English Composition: MLA Citation Style

In-text citations are used to refer to the sources on the Works Cited page. Citations may be referred to within the prose or within parentheses. The parenthetical citation comes at the end of the sentence before the punctuation. The examples below will demonstrate both methods.

One Author

Prose citation

According to Karen Sonik, the women characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh should not be seen "as flat or stock characters but rather as individual personalities who often transcend both their narrative spaces and the gendered (mis)characterizations applied to them in the scholarship of recent decades" (779).

Parenthetical citation

The women characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh should not be seen "as flat or stock characters but rather as individual personalities who often transcend both their narrative spaces and the gendered (mis)characterizations applied to them in the scholarship of recent decades" (Sonik 779).

Works Cited 

Sonik, Karen. “Minor and Marginal(Ized)? Rethinking Women as Minor Characters in the Epic of Gilgamesh.” Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 141, no. 4, Oct. 2021, pp. 779–801. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.141.4.0779.

Two Authors

Prose citation

Palley and Shdaimah write that the U.S. has “a patchwork of programs that do not have universal child care as their prime focus” (101).

Parenthetical citation

Instead of one centralized system, the U.S. has “a patchwork of programs that do not have universal child care as their prime focus” (Palley and Shdaimah 101).

Works Cited

Palley, Elizabeth, and Corey S. Shdaimah. In Our Hands: The Struggle for U.S. Child Care Policy. NYU Press, 2014. EBSCOhost, discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=a3076a8e-3cbb-3ce9-92ed-3d0718ec6a0a.

Three or More Authors

If you are citing a work with three or more authors, use the first author’s name followed by et al.

Prose citation

Smith et al., claim those most familiar with the business world agree that a new CEO has about 90 days to make an impression (10). 

Parenthetical citation

Those most familiar with the business world agree that a new CEO has about 90 days to make an impression (Smith et al. 10).

Works Cited

Smith, Angela B., et al. "Transition Coaching of Leaders for the First 90 Days." Leadership Excellence, vol. 35, no. 5, May 2012, pp. 3-15. 

Authors with the Same Last Name

If two of your authors have the same last name, give the least amount of extra information necessary to tell them apart. If their first names start with different letters, add the first initial for each. If their first names start with the same letter, you will need to provide their full first names.

People “are not scorpions” (C. Wells 91)  or, if necessary (Carolyn Wells 91)

Corporate Author

Abbreviate commonly abbreviated terms in a parenthetical citation (see below).

Note: If the author is the same as the publisher, use the title of the work in the in-text citation. The organization will be considered the publisher, not the author.

“Inflation, in its simplest terms, means that dollar for dollar your money will not buy us much next year as it does this year” (United States Dept. of Labor 15).

Unknown Author

If your work has no author, or the author is also the organization that published it, use the title in your in-text citation. Either use the full title in the text of the paper or an abbreviated version in parentheses.

In 2021, 85 percent of U.S. adults watched or listened to the arts through some form of electronic media” (Arts Engagement 32).

A Decade of Arts Engagement: Findings from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, 2017-2021 tells that for the year 2021,  "85 percent of U.S. adults watched or listened to the arts through some form of electronic media” (32).

No Page Numbers

If your work does not have page numbers or specifically numbered paragraphs, chapters, or sections, do not give a number. Do not count paragraphs if they are not numbered.

Deep reading exercises our brain “by creating a mental representation that draws on the same brain regions that would be active if the scene were unfolding in real life” (Wells).

Numbered Paragraphs, Sections, and Lines

Some works will number paragraphs or lines. If your work has numbered paragraphs or lines, omit the page numbers, place a comma after the author's surname, then use the correct abbreviation for paragraph (par., pars), chapters (ch., chs.), or sections (sec., secs.).

(Wells, ch.4).

Time-based Media

For audio or video recordings, cite the time or range of times that you are discussing. Use an hour, minute, and second format separated by colons (hh:mm:ss).

“Harcum College was founded over a hundred years ago” (Harcum College 00:00:19:15).

Information from Multiple Sources

Put all of the citations in one set of parentheses and separate them with semicolons.

Pundits agree that globalization will impact the future of all businesses as national borders are breached, trade barriers are broken down, and both eventually disappear (Wells 42; Jones et al. 1).

Indirect Sources

Always try to cite only material you have read in its original form. However, if you must cite an indirect source, include the abbreviation qtd. in (“quoted in”) at the beginning of the citation.

According to Donald Sutherland, “Movies just resonate with your heart and soul” (qtd. in Wells).

MLA uses a template of core elements to create entries in the works-cited list.

To use the template, record the information relevant to each element. If there is no information for an element, simply omit the element, except Title of Source. If there is no title, give a description of the work as the title. For example, a book will have a Title of Source but no Title of Container.

Author

The author's last name should go first, followed by a comma and the author's first name (add middle name or initial if available).

Example: Jones, Nancy.

If your source has two authors, keep the authors in the same order in which they appear in the source. Use the last name, first name format for the first author, then add a comma and the word "and", then give the second author's name in first name last name order.

Example: Palley, Elizabeth, and Corey S. Shdaimah.

For three or more authors, put the first author's last name, first name order, add a comma, and the words et al. (make sure you remember the period!). This means and others.

Example: Stein, Steven J., et al.

 

Title of Source

This is the title of the actual information you are citing. It may be a whole book, but it may also be a chapter in a book or an article in a journal. Always capitalize the important words in a title.

If your source is self-contained, like a book (see box "Containers"), the title will be italicized. If your source is a piece of a bigger container, put the title in quotation marks.

Examples:

Source is a piece of the whole (a chapter in a book, in this case): "When Work is Good."

Source is also the container (whole book): Why We Work

Title of Container

If your source is its own container, you do not need a container title. If your source is a piece of a bigger resource, then you need to give the title of that resource. Don't forget to italicize the title.

Examples:

Why We Work (book)

Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation (Journal Title)

Other contributors

Other contributors essentially means any important person who is not an author of the work. This may be an editor, illustrator, actor, director, etc. If their contribution is relevant to what you are discussing, include them in the citation.

You explain their role, then give their name. Examples of this format include:

directed by

edited by

introduction by

narrated by

translated by

Example: illustrated by Christian Robinson,

Version

If you work exists in more than one form, look for the version number or description. Sometimes books, especially textbooks, are released in different editions. This would count as the version of the book. Also included under version would be a type of biblical translation (such as King James Version) or the version of a movie (director's cut, unrated edition, etc.).

Examples:

7th. ed.,

abridged edition,

Number

Number comes into play if your work is long enough that it is published in more than one volume. If you are only using one volume of a multi-volume set, give the number of the volume you are using.

Example: vol. 2,

Some works will have more than one number. Journals tend to have a volume and an issue. To give this, put vol. before the volume number and no. before the issue number.

If you are citing a TV show, give the season and episode numbers.

Example: season 2, episode 4,

Publisher

The publisher is the organization that produced the source. In books, you usually find the publisher's name on the title page or copyright page.

Elsevier,

Example: 20th Century Fox Television,

Websites are published by many different types of organizations. The best way to find the publisher of a website is to look at the copyright notice on the bottom of the page. If there isn't one, look for an organization's logo on the top of the page.

American Heart Association, Inc,

Publication date

This is the date that the information you are using was published. Give the date that is most applicable to the piece of information you are using. Use the format day-month-year.

Examples:

2022,

25 Jan. 2022

Winter 2022

Location

This element will depend on the type of work you are citing. Note that a single page number will be preceded by a p. A range of page numbers is preceded by pp. Here are some location possibilities:

Book: page number(s)

Website: URL (web address)

Journal article: DOI - digital object identifier

TV episode: disc number in DVD set

Examples:

pp. 16-19.

doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.1522.

disc 5.

Some works can have more than one container, such as an article published in a journal and found in a database. Container elements can be repeated.

Once you have your elements entered, you can build them together to make your citation. Skip any missing elements. Follow each element with the punctuation provided. Capitalize the main words in a title. The last element of the citation is followed by a period, even if the element usually has a comma.

A list of Works Cited is listed in alphabetical order by the first letter of each entry. Use hanging indent which means that the first line starts at the very left of the page and all other lines in a citation are indented.