MLA CITATION STYLE

Corrine Syster, MLIS Reference & Instruction Librarian ccsyster@hacc.edu | (717))221-1776

GENERAL PAGE LAYOUT

1 Margins on all sides Double Spaced ONLY No Title Page

Your Name Instructors Name Course Title Date Centered, Unformatted Title

Aligned Left First line of paragraphs indented by Header

THINGS THAT ARE NOT DEFAULT IN WORD

1 Margins on all sides Double Spaced ONLY No Title Page

Your Name Instructors Name Course Title Date Centered, Unformatted Title

Aligned Left First line of paragraphs indented by Header

1 MARGINS

DOUBLE SPACING ONLY

SINCE THERES NO TITLE PAGE

INDENT PARAGRAPHS

HEADER PAGE NUMBER

HEADER NAME

Just type it!

WHERE TO PUT CITATIONS

In-Text Citation

Appears within the text of the paper Brief citation of quotes & paraphrases. Points to specific sources in Works Cited list Must match the works cited list

Works Cited list

Appears at the end Lists all sources used Full MLA citation

IN-TEXT CITATIONS GENERAL RULES

Enclosed in parentheses ( ) Comes BEFORE the period Generally Authors Last Name and page number

If named in signal phrase, leave out name No comma No p. pg. pgs. or page

IN-TEXT CITATIONS AUTHOR VARIATIONS

Two = (Crosby and Malkin 87) Three = (Crosby, Malkin, and Fleury 87) Four or More = (Crosby et al. 87) Same Last Name = (S. Crosby 87) Book with No Author = (Penguins 87) Article/Website with No Author = (Penguins 87) Indirect Source = (qtd. in S. Crosby 87)

IN-TEXT CITATIONS SOURCE VARIATIONS

Encyclopedia or Dictionary = (Penguins) Multivolume Work = (Letang 1: 28) Multiple Works = (Malkin 71; Letang 28; Crosby 87) Anthology = (Crosby 71)

Author of article, NOT the editor of the book

Legal Sources
Well-known Source = (US Const., art. 1, sec. 2) Legislative Acts = (Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009) Court Cases = (Roe v. Wade)

IN-TEXT CITATION EXAMPLES

Peck argues that video games are a better alternative to live warfare training (12). As it stands, the Nintendo Generation will learn to fight by playing the Pentagon's equivalent of Halo 3 (Peck 12). Research shows that students are more likely to suffer from narcolepsy during library instruction sessions (Library Facts).

WORKS CITED CHARACTERISTICS

Starts on a New Page (Ctrl+ Enter) Labeled as Works Cited (centered) Complete citation Listed Alphabetically Double Spaced Hanging Indent

COMMON CITATIONS WHERE & HOW

Accessed Physically in Print

Book Newspaper Article Magazine Article Scholarly Journal Article

Accessed Online, Database or Web

Website Newspaper Article Magazine Article Scholarly Journal Article

BOOK TITLE PAGE

BOOK
LastName, FirstName. Title: Subtitle. Publication City: Publisher, Year Published. Medium of Publication.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. Print.

NEWSPAPER IN PRINT

MAGAZINE IN PRINT

20

NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE IN PRINT

LastName, FirstName. Article Title. Periodical Name Day Month Year: Page Range. Medium.

Boyle, Anna Girl, 9, Raises Awareness at Birthday Party Griffin Daily News 18 Dec. 2005: 1A+. Print. Moritz, Brady Automation Infatuation. Processing Feb. 2006: 20. Print

WEBSITES PRINT PREVIEW

WEBSITES
LastName, FirstName. Title of Work. Name of Web Site. Day

Month Year published/updated. Publisher/Sponsor.

Medium. Day Month Year accessed.

Mayo Clinic Staff. Scoliosis MayoClinic.com.

MayoClinic.com 14 Dec. 2007. Mayo Foundation for Medical

Education and Research. Web. 16 July 2008.

NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE DATABASE

NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE DATABASE

LastName, FirstName. Article Title. Periodical Day Month Year: Page-Range. Database Name. Medium. Date accessed.

Hamilton, Anita and Yuki Oda. Wizard of Wii. Time 2

June 2008: 42-43. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Mar.

2009.

NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE VIA WWW

NEWSPAPER & MAGAZINE VIA WWW

LastName, FirstName. Article Title. Newspaper Title Day Month Year [Published]. Medium. Day Month Year [Accessed].

Miller, Dan. Help is Here: College Offers Tuition-Free Courses for Laid-Off Workers Patriot-News [Harrisburg, PA] 24 March 2009. Web. 25 March

2009.

NOTE ABOUT URLS

URLs are NOT required

BUT if your professor says to do it, DO IT!!! Search it in Google

Is it the first result? Is it obvious? If not you might want to include the URL

If youre including the url

After Access Date New line after / only Full URL Its ok to use shorteners (ex. Bit.ly)

WORKS CITED
Boyle, Anna Girl, 9, Raises Awareness at Birthday Party The Griffin Daily News. 18 Dec. 2005: 1A+. Print. Hamilton, Anita and Yuki Oda. Wizard of Wii. Time 2 June 2008: 42-43. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Mar. 2009.

Lessig, Lawrence. Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock
Down Culture and Control Creativity. New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. Print. Mayo Clinic Staff. Scoliosis. MayoClinic.com 14 Dec. 2007. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Web. 16 July 2008. Moritz, Brady Automation Infatuation. Processing. Feb. 2006: 20. Print.

HOW TO DO A HANGING INDENT

FINDING OUT HOW TO FORMAT CITATIONS

MLA

Handbook for Writers of Research Papers Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) Ask a librarian, professor, or tutor Writing Center Tutors: Whitaker 122

Monday-Thursday: 9:00am-7:00pm