Barbora Orlická

Pavla Nováková
The Modern Language Assosiation
The MLA Handbook is the association's
guide for high school and undergraduate
students on the preparation of research
papers. It gives step-by-step advice on
every aspect of writing papers, from
selecting a topic to submitting the
completed paper. It provides an
authoritative presentation of MLA
documentation style for use in student
writing.

http://www.mla.org/style_faq1
• No “I”, no “we” (authorial plural)
• No general statements (“Every/all/” etc.)
- use arguments; make references to sources;
• 12 p.
• Double-spaced
• Times New Roman or similar
• HEAD: Name, (UČO), teacher, course, date
- 15 October 2012 / October 15, 2012
• Name of the work: DO NOT underline; italicise
only names of books (major works); capitalize;
you may use quotation marks;
• Introduction, Body, Conclusion
• Coherence and consistence
• Paragraph linking
• Extent: set min., the max is up to you
• Quotations: always followed by your
interpretation, comment or argument why are
they relevant!
 Required structure of academic texts

Introduction Body Conclusion

General information Specific information General information
No details Details—but only details related No (new) details
to thesis
5-15 % 70-80 % 5-15 %
 Example of logical hierarchical numbering of chapters
and subchapters in an academic paper
(thesis)

Toward a Taxonomy of Given–New Information

Ellen F. Prince
1. ON THE CONVEYING OF INFORMATION IN LANGUAGE
2. “GIVEN–NEW”
2.1 Givennessp: Predictability/Recoverability
2.3 Givennessk: “Shared Knowledge”
2.4 Relatedness of the Three Types of Givenness
3. SO-CALLED “SHARED KNOWLEDGE”
3.1 Terminology
3.2 The Problem
3.3 The Taxonomy
4. ILLUSTRATION
5. AREAS FOR FURTHER STUDY
• A paragraph is usually defined as a stretch of
text devoted to one compact topic;
Anglophone authors tend to use
straightforward lexical and syntactic structures
and do not avoid repetition. The repetition of
words and patterns makes the message more
accurate and minimizes ambiguity.
• “to commit literary theft...to present as new
and original an idea or product derived from
an existing source” (Merriam-Webster)
• From intellectual theft to fraud, more often a
moral and ethical offense rather than a legal
one
• Every time you use a sentence, or even
expression, be sure to acknowledge the
source
• Be careful with notes: 3 types of notes:
1. Your ideas; 2. Your summaries and paraphrases of other´s
ideas and facts; 3. Exact wording copied;
• Be careful while collecting the inspiration on
the internet
• If you don’t use quotation marks when citing
other author’s words, it is still plagiarism even
though you acknowledged the source
• Copying the structure and grammatical
patterns can also lead to unintentional
plagiarism
• Basic biography of an author, historical events
and other widely known information do not
have to be cited, but if some fact is heavily
disputed among scholars, you should include
the source
• Reusing your own work? You should ask the
teacher!
• Consistency of spelling (UK, US)
• Word division: avoid as much as possible
• No contracted forms! (we’ll, you’ve, etc)
• Space after every punctuation mark
• Numerals: 2,500 years vs. 2.5 cm
• Name with a numeral: Elizabeth II
• Italicized titles vs. titles in quotation marks
• Possessive plural ending with s: add only an
apostrophe – firefighters’ truck
• Italicise names of the major works (Paradise Lost, Lord of
the Flies)
• Titles of works
• Do not reproduce any unusal typographic
characteristics;
DO capitalize:

DO NOT capitalize:
PROSE
• Less than 4 lines: in quotation marks
• More than 4 lines: indent 1 inch; NO
quotation marks; usualy introduced by a colon
(:)
• If quoting more than 1 paragraph, indent the
first line of each paragraph an extra ½ inch;
POETRY
• Less than 3 lines: in quotation marks; use of a
slash (/)

• More than 3 lines: begin on a new line

indented 1 inch
• Reproduce any unsual typography
DRAMA

• Name of the character: all letters capitalized

• A period follows the name!
• Omitting a part of a quotation
• In the middle: /. . . / space on each side and
before each
• At the end: /. . . . / space before each; 3+1 if
not followed by parenthetical reference;
otherwise: . . .”(20).
• You can use it to omit any amount of text
• If the source text contains unusual spelling
(mistakes, obsolete language, etc.)
- use sic

• Explanations: square brackets

• Identification of pronouns: square brackets

• You don’t use quotation marks with indented
quotation (longer than 4 lines), BUT you reproduce
all the internal quotations of the cited text;
• Use double quotation marks around quotation
incorporated into the text, single quotation marks
around quotation within those quotations:
• Commas and periods that directly follow quotations go INSIDE
quotation marks, BUT a parenthetical reference should
intervene BETWEEN the quotation and the required
punctuation > the period appears AFTER the reference:

TYPES OF QUOTATIONS
• If you begin the sentence with quotation and
you wish to incorporate it into a longer
sentence, you replace the period with a
comma:

• BUT! If the quotation ends with a question

mark or an exclamation mark, you keep them:
• If the punctuation mark is not a part of the
quotation it goes outside the quotation marks
(if no parenthetical reference follows)
• Academic journals, articles, web sites (be
careful!), films, books, dictionaries, etc.
• Use the Open VPN
• http://www.phil.muni.cz/wkaa/home/vyveska
/digital-resources
• http://ezdroje.muni.cz
• http://citationmachine.net/index2.php
• You must indicate to your readers not only what
works you used in writing the paper but also what
you derived from each source and where in the
work you found the material.
• The most practical way to supply this information is
to insert brief parenthetical acknowledgement
wherever you incorporate another’s words, facts,
or ideas.
• References in the text must clearly point to specific
sources in the list of works cited.
• Usually, the author’s last name and a page reference
are enough to identify the source
Medieval Europe was a place both of “raids, pillages, slavery,
and extortion” and of “traveling merchants, monetary
exchange, towns if not cities, and active markets in grain”
(Townsend 10).
• Given the author’s name, the readers can find
complete publication information for the source in the
list of works cited
Townsend, Robert M. The Medieval Village Economy.
Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. Print.
• If your list contains more than one author with the
same last name, you must add the first initial (if
the initial is shared too, give the full first name).
• If there are two or three authors, give the last
name of each person listed: (Rabkin, Greenberg,
and Olander vii).
• If the work has more than three authors, either
give the first author’s last name followed by et al.
or give all the last names.
• Keep the parenthetical references as brief – and as
few – as clarity and accuracy permit.
• If you are citing an entire work rather than a
specific part of it, the author’s name in the text
may be enough
Booth has devoted an entire book to the
subject.
Booth has devoted an entire book, The
Rhetoric of Fiction, to the subject.
• There is a direct relation between what you integrate into your text
and what you place in parentheses.
1. Author’s name in text: Tannen has argued this point (178-85).
2. Author’s name in reference: This point has already been argued
(Tannen 178-85).
3. Authors’ names in text: Others, like Jakobson and Waugh (210-
15), hold the opposite point of view.
4. Authors’ names in reference: Others hold the opposite point of
view (e.g., Jakobson and Waugh 210-15).
5. Author’s name in text: It may be true, as Robertson maintains,
that “in the appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the
observer is of primary importance …” (136).
6. Author’s name in reference: It may be true that “in the
appreciation of medieval art the attitude of the observer is of
primary importance …” (Robertson 136).
• The parenthetical reference precedes the punctuation
mark that concludes the sentence, clause, or phrase
containing the borrowed material.
In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin states that he
prepared a list of thirteen virtues (135-37).
• A reference directly after a quotation follows the
closing quotation mark.
In the late Renaissance, Machiavelli contended that
human beings were by nature “ungrateful” and
“mutable” (1240), and Montaigne thought them
“miserable” and “puny” (1343).
• If the quotation is set off from the text, type a space after the
concluding punctuation mark of the quotation and insert the
parenthetical reference.
John K. Mahon adds a further insight to our understanding of the
War of 1812:
Financing the war was very difficult at the time. … The loans
were in the end absorbed by wealthy Americans at great
hazard – also, as it turned out, at great profit to them. (385)
Elizabeth Bishop’s “In the Waiting Room” is rich in evocative detail:
It was winter. It got dark
early. The waiting room
was full of grown-up people,
arctics and overcoats,
Lamps and magazines. (6-10)
1. If you borrow more than once from the same
source within a single paragraph and no
borrowing from another source intervenes, you
may give a single parenthetical reference after the
last borrowing.
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between
two worlds: “the world of everyday … and the world
of romance.” Although the two lovers are part of the
world of romance, their language of love nevertheless
becomes “fully responsive to the tang of actuality”
(Zender 138, 141).
2. Define a source in the text at the start.
According to Karl F. Zender, Romeo and Juliet presents
an opposition between two worlds: “the world of the
everyday,” associated with the adults in the play, and
“the world of romance,” associated with the two
lovers (138). Romeo and Juliet’s language of love
nevertheless becomes “fully responsive to the tang of
actuality” (141).
The anthology by Lauter and his coeditors contains both
Stowe’s “Sojourner Truth, the Libyan Sibyl” (B: 2601-09)
and Gilman’s “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (C: 578-90).

• Referring to the whole volume:

Between 1945 and 1972, the political-party system in the
United States underwent profound changes (Schlesinger,
vol. 4).
• The full title (if brief) or a shortened
version precedes the page, unless the title
appears in your text.
• Abbreviate the word by which the entry is
alphabetized.
• You may use the author’s name followed by a page
reference: (United Nations, Economic Commission for
Africa 79-86).
• When giving the name in parentheses, shorten terms that
are commonly abbreviated: (Natl. Research Council 15).
• It is better to include a long name in the text.

In 1963 the United Nations Economic Commission for

Africa predicted that Africa would evolve into an
advanced industrial economy within fifty years (1-2,
4-6).
• Add the title of the work (if brief) or a shortened
version after the author’s last name, then add the
relevant page reference: (Frye, Double Vision 85).
• If you state the author’s name in the text, give only
the title and page reference in parentheses: (Double
Vision 85).
• If you include both the author’s name and the title in
the text, indicate only the pertinent page number in
parentheses: (85).
Shakespeare’s King Lear has been called a “comedy of
the grotesque” (Frye, Anatomy 237).
For Northrop Frye, one’s death is not a unique
experience, for “every moment we have lived through
we have also died out of into another order” (Double
Vision 85).

Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays.

Princeton UP, 1957. Print.
---. The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion.
Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1991. Print.
• If what you quote or paraphrase is itself a quotation, put
the abbreviation qtd. in (“quoted in”) before the indirect
source you cite in your parenthetical reference

Samuel Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an

“extraordinary man” (qtd. in Boswell 2:450).

Boswell, James. The Life of Johnson. Ed. George Birkbeck

Hill and L. F. Powell. 6 vols. Oxford: Clarendon, 1934-
50). Print.
• In a reference to a commonly studied prose work, it is
helpful to provide more information, for example a
chapter number which would help readers to locate a
quotation in any copy of a novel.

In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary

Wollstonecraft recollects many “women who, not led
by degrees to proper studies, and not permitted to
choose for themselves, have indeed been overgrown
children” (185; ch. 13, sec. 2).
• In citing commonly studied verse plays and poems, omit page
numbers and cite by division (act, scene, canto, book, part) and line,
with periods separating the various numbers: Iliad 9.19 = book 9, line
19, of Homer’s Iliad
• When included in parenthetical references, the titles of the books of
the Bible and of famous literary works are often abbreviated: Oth.
4.2.7-13

In “Marching Song,” Nesbit declares, “Our arms and hearts are strong for all who
suffer wrong …” (line 11).
One Shakespearean protagonist seems resolute at first when he asserts, “Haste
me to know’t, that I, with wings as swift / As meditation … / May sweep to my
revenge” (Ham. 1.5.35-37), but he soon has second thoughts; another tragic
figure, initially described as “too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” (Mac.
1.5.17), quickly descends into horrific slaughter.
• Cite each work as you normally would in a
reference, and use semicolons to separate the
citations: (Fukuyama 42; McRae 101-33).
1. Content notes
– Offer the reader comment, explanation, or information that the
text cannot accommodate.
– Avoid lengthy discussions that divert the reader’s attention from the
primary text.
– In general, comments that you cannot fit into the text should be
omitted unless they provide essential justification or clarification of
what you have written.

Brooks’s “The Ballad of Chocolate Mabbie” is a poem about a series of proposed

metonymic relations …that concludes with the speaker’s hopeful recognition that if
Mabbie aligns herself with like figures (her “chocolate companions”) she will achieve a
positive sense of self-reliance (“Mabbie on Mabbie to be”).1

1. In this paper, I follow the definition of metonymy as a figure of contiguity. For a good
definition of the term, see Martin.
2. Bibliographic notes
– Use them for evaluative comments on sources and for
references containing numerous citations.

Many observers conclude that health care in the United States is

inadequate.1
Technological advancements have brought advantages as well as
unexpected problems.2

1. For strong points of view on different aspects of the issue, see

Public Agenda Foundation 1-10 and Sakala 151-88.
2. For a sampling of materials that reflect the range of experiences
related to recent technological changes, see Taylor A1; Moulthrop, pars. 39-
53; Armstrong, Yang, and Cuneo 80-82; Craner 308-11; and Fukuyama 42.
= Keying brief parenthetical citations in your text
to an alphabetical list of works at the end of the
paper.
• A citation in MLA style contains only enough
information to enable readers to find the
source in the works-cited list.
• Do not list any sources you did not cite in the
text.
Anderson, Iain. This Is Our Music: Free Jazz the Sixties, and American
Culture. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2007. Print.

• Author – Surname, Name.

• Title.
• Place of publication: Publisher, year of
publication.
• Medium of publication.
• Every important word in the title is capitalized.
• The first line of the entry is flush with the left
margin, and the second and subsequent lines
are indented.

Anderson, Iain. This Is Our Music: Free Jazz the Sixties, and
American Culture. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P,
2007. Print. The Arts and Intellectual Life in Mod. Amer.
• At the end of the paper.
• Begin the list on a new page and number each page,
continuing the page numbers of the text.
• Title Works Cited – centered, an inch from the top of
the page.
• Double-space between the title and the first entry.
• Begin each entry flush with the left margin, subsequent
lines indented one-half inch from the left margin.
• Double-space.
• Alphabetical order
• If the author’s name is unknown, alphabetize
the title (ignore any initial A, An, or The or the
equivalent in another language).
• If the title begins with a numeral, alphabetize
the title as if the numeral were spelled out.
• Give the name of the author in the first entry
only. Thereafter, in place of the name, type three
hyphens, followed by a period and the title.
• Works listed under the same name are
alphabetized by the title.

Borroff, Marie. Language and the Poet: Verbal Artistry in Frost,

Stevens, and Moore. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1979. Print.
---. “Sound Symbolism as Drama in the Poetry of Robert Frost.”
PMLA 107.1 (1992): 131-44. JSTOR. Web. 13 May 2008.
• Give the names in the first entry only. Thereafter,
in place of the names, type three hyphens,
followed by a period and the title. The three
hyphens stand for exactly the same names, in the
same order, as in the preceding entry.

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar, eds. The Female

Imagination and the Modernist Aesthetic. New York:
Gordon, 1986. Print.
---. “Sexual Linguistics: Gender, Language, Sexuality.” New
Literary History 16.3 (1985): 515-43. JSTOR. Web. 26 June
2007.
1. Name of the author, editor, compiler, or translator
2. Title of the work (italicized)
3. Edition used
4. Number(s) of the volume(s) used
5. City if publication, name of the publisher, and year of
publication
6. Medium of publication consulted
7. Supplementary bibliographic information and annotation
• 3 main parts: Author’s name. Title of the book. Publication
information.
Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary History,
1883-1924. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2008. Print.
• Author’s name:
• Reverse the author’s name, add a coma after the last name
and put a period after the complete name, ex. Franke,
Damon.
• Give the name as it appears on the title page, ex. Rowling, J.
K. or Washington, Booker T.
• Omit titles, affiliations and degrees.
• Title of the book:
• State the full title of the book, including any subtitle, as
given on the title page.
• If a book has a subtitle, put a colon directly after the main
title (unless the main title ends in a question mark or
exclamation point).
• Place a period after the entire title (including subtitle), unless
it ends in another punctuation mark.
• Italicize the entire title.

Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary

History, 1883-1924.
• Publication information:
• Give the city of publication, the publisher’s name, the year of
publication, and the medium of publication consulted.
• Take these facts directly from the book.
• A colon between the city of publication and the publisher, a
comma between the publisher and the date, and a period after the
date.

Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary History, 1883-

1924. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2008. Print.
Kirby, David. What Is a Book? Athens: U of Georgia P, 2002. Print.
Tatar, Maria. Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of
Childhood. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992. Print.
• Begin with the name of editor/compiler followed by a
comma and the abbreviation ed. or comp.
Davis, Anita Price, comp. North Carolina during the Great
Depression: A Documentary Portrait of a Decade.
Jefferson: McFarland, 2003. Print.
Spafford, Peter, comp. and ed. Interference: The Story of
Czechoslovakia in the Words of Its Writers.
Cheltenham: New Clarion, 1992. Print.
• Two or three authors:
• Give their names in the same order as on the title page
• Reverse only the name of the first author, add a coma, and give
the other name or names in normal form, place a period after the
last name.
• If the persons listed are editors, translators, or compilers, place a
comma after the final name and add the appropriate abbreviation
– eds., trans., or comps.
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams.
The Craft of Research. 2nd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P,
2003. Print.
Broer, Lawrence R., and Gloria Holland. Hemingway and
Women: Female Critics and the Female Voice. Tuscaloosa:
U of Alabama P, 2002. Print.
• More than three authors:
• You may only list the first and add et al. or you can give all
names in full in the order in which they appear on the title
page.
Plag, Ingo, et al. Introduction to English Linguistics.
Berlin: Mouton, 2007. Print.
OR
Plag, Ingo, Maria Braun, Sabine Lappe, and Mareile
Schramm. Introduction to English Linguistics.
Berlin: Mouton, 2007. Print.
• A corporate author may be a commission, an
association, a committee etc.
• Omit any initial article in the name of the corporate
author and do not abbreviate the name.

National Research Council. Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting the

World’s Population. Washington: Natl. Acad., 2000. Print.
• Author and title of the piece, normally enclose the title in
quotation marks, ex. Allende Isabel. “Toad’s Mount.”
• If the work was originally published independently (e.g.
autobiographies, plays, novels):
• Italicize the title, follow with a period.
• Title of the anthology – italicized

Allende, Isabel. “Toad’s Mouth.” A Hammock beneath the

Mangoes: Stories from Latin Alerica.
• Name of the editor/translator/compiler
• Write Trans., Ed. or Comp. as appropriate after the book title and give the
person’s name.
Allende, Isabel. “Toad’s Mouth.” A Hammock beneath the Mangoes:
Stories from Latin Alerica. Ed. Thomas Colchie.
• Page numbers of the cited piece:
• Give the inclusive page numbers of the piece you are citing (not just the
material you used).
• After publication date and a period.
Bordo, Susan. “The Moral Content of Nabokov’s Lolita.” Aesthetic
Subjects. Ed. Pamela R. Matthews and David McWhirter.
Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2003. 125-20. Print.
• Begin the entry with the title.
• Alphabetize the entry by the title, ignore any initial A,
An or The.

American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage

and Style. Boston: Houghton, 2005. Print.
= A work prepared for publication by someone other than the author–by an
editor.
• The editor’s name is most likely to appear on the title page along with the author’s
name.
• If you refer primarily to the text itself:
• The author’s name. Title. Ed. the editor’s name.

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Ed. Claudia Johnson. New York:
Norton, 2001. Print.

• If you refer primarily to the work of the editor (e.g., the introduction, the notes,
editorial decisions):
• The editor’s name, ed. Title. By author’s name.

Bowers, Fredson, ed. The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the

American Civil War. By Stephen Crane. 1895. Charlottesville: UP of
Virginia, 1975. Print.
• If you refer primarily to the work itself:
• Author’s name. Title. Trans. translator’s name.
Homer. The Odyssey. Trans. Robert Fagles. New York:
Viking, 1996. Print.
Beowulf. Trans. E. Talbot Donaldson. Ed. Nicholas
Howe. New. York: Penguin, 2001. Print.
• If you refer primarily to the translator’s comments
and choice of wording:
• Translator’s name, trans. Title. By author’s name.
Seidensticker, Edward G., trans. The Tale of Genji. By
Murasaki Shikibu. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.
• If you are using two or more volumes of a multivolume work:
– Cite the total number of volumes after the title, before the
publication information – specific references to volume and page
numbers belong in the text.

Blanco, Richard L., ed. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An

Encyclopaedia. 2 vols. Hamden: Garland, 1993. Print.

• If you are using only one volume:

– State the number of the volume in the entry and give publication
information for that volume alone.

Lawrence, D. H. The Letters of D. H. Lawrence. Ed. James T.

Boulton. Vol. 8. New York: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print.
• Treat a brochure or pamphlet as you would a
book.
Modern Language Association. Language Study in
the Age of Globalization: The College-Level
Experience. New York: MLA, n.d. Print.
• Document a press release in the same way, but
cite the day and month of the release along with
the year.
Modern Language Associtation. Modern Language
Association Announces New and Improved
MLA Language Map. New York: MLA, 18 Apr.
2006. Print.
• Supply as much of the missing information as you can, using
square brackets.
– Ex.: New York: U of Gotham P, [2008].
• For information you cannot supply, use the following
abbreviations:
– n.p. = no place of publication given
– n.p. = no publisher given
– n.d. = no date of publication given
– n. pag. = no pagination given

Bauer, Johann. Kafka und Prag. [Stuttgart]: Belser, [1971?]. Print.

Malachi, Zvi, ed. Proceedings od the International Conference on
Literary and Linguistic Computing. [Tel Aviv]: [Fac. Of
Humanities, Tel Aviv U], n.d. Print.
1. Author’s name
2. Title of the article (in quotation marks)
3. Name of the periodical (italicized)
4. Series number or name if relevant
5. Volume number (for a scholarly journal)
6. Issue number (if available, for a scholarly journal)
7. Date of publication (for a scholarly journal, the year; for
other periodicals, the day, month, and year, as available)
8. Inclusive page numbers
9. Medium of publication consulted (Print)
10. Supplementary information
Author’s name. “Title of the article.” Publication information.

Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and the

Book of Everything.” PMLA 121.1 (2006): 124-38. Print.

• Author’s name – give the author’s name as it appears in the

article
• Title of the article – state the full title
• Publication information:
– In general, after the title of the article, give the
journal title (italicized), the volume number, a
period, the issue number, the year of publication (in
parentheses), a colon, the inclusive page numbers, a
period, the medium of publication consulted, and a
period.

Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: Goethe and

the Book of Everything.” PMLA 121.1 (2006): 124-38.
Print.
• Additional examples:
Brueggeman, Brenda Jo, and Debra A. Moddelmog.
“Coming-Out Pedagogy: Risking Identity in
Language and Literature Classrooms.” Pedagogy
2.3 (2002): 311-35. Print.

Barthelme, Frederick. “Architecture.” Kansas Quarterly

13.3-4 (1981): 77-80. Print.
• Give the name as it appears on the masthead but
omit any introductory article: New York Times,
not The New York Times
• Give the complete date, abbreviate the names of
all months except May, June, and July
• Edition (e.g. natl. ed., late ed.)
• For sections labeled with letters and paginated
separately, the section letter is sometimes part of
each page number, e.g. “A1”
• If an article is not printed on consecutive pages, write
the first page number and a plus sign
Jeromack, Paul. “This Once, a David of the Art World
Does Goliath a Favor.” New York Times 13 July
2002, late ed.: B7+. Print.
• For sections paginated separately and designated only
by title, not by number or letter, give the title before
the abbreviation sec.
Dwyer, Jim. “Yeats Meets the Digital Age, Full of
Passionate Intensity.” New York Times 20 July
2008, early ed., Arts and Leisure sec.: 1+. Print.
• Magazine published every week or every two
weeks:
– The complete date, colon, inclusive page
numbers of the article, medium of publication
consulted
McEvoy, Dermot. “Little Books, Big Success.”
Publishers Weekly 30 Oct. 2006: 26-28. Print.
• Magazine published every month or every two
month:
– Give the month or months and year only
Kates, Robert W. “Population and Consumption: What
We Know, What We Need to Know.”
Environment Apr. 2000: 10-19. Print.
• Give the reviewer’s name, the title of the
review (if there is one), then write Rev. of, the
title of the work reviewed, a comma, the
word by, and the name of the author.

Mendelsohn, Daniel. Rev. of Once They Moved like

the Wind: Cochise, Geronimo, and the Apache
Wars, by David Roberts, and Brave Are My
People: Indian Heroes Not Forgotten, by Frank
Waters. Smithsonian Mar. 1994:125-31. Print.
1. Name of the author, compiler, director, editor etc.
2. Title of the work.
3. Title of the overall Web site, if distinct from item 2.
4. Version or edition used.
5. Publisher or sponsor of the site.
6. Date of publication.
7. Medium of publication.
8. Date of access.

“Utah Mine Rescue Funeral.” CNN.com. Cable News Network, 21

Aug. 2007. Web. 21 Aug. 2007.
Tyre, Peg. “Standardized Tests in College?” Newsweek. Newsweek,
16 Nov. 2007. Web. 15 May 2008.
• If the nonperiodical work also appeared in print,
you may include the bibliographic data for the
print publication as part of your entry, ex. a book
scanned for access in a database.

Cascardi, Anthony J. Ideologies of History in the

Spanish Golden Age. University Park:
Pennsylvania State UP, 1997. Penn State
Romance Studies. Web. 12 Mar. 2007.
Child, L. Maria, ed. The Freedmen’s Book. Boston,
1866. Google Book Search. Web. 15 May 2008.
• Follow the recommendations for citing works in print
periodicals, but drop the medium of original publication.
• Conclude the entry with:
1. Title of the database
2. Medium of publication consulted
3. Date of access

Tolson, Nancy. “Making Books Available: The Role of Early Libraries,

Librarians, and Booksellers in the Promotion of African American
Children’s Literature.” African American Review 32.1 (1998): 9-
16. JSTOR. Web. 5 June 2008.
1. Title of the episode or segment, if appropriate (quotation marks)
2. Title of the program or series (italicized)
3. Name of the network (if any)
4. Broadcast date
5. Medium of reception (e.g., Radio, Television)
6. Supplementary information

• In general, information relating to a particular episode follows the

title of the episode, while information pertinent to a series follows
the title of the series.

“Frederick Douglass.” Civil War Journal. Narr. Danny Glover. Dir. Craig
Haffner. Arts and Entertainment Network. 6 Apr. 1993.
Television.
• Which person is cited first (e.g., the composer,
conductor, ensemble, or performer) depends on the
desired emphasis.
• Then list the title of the recording, the artist, the
manufacturer, and the year of issue, indicate the
medium (Audiocassette, Audiotape, CD, or LP).

Ellington, Duke, cond. First Carnegie Hall Concert. Duke

Ellington Orch. Rec. 23 Jan. 1943. Prestige, 1977. LP.
Holiday, Billie. The Essence of Billie Holiday. Columbia, 1991.
CD.
• Treat a spoken-word recording as you would a
musical recording, begin with the speaker, the
writer, or the production director, depending on
the desired emphasis.

Shakespeare, William. Othello. Dir. John Dexter. Perf.

Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finley, and
Derek Jacobi. RCA Victor, 1964. LP.
• Usually begins with the title, then the director, the
distributor, the year of release, the medium
consulted.
• Include other data (screenwriter, performers)
between the title and the distributor.

It’s a Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf. James

Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, and
Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946. Film.
• Similar to the film entry, concludes with the site of
the performance (usually the theatre and city), the
date of the performance, and an indication that
you are citing a performance.

Heartbreak House. By George Bernard Shaw. Dir. Robin

Lefevre. Perf. Philip Bosco and Swoosie Kurtz.
Roundabout Theatre Company. Amer. Airlines
Theatre, New York. 1 Oct. 2006. Performance.
• Treat a published letter like a work in a collection,
adding the date of the letter and the number if
there is one.

Woolf, Virginia. “To T. S. Eliot.” 28 July 1920. Letter

1138 of The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Ed. Nigel
Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann. Vol. 2. New
York: Harcourt, 1976. 437-38. Print.
adapt. = adapter, adaptation, adapted by narr. = narrator, narrated by
Amer. = America, American natl. = national
anon. = anonymous par. = paragraph
app. = appendix prod. = producer, produced by
art. = article pt. = part
bk. = book pub. (publ.) = publisher, publication, published by
c. (ca.) = circa, or around (approximate dates) qtd. = quoted
ch. (chap.) = chapter rec. = record, recorded
comp. = compiler, compiled by rev. = review, reviewed by
cond. = conductor, conducted by sc. = scene
dir. = director, directed by sec. (sect.) = section
ed. = editor, edition, edited by ser. = series
e.g. = for example sic = thus in the source
et al. = and others st. = stanza
etc. = and so forth trans. = translator, translated by
ex. = example U = University
i.e. = that is univ. = university
intl. = international UP = University Press
lib. = library var. = variant
lit. = literature vol. = volume
mag. = magazine writ. = writer, written by