Basic MLA Guidelines

Basic MLA Guidelines

Books

Book with one author:

Authors last name, first name. Book title.

City of publication: publishing company,

publication date.

Book with an unknown author:

Title of Work. Place of publication: Publisher, year.

Entry in a Reference Book: (i.e. dictionary, encyclopedia)

Last name, first name. “Title of Entry (word).” Title of

book. Edition. # of volumes. Place of publication: Name of publisher, Year.

(If there is no author listed then skip the name and begin with the entry title.)

Periodicals

Newspapers:

Authors last name, first name. “Title of article.” Name

of newspaper date, section.

Magazines:

Authors last name, first name. “Title of article.” Name

of magazine Month year: page numbers.

Internet Resources

A professional website with no author:

Name of webpage. Date last updated. Association

that maintains the website. Date of access <web address>.

Example:

Astronaut Biographies. 17 Feb 2003. NASA/Johnson

Space Center. 25 Feb 2006 <http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/>.

A professional website with an author listed:

Author’s last name, first name. Name of webpage.

Date last updated. Association that maintains the website. Date of access <web address>.

Example:

Lynch, Tim. DSN Trials and Tribble-ations Review.

1996. Bradley University. 8 Oct. 1997 http:// <www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/503r.html>.

A page on a website

"Page name." Website name. Date last updated (day, month, year).

Date accessed (day, month, year) <exact web address>.

(If an author is listed, list the last name and first name before the page name)

Example:

Stolley, Karl. "MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The OWL at Purdue.

10 May 2006. Purdue University Writing Lab. 12 May 2006

<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/>.

Parenthetical Rules

· A parenthetical citation appears within the body of your paper.

· You will need to include a citation in your paper for any quoted or paraphrased information.

· The purpose of a parenthetical reference is to document a source briefly, clearly, and accurately. Brevity can be accomplished in three ways.

1. Cite the author’s last name and the page number(s) of the source in parenthesis. For example, (Postman 3-4).

2. Use the author’s last name in your sentence, and place only the page number(s) of the source in parentheses. For example, Postman points out…(3-4).

3. Give the author’s last name in your sentence when you are citing the entire work rather than a specific section or passage, and omit any parenthetical reference.