links in our additional resources section, talk to your instructor, or call the Writing Lab (765-494-3723) for help.
United States Dept. of Health and Human Services. Healthy People 2010: Understanding and Improving Health. Washington: GPO, 2000.
Office of the Dean of Students. Resources for Success: Learning Disabilities and Attention Deficit Disorders. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University, 2000.
Purdue, Pete. Personal Interview. 1 Dec. 2000.
To cite a lecture or a speech, "give the speaker's name, the title of the lecture or speech (if known) in quotation marks, the meeting and the sponsoring organization (if applicable), the location [including place and city, if available], and the date. If there is no title, use an appropriate descriptive label (e.g., Lecture, Address, Keynote speech), neither underlined nor enclosed in quotation marks" (MLA Handbook, 206).
Harris, Muriel. "Writing Labs: A Short History." 2003 Writing Center Conference. National Writing Centers Association. La Swank Hotel, Seattle. 28 March 2003.
Lufthansa. Advertisement. Time 20 Nov. 2000: 151.
"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox. WXIA, Atlanta. 19 Jul. 1998.
U2. All That You Can't Leave Behind. Interscope, 2000.
The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro. Polygram, 1995.
Staples. Advertisement. CBS. 3 Dec. 2000.
1. evaluative bibliographic comments, for example:
1 See Blackmur, especially chapters three and four, for an insightful analysis of this trend.
2 On the problems related to repressed memory recovery, see Wollens pp. 120- 35; for a contrasting view, see Pyle.
2. occasional explanatory notes or other brief additional information that would seem digressive if included in the main text but might be interesting to readers, for example:
3 In a 1998 interview, she reiterated this point even more strongly: "I am an artist, not a politician!" (Weller 124).
Footnotes in MLA format are indicated by consecutive superscript arabic numbers in the text. The notes themselves are listed by consecutive superscript arabic numbers and appear double-spaced in regular paragraph format (a new paragraph for each note) on a separate page under the word Notes (centered, in plain text without quotation marks).
It's always best to consult the MLA Style Manual or the Handbook
for Writing Research Papers first for any MLA question. If you are using
MLA style for a class assignment, it's a good idea to consult your professor,
advisor, TA, or other campus resources for help -- they're the ones who can
tell you how the style should apply in your particular case. For extraordinary
questions that aren't covered clearly in the style manual or haven't been answered
by your teacher or advisor, contact the Writing Lab for help at (765) 494-3723
or email us at this form.
Here are some other resources for using MLA style and writing research papers
that might also help answer your questions.
Here are some print resources for using MLA style. Most of these books are probably available in your local library. The Writing Lab also has some of them available for use in the Lab.
From the Modern Language Association
From other presses
From the Modern Language Association:
Formatting your paper and writing in MLA style
MLA style templates and sample papers
Documenting and referencing sources
On Purdue's OWL:
Other online resources
Other citation styles
Purdue's OWL also offers information about other citation methods and electronic
sources. We have the following handouts:
Revised by Jennifer Liethen Kunka and Joe Barbato, Purdue University,
December 2000.
Additional revisions and resources added by Erin Karper, January 2003, February
2003, December 2003.
(If you're trying to cite this web page, please list the author as the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL). The title of the page is Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format.)
| The following information must remain intact on every handout printed for distribution. This page is located at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_mla.html Copyright ©1995-2002 by OWL at Purdue
University and Purdue University. All rights reserved.
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