MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered
throughout the MLA Handbook and in chapter 7 of the MLA Style Manual. Both books provide
extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar
with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations.
This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence
uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source
information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as
the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the
parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

 The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source
medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
 Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source
information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase
you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand
margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last
name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the
text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. 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).

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the
information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named
Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works
Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:
Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads. Oxford UP, 1967.
In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a
signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the
signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.
Human beings have been described by Kenneth Burke as "symbol-using animals" (3).
Human beings have been described as "symbol-using animals" (Burke 3).
These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing
that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method.

University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation
followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g.,
nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly
long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name.
Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a
longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if
it is available.

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more
readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study
environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming").

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title
appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand
margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in
quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader
directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999.
www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which
sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of
the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions
 Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary
scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's The
Communist Manifesto. In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the
edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the
appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or
paragraph (par.). For example:

Marx and Engels described human history as marked by class struggles (79; ch. 1).

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a
periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the internal  source (i.e., the article or
essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of
Relativity," which was published in Nature in 1921, you might write something like this:

Relativity's theoretical foundations can be traced to earlier work by Faraday and Maxwell
(Einstein 7)

Citing authors with same last names

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 the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:
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).

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical
citation:

Best and Marcus argue that one should read a text for what it says on its surface, rather than
looking for some hidden meaning (9).

The authors claim that surface reading looks at what is “evident, perceptible, apprehensible in
texts” (Best and Marcus 9).

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations, vol. 108,
no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the
additional names with et al.
According to Franck et al., “Current agricultural policies in the U.S. are contributing to the poor
health of Americans” (327).
The authors claim that one cause of obesity in the United States is government-funded farm
subsidies (Franck et al. 327).
Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American
Journal of Preventative Medicine, vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular
work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in
italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author:

Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children ("Too Soon" 38),
though he has acknowledged elsewhere 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).

Citing two books by the same author:

Murray states that writing is "a process" that "varies with our thinking style" (Write to Learn 6).
Additionally, Murray argues that the purpose of writing is to "carry ideas and information from
the mind of one person into the mind of another" (A Writer Teaches Writing 3).
Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the
author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when
appropriate, the page number(s):

Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be "too easy" (Elkins, "Visual Studies"
63).

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number
followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only
cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)
. . . as Quintilian wrote in Institutio Oratoria (1: 14-17).

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and
underline or italicize 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).
If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book,
chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:
John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within
another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually
consulted. 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).
Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather
than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialog involving two or more participants have special guidelines
for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialog should begin with the speaker's name written
in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.). After the
period, write the dialog. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional
indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name
indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include
stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.
Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the
author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the
concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or
act/scene indicators.
Here is an example from O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh.
Alcohol makes an early appearance in O'Neill's play. In the very first scene, O'Neill's characters
treat alcohol as a panacea for their ills:
WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.
ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.
WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips
and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you
found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for
scholarly work (reference the OWL's Evaluating Sources of Information resource), some Web
sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film,
or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited
page.
Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources
because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a
page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the
following guidelines:

 Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to
the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
 Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print
preview function.
 Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to
the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as
when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name,
like CNN.com or Forbes.com, as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or
http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:
Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo stars Herzog's long-time film partner, Klaus Kinski. During the
shooting of Fitzcarraldo, Herzog and Kinski were often at odds, but their explosive relationship
fostered a memorable and influential film.
During the presentation, Jane Yates stated that invention and pre-writing are areas of rhetoric
that need more attention.
In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader
to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo. Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.
Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric
and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:
One online film critic stated that Fitzcarraldo "has become notorious for its near-failure and
many obstacles" (Taylor, “Fitzcarraldo”).
The Purdue OWL is accessed by millions of users every year. Its "MLA Formatting and Style
Guide" is one of the most popular resources.

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author
name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the
writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in
order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page
does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as
a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an
abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both
corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:
Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant, 13 Jun. 2003,
www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, 2 Aug. 2016,

owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-
colon:
. . . as has been discussed elsewhere (Burke 3; Dewey 21).

Time-based media sources

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 you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-
00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not
need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For
example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.).
Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience.
If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal
with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

MLA Works Cited Page: Books

When you are gathering book sources, be sure to make note of the following bibliographic items:
the author name(s), other contributors such as translators or editors, the book’s title, editions of
the book, the publication date, the publisher, and the pagination.

Below is the general format for any citation:

Author. Title. Title of container (do not list container for standalone books, e.g. novels), Other
contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher,
Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs URL or DOI). 2 nd container’s title, Other
contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if
applicable).

Basic Book Format

The author’s name or a book with a single author's name appears in last name, first name format.
The basic form for a book citation is:

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

*Note: the City of Publication should only be used if the book was published before 1900, if the
publisher has offices in more than one country, or if the publisher is unknown in North America.

Book with One Author

Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.
Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. MacMurray, 1999.

Book with More Than One Author

When a book has two authors, order the authors in the same way they are presented in the book.
Start by listing the first name that appears on the book in last name, first name format;
subsequent author names appear in normal order (first name last name format).

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Allyn and
Bacon, 2000.

If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for
"and others") in place of the subsequent authors' names. (Note that there is a period after “al” in
“et al.” Also note that there is never a period after the “et” in “et al.”).

Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the
Teaching of Composition. Utah State UP, 2004.

Two or More Books by the Same Author

List works alphabetically by title. (Remember to ignore articles like A, An, and The.) Provide the
author’s name in last name, first name format for the first entry only. For each subsequent entry
by the same author, use three hyphens and a period.

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. St. Martin's, 1997.

---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Southern Illinois UP, 1993.

Book by a Corporate Author or Organization

A corporate author may include a commission, a committee, a government agency, or a group
that does not identify individual members on the title page.
List the names of corporate authors in the place where an author’s name typically appears at the
beginning of the entry.
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. Random House, 1998.

When the author and publisher are the same, skip the author, and list the title first. Then, list the
corporate author only as the publisher.
Fair Housing—Fair Lending. Aspen Law & Business, 1985.

Book with No Author

List by title of the book. Incorporate these entries alphabetically just as you would with works
that include an author name. For example, the following entry might appear between entries of
works written by Dean, Shaun and Forsythe, Jonathan.

Encyclopedia of Indiana. Somerset, 1993.

Remember that for an in-text (parenthetical) citation of a book with no author, you should
provide the name of the work in the signal phrase and the page number in parentheses. You may
also use a shortened version of the title of the book accompanied by the page number.

A Translated Book

If you want to emphasize the work rather than the translator, cite as you would any other book.
Add “translated by” and follow with the name(s) of the translator(s).

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.

Translated by Richard Howard, Vintage-Random House, 1988.

If you want to focus on the translation, list the translator as the author. In place of the author’s
name, the translator’s name appears. His or her name is followed by the label, “translator.” If the
author of the book does not appear in the title of the book, include the name, with a “By” after
the title of the book and before the publisher. Note that this type of citation is less common and
should only be used for papers or writing in which translation plays a central role.

Howard, Richard, translator. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of

Reason. By Michel Foucault, Vintage-Random House, 1988.

Republished Book

Books may be republished due to popularity without becoming a new edition. New editions are
typically revisions of the original work. For books that originally appeared at an earlier date and
that have been republished at a later one, insert the original publication date before the
publication information.

For books that are new editions (i.e. different from the first or other editions of the book), see An
Edition of a Book below.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble. 1990. Routledge, 1999.
Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

An Edition of a Book
There are two types of editions in book publishing: a book that has been published more than
once in different editions and a book that is prepared by someone other than the author (typically
an editor).

A Subsequent Edition
Cite the book as you normally would, but add the number of the edition after the title.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed.,
Pearson, 2004.

A Work Prepared by an Editor

Cite the book as you normally would, but add the editor after the title with the label "edited by."
Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre, edited by Margaret Smith, Oxford UP, 1998.

Note that the format for citing sources with important contributors with editor-like roles follows
the same basic template:
...adapted by John Doe...

Finally, in the event that the source features a contributor that cannot be described with a past-
tense verb and the word "by" (e.g., "edited by"), you may instead use a noun followed by a
comma, like so:
...guest editor, Jane Smith...

Anthology or Collection (e.g. Collection of Essays)

To cite the entire anthology or collection, list by editor(s) followed by a comma and "editor" or,
for multiple editors, "editors." This sort of entry is somewhat rare. If you are citing a particular
piece within an anthology or collection (more common), see A Work in an Anthology,
Reference, or Collection below.

Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, editors. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, 2004.

Peterson, Nancy J., editor. Toni Morrison: Critical and Theoretical Approaches. Johns Hopkins
UP, 1997.

A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection

Works may include an essay in an edited collection or anthology, or a chapter of a book. The
basic form is for this sort of citation is as follows:

Last name, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s),
Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.

Some examples:
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers
One to One, edited by Ben Rafoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.
Swanson, Gunnar. "Graphic Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the
University and The 'Real World.'" The Education of a Graphic Designer, edited by Steven
Heller, Allworth Press, 1998, pp. 13-24.

Note on Cross-referencing Several Items from One Anthology: If you cite more than one essay
from the same edited collection, MLA indicates you may cross-reference within your works cited
list in order to avoid writing out the publishing information for each separate essay. You should
consider this option if you have several references from a single text. To do so, include a
separate entry for the entire collection listed by the editor's name as below:

Rose, Shirley K., and Irwin Weiser, editors. The Writing Program Administrator as Researcher.
Heinemann, 1999.

Then, for each individual essay from the collection, list the author's name in last name, first name
format, the title of the essay, the editor's last name, and the page range:

L'Eplattenier, Barbara. "Finding Ourselves in the Past: An Argument for Historical Work on
WPAs." Rose and Weiser, pp. 131-40.
Peeples, Tim. "'Seeing' the WPA With/Through Postmodern Mapping." Rose and Weiser, pp.
153-67.

Please note: When cross-referencing items in the works cited list, alphabetical order should be
maintained for the entire list.

Poem or Short Story Examples:

Burns, Robert. "Red, Red Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, Dover, 1995, p.
26.

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

If the specific literary work is part of the author's own collection (all of the works have the same
author), then there will be no editor to reference:

Whitman, Walt. "I Sing the Body Electric." Selected Poems, Dover, 1991, pp. 12-19.
Carter, Angela. "The Tiger's Bride." Burning Your Boats: The Collected Stories, Penguin, 1995,
pp. 154-69.

Article in a Reference Book (e.g. Encyclopedias, Dictionaries)

For entries in encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference works, cite the entry name as you
would any other work in a collection but do not include the publisher information. Also, if the
reference book is organized alphabetically, as most are, do not list the volume or the page
number of the article or item.
"Ideology." The American Heritage Dictionary, 3rd ed., Dell, 1997, p. 369.
A Multivolume Work

When citing only one volume of a multivolume work, include the volume number after the
work's title, or after the work's editor or translator.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

When citing more than one volume of a multivolume work, cite the total number of volumes in
the work. Also, be sure in your in-text citation to provide both the volume number and page
number(s)
Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980. 4 vols.
If the volume you are using has its own title, cite the book without referring to the other volumes
as if it were an independent publication.

Churchill, Winston S. The Age of Revolution. Dodd, 1957.

An Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword

When citing an introduction, a preface, a foreword, or an afterword, write the name of the
author(s) of the piece you are citing. Then give the name of the part being cited, which should
not be italicized or enclosed in quotation marks; in italics, provide the name of the work and the
name of the author of the introduction/preface/foreword/afterword. Finish the citation with the
details of publication and page range.

Farrell, Thomas B. Introduction. Norms of Rhetorical Culture, by Farrell, Yale UP, 1993, pp. 1-
13.

If the writer of the piece is different from the author of the complete work, then write the full
name of the principal work's author after the word "By." For example, if you were to cite Hugh
Dalziel Duncan’s introduction of Kenneth Burke’s book Permanence and Change, you would
write the entry as follows:

Duncan, Hugh Dalziel. Introduction. Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose, by

Kenneth Burke, 1935, 3rd ed., U of California P, 1984, pp. xiii-xliv.

Book Published Before 1900

Original copies of books published before 1900 are usually defined by their place of publication
rather than the publisher. Unless you are using a newer edition, cite the city of publication where
you would normally cite the publisher.
Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions. Boston, 1863.

The Bible
Italicize “The Bible” and follow it with the version you are using. Remember that your in-text
(parenthetical citation) should include the name of the specific edition of the Bible, followed by
an abbreviation of the book, the chapter and verse(s). (See Citing the Bible at In-Text Citations:
The Basics.)

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

The Bible. The New Oxford Annotated Version, 3rd ed., Oxford UP, 2001.
The New Jerusalem Bible. Edited by Susan Jones, Doubleday, 1985.

A Government Publication

Cite the author of the publication if the author is identified. Otherwise, start with the name of the
national government, followed by the agency (including any subdivisions or agencies) that
serves as the organizational author. For congressional documents, be sure to include the number
of the Congress and the session when the hearing was held or resolution passed as well as the
report number. US government documents are typically published by the Government Printing
Office.

United States, Congress, Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Hearing on the
Geopolitics of Oil. Government Printing Office, 2007. 110th Congress, 1st session, Senate
Report 111-8.

United States, Government Accountability Office. Climate Change: EPA and DOE Should Do
More to Encourage Progress Under Two Voluntary Programs. Government Printing Office,
2006.

A Pamphlet

Cite the title and publication information for the pamphlet just as you would a book without an
author. Pamphlets and promotional materials commonly feature corporate authors (commissions,
committees, or other groups that does not provide individual group member names). If the
pamphlet you are citing has no author, cite as directed below. If your pamphlet has an author or a
corporate author, put the name of the author (last name, first name format) or corporate author in
the place where the author name typically appears at the beginning of the entry. (See also Books
by a Corporate Author or Organization above.)

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

Your Rights Under California Welfare Programs. California Department of Social Services,
2007.

Dissertations and Master's Theses

Dissertations and master's theses may be used as sources whether published or not. Unlike
previous editions, MLA 8 specifies no difference in style for published/unpublished works.
The main elements of a dissertation citation are the same as those for a book: author
name(s), title (italicized), and publication date. Conclude with an indication of the document type
(e.g., "PhD dissertation"). The degree-granting institution may be included before the document
type (though this is not required). If the dissertation was accessed through an online repository,
include it as the second container after all the other elements.

Bishop, Karen Lynn. Documenting Institutional Identity: Strategic Writing in the IUPUI

Comprehensive Campaign. 2002. Purdue University, PhD dissertation.

Bile, Jeffrey. Ecology, Feminism, and a Revised Critical Rhetoric: Toward a Dialectical

Partnership. 2005. Ohio University, PhD dissertation.

Mitchell, Mark. The Impact of Product Quality Reducing Events on the Value of Brand-Name
Capital: Evidence from Airline Crashes and the 1982 Tylenol Poisonings. 1987. PhD
dissertation. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

MLA Works Cited Page: Periodicals

Periodicals include magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. Works cited entries for
periodical sources include three main elements—the author of the article, the title of the article,
and information about the magazine, newspaper, or journal. MLA uses the generic term
“container” to refer to any print or digital venue (a website or print journal, for example) in
which an essay or article may be included.

Below is the generic citation for periodicals using the MLA style. Use this as guidance if you are
trying to cite a type of source not described on this page, omitting any information that does not
apply:

Author. Title. Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or
editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publisher Date, Location (pp.).
2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Pub date, Location (pp.).

Article in a Magazine

Cite by listing the article's author, putting the title of the article in quotations marks, and
italicizing the periodical title. Follow with the date of publication. Remember to abbreviate the
month. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time, 20 Nov. 2000, pp. 70-71.
Buchman, Dana. "A Special Education." Good Housekeeping, Mar. 2006, pp. 143-48.
Article in a Newspaper

Cite a newspaper article as you would a magazine article, but note the different pagination in
most newspapers. If there is more than one edition available for that date (as in an early and late
edition of a newspaper), identify the edition after the newspaper title.

Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post, 24
May 2007, p. LZ01.

Krugman, Andrew. "Fear of Eating." New York Times, late ed., 21 May 2007, p. A1.
If the newspaper is a less well-known or local publication, include the city name in brackets after
the title of the newspaper.

Behre, Robert. "Presidential Hopefuls Get Final Crack at Core of S.C. Democrats." Post and
Courier [Charleston, SC],29 Apr. 2007, p. A11.

Trembacki, Paul. "Brees Hopes to Win Heisman for Team." Purdue Exponent [West Lafayette,
IN], 5 Dec. 2000, p. 20.

A Review

To cite a review, include the title of the review (if available), then the phrase, “Review of” and
provide the title of the work (in italics for books, plays, and films; in quotation marks for articles,
poems, and short stories). Finally, provide performance and/or publication information.

Review Author. "Title of Review (if there is one)." Review of Performance Title, by
Author/Director/Artist. Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, page.

Seitz, Matt Zoller. "Life in the Sprawling Suburbs, If You Can Really Call It Living." Review
of Radiant City, directed by Gary Burns and Jim Brown. New York Times, 30 May 2007, p. E1.

Weiller, K. H. Review of Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media
Representations, edited by Linda K. Fuller. Choice, Apr. 2007, p. 1377.

An Editorial & Letter to the Editor

Cite as you would any article in a periodical, but include the designators "Editorial" or "Letter"
to identify the type of work it is.

"Of Mines and Men." Editorial. Wall Street Journal, eastern edition, 24 Oct. 2003, p. A14.
Hamer, John. Letter. American Journalism Review, Dec. 2006/Jan. 2007, p. 7.

Anonymous Articles

Cite the article’s title first, then finish the citation as you would any other for that kind of
periodical.
"Business: Global Warming's Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland." The Economist, 26 May
2007, p. 82.
"Aging; Women Expect to Care for Aging Parents but Seldom Prepare." Women's Health
Weekly, 10 May 2007, p. 18.

An Article in a Scholarly Journal

A scholarly journal can be thought of as a container, as are collections of short stories or poems,
a television series, or even a website. A container can be thought of as anything that contains
other pieces of work. In this case, cite the author and title of article as you normally would. Then,
put the title of the journal in italics. Include the volume number (“vol.”) and issue number
(“no.”) when possible, separated by commas. Finally, add the year and page numbers.

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, pages.

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta

Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.

Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in

DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 1994, pp. 127-53.

An Article in a Special Issue of a Scholarly Journal

When an article appears in a special issue of a journal, cite the name of the special issue in the
entry’s title space, in italics. Add the descriptor “special issue of” and include the name of the
journal, also in italics, followed by the rest of the information required for a standard scholarly
journal citation.
Web entries should follow a similar format, and should include a DOI (if available), otherwise
include a URL or permalink.

Burgess, Anthony. "Politics in the Novels of Graham Greene." Literature and Society, special

issue of Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 2, no. 2, 1967, pp. 93-99.

Case, Sue-Ellen. “Eve's Apple, or Women's Narrative Bytes.” Technocriticism and

Hypernarrative, special issue of Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 43, no. 3, 1997, pp. 631-
50. Project Muse, doi:10.1353/mfs.1997.0056.