MLA Citation Guide

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Important:

• MLA citations should always be double-spaced (one single-space line between each line of text).
• All lines after the first line of the citation should be indented one half inch.
• Online sources need both a publication date and the date you viewed the website.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of book in italics, followed by a period and a space
• City of publication, followed by a colon and a space
• Name of publisher, followed by a comma and a space
• Year of publication, followed by a period.

example:
Day, Nancy. Your Travel Guide to Ancient Greece. Minneapolis: Runestone Press, 2001.

List the authors of a book in the same order they are printed on the book. Reverse the name of the first author, insert a comma, then write the remaining names in normal form. If there are more than three authors you may choose to list them all, or to list only the first, followed by et al. (and others).

• Last name, first name, remaining names, followed by a period and a space

OR

• Last name, first name et al., followed by a period and a space
• Title of book in italics, followed by a period and a space
• City of publication, followed by a colon and a space
• Name of publisher, followed by a comma and a space
• Year of publication, followed by a period.

example:
Borden, Sara, Sarah Miller, Alex Stikeleather, Maria Valladares, and Miriam Yelton. Middle

     School: How to Deal. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005.

OR

Borden, Sara, et al. Middle School: How to Deal. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005.

Begin with the chapter or portion of the book that you read, and then add the book citation information.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Name of chapter, poem, essay, etc.followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Title of book in italics, followed by a period and a space
• City of publication, followed by a colon and a space
• Name of publisher, followed by a comma and a space
• Year of publication, followed by a period.

example:
Rilke, Rainer Maria. "Spanish Dancer." The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke. Ed.

     and trans. Stephen Mitchell. New York: Vintage International, 1982.

• Image author's last name, first name if available, followed by a period and a space
• Title of photo followed by a period, in quotation marks. If no title, describe briefly within quotation marks.
• Descriptive word (photo, map, cartoon, drawing, etc,) followed by a period and a space
• The remaining citation information should follow the appropriate formate for the source, i.e. book, newspaper, magazine, etc.
• Complete the entry by adding the page number for the image followed by a period.

example:
Berryman, Liz. "Market in Lijiang." Photograph. Ferroa, Peggy. China.

     New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2002, 37.

Very important! If you are citing an image found in Google Images or any other image retrieval service, be certain to cite the image in its original context. Do not provide the URL of the enlarged image - you must use the URL of the page where the image was originally shown.

• Image creator's last name, first name, if available, or page author's name if available, followed by a period and a space
• Title of photo followed by a period, in quotation marks. If no title, describe briefly within quotation marks.
• Descriptive word (photo, map, cartoon, drawing, etc,) followed by a period and a space
• Website title in italics, followed by a space
• Website publication date in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a period and a space
• Date image was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Web address in angle brackets, followed by a period

example:
Suzuki, Lea. "Mick Jaggar." Photo. SFGate.com 14 Nov. 2005. 14 Nov. 2005

     <http://www.sfgate.com>.

When citing a magazine include the page(s) of the entire article if they are consecutive; if the article continues to nonconsecutive pages use a + after the first page.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of magazine in italics followed by a space
• Date of publication in DD Mon. YYYY format followed by a colon and a space
• Page(s) cited followed by a period.

examples:
Berwick, Carly. "Why Have There Been No Great Women Comic-Book Artists?" ArtNews

     104.10 (2005): 166-169.

Frakes, Dan. "Mac Gems." MacWorld January (2006): 52-55.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of magazine in italics
• Publication date in DD Mo. YYYY format, followed by a period and a space
• Date article was viewed online in DD Mo. YYYY format
• Web address in angle brackets, followed by a period

example:
Carney, James. "On the Defensive." Time 24 May 1999. 7 Jul. 1999

< http://cgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,24827,00.html>.

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• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of newspaper in italics. If the city of publication is not included in the name, add the city in brackets after the name. Do not italicize the city name.
• Publication date in DD Mo. YYYY format, followed by a comma and a space. Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.
• Edition of paper if known followed by a colon and a space
• Page(s) cited followed by a period. Use a + to indicate that the article continues on further pages.

example (no edition given):
Mader, Marjorie. "Enrollment Boom in Menlo Schools." Almanac [Menlo Park, Atherton,

     Woodside, Portola Valley] 9 Nov. 2005: 5+.

example (known edition):
Ha, K. Oanh. "Chinese is Hot Campus Subject." San Jose Mercury News 11 Nov. 2005,

     peninsula ed.:1A+.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of newspaper in italics. If the city of publication is not included in the name, add the city in brackets after the name. Do not italicize the city name.
• Publication date in DD Mo. YYYY format, followed by a comma and a space if there is an edition stated, otherwise use a colon and a space. Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.
• Edition of paper if known followed by a colon and a space
• Page(s) cited (if known) followed by a period. Use a + to indicate that the article continues on further pages.
• Name of website where the article was found, in italics
• Date article was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Website address in angle brackets, followed by a period.

example:
Sabin, Russell. "Why the Bird Flu's So Dangerous - Close Watch on Strain That Could Mutate

     Into Deadly Human Virus." San Francisco Chronicle 17 Oct. 2005: A9. SFGate.com

     11 Nov. 2005 <http://www.sfgate.com>.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of newspaper in italics. If the city of publication is not included in the name, add the city in brackets after the name. Do not italicize the city name.
• Publication date in DD Mo. YYYY format, followed by a period and a space. Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.
• Name of database in italics followed by a period and a space
• Name of database service followed by a period and a space
• Name of library providing the database, followed by a comma, and a space
• Library's city and state, followed by a period. Abbreviate Library as Lib.
• Date article was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Website address of the database in angle brackets, followed by a period. Do not use the address of the article itself.

example:
Landay, Jonathan. “Trucks Linked to Lost Explosives.” The Daily Telegraph

     [Sydney, Australia]. 30 Oct. 2004. Scholastic Edition. Lexis-Nexis. Menlo School Lib.,

     Atherton, CA. 29 Nov. 2004 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/scholastic>.

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• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Name of information source in italics followed by a period and a space
• Edition if known, followed by a period and a space
• Year of publication followed by a period and a space
• Name of database service followed by a period and a space
• Date article was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Website address of the database in angle brackets, followed by a period. Do not use the address of the article itself.

example:
"Animal-Rights Movement." Columbia Encyclopedia. Sixth Ed. 2005. Bartleby.com.

     14 Nov. 2005 <http://www.bartleby.com>.

• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of article followed by a period, in quotation marks
• Date of publication or update followed by a period and a space
• Institution followed by a period and a space
• Date page was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Page address in angle brackets, followed by a period.

example:
Sincoff, Maura, Cathy Rettberg. "MLA Citation Guide." 10 Nov. 2005.

Menlo School Library. 14 Nov. 2005. <http://library.menloschool.org/mla.html>.

• Title of site in italics followed by a period and a space
• Editor if known (abbreviate as Ed.)
• Date of publication or update followed by a period and a space
• Institution followed by a period and a space
• Date website was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed byy a space
• Project address in angle brackets, followed by a period.

example:
Avalon Project at Yale Law School. 2005. Yale Law School. 11 Nov. 2005.

<http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm>.

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• Last name, first name, followed by a period and a space
• Title of website in italics followed by a period anad a space
• Date of publication or update followed by a period and a space
• Date page was viewed in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a space
• Page address in angle brackets, followed by a period.

example:
Rettberg, Cathy. Julien's Eagle Ceremony. 20 Dec. 2003. 3 Aug. 2004

<http://www.geocities.com/rettberg5>.

• Last name, first name followed by a period and a space
• Type of interview (personal, telephone, etc.) followed by a period and a space
• Date of interview in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a period

example:
Colb, Norman. Personal interview. 4 Sept. 2003.

When citing the Bible it is important to include information about the version as there are many different interpretations.

• Full title of Bible, italicized, followed by a comma and a space
• Version or edition, followed by a period and a space
• Name of editor (first name last name) followed by a period and a space
• City of publication folowed by a coloon and a space
• Publisher followed by a comma and a space
• Date of publication followed by a period.

example:
The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha, rev. standard version.

      Herbert G. May, ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

• Last name, first name followed by a period and a space
• Title of email, taken from the subject line, followed by a period and enclosed in quotation marks
• Description of email that includes recipient name followed by a period and a space
• Date of email in DD Mo. YYYY format followed by a period

example:
Sincoff, Maura. "Re: MLA Citation." Email to Cathy Rettberg. 2 Nov. 2004.

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