Online guides are helpful, but remember to always follow your instructor's directions when formatting your paper and creating citations.
Basic Format for in text citations
(Author's last name page#).
(Miller 241).
(Miller and Roe 35-38).
(Merrion et al. 85). Use et al. for more than 2 authors
If you cite the author’s name in your paper, cite only page numbers in
parentheses:
Miller has compared these authors (203-05).
No Author
Use the complete title in a single phrase or use a short form
of the title in parentheses.
-Titles of books and films are italicized
-Titles of articles are put in quotation marks.
Heart disease is the leading cause of
death for both men and women ("Heart Disease").
Citing Different Pages from the Same Source:
If you write a sentence that quotes from several places in the same source and you wish to cite them in a single parenthesis, list the appropriate page numbers in the order they are quoted, separated by commas.
For example:
Getting a tattoo may be an act of “identity formation,” but as such it can be interpreted as a symptom of “profound self-doubt” (Friedman 27, 33). example from: Ithacalibrary.com
Citing Different sources from the Same Author:
King, Stephen. Carrie. Doubleday, 1974.
---. The Green Mile. Viking Press, 1996.
Examples in text:
(King, Carrie 135).
(King, The Green Mile 23).
Multiple unsigned articles with the same title but from different sources
("Article title," Abbreviated title of source in italics).
Examples:
("Alternative Energy," Discover 164).
("Alternative Energy," Wind).
Multiple Sources
To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon (Miller 26; Rogers 456).
Web Sources (no page#)
When you quote or paraphrase a specific passage in an online source
with or without page numbers, no page numbers are needed:
According to Miller, drug use is a serious problem.
Indirect Sources (your source quotes another source) MLA Handbook, sec. 3.4
Example:
Roth states that "no police department should tolerate excessive use of force" (qtd. in Miller 358).
General formatting Rules for MLA 8th edition
MLA 8th edition uses Core Elements to cite all types of sources.
Image source, MLA.org
Notable Changes from previous edition:
Authors/Contributors
Date of Access
Location
Publishers/Sponsors
Recordings
Material Type | In Text Citation | Works Cited |
Book |
(Lewis and Hill 23-24)
(Tallett and Trim 112) |
Lewis, Jon, and Joe Hill. American Film: A History. W.W. Norton, 2008. Tallett, Frank, and David Trim, editors. European Warfare, 1350-1750. Cambridge UP, 2010. |
eBook |
(Nathanson) |
Nathanson, Mitchell. A People's History Of Baseball. 7th ed., University Illinois Press, 2012. eBook Academic Collection, ebscohost.net.
*[In this example, eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost) is the database and second container so it is italicized.] |
Chapter/essay from a book
Chapter/essay from an eBook |
(Judd 56)
(Williams 28)
(McElroy) |
Judd, Sandra. "Heart Attack." Cardiovascular Disorders Sourcebook, Omigraphics, 2016, pp. 56-59. Williams, Bill. "History of Tamales." Encyclopedia of Food, edited by Sherry Miller, Random House Press, 2014, pp. 24-38.
McElroy, Mary. "Health Care Systems in the United States." The 1950s in America, edited by John C. Super, Salem, 2005. Salem Online, online.salempress.com. |
Webpage |
("Aplastic Anemia")
(Brooks) |
"Aplastic Anemia." MedlinePlus, National Library of Medicine, 2016, medlineplus.gov/aplasticanemia.html#cat95. Brooks, Bucky. "Super Bowl LI: Five-Part Plan for Atlanta Falcons to Win It All." NFL, 24 Jan. 2017, www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000778578. [The MLA handbook recommends adding the URL for websites, however you should omit http:// or https:// from the URL] [you can omit the name of the publisher when the title of the website is the same or similar to the name of its publisher (MLA p. 42)] |
Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and journals) |
(Kane et al.)
(Breznican 21-22) |
Kane, Kevin, et al. "Beyond Fragmentation at the Fringe: An Analysis of Urban Land Cover in Phoenix." Applied Geography, vol. 52, no. 2, Aug. 2014, pp. 123-134.
Entertainment Weekly, 12 Dec. 2015, pp. 20-23. |
Motion Picture | (Captain America: Civil War) |
Captain America: Civil War. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, performances by Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., Marvel Studios, 2016. |
TV Show Episode | ("Winds of Winter") |
"Winds of Winter." Game of Thrones, created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, season 6, episode 10, HBO Productions, 2014. |
YouTube Video | ("Real History") |
"Real History Behind Game of Thrones." YouTube, uploaded by Alp, 14 July 2016, youtu.be/Odw3Nxdqq4o. |
Video Game | (Sekiro: Shadows) | Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Playstation 4, FromSoftware, 2019. |
Image, online | (Souza) | Souza, Pete. President Barack Obama Views the Hoover Dam. 2 Oct. 2012, photograph. Obama White House Archives, 7 July 2015, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/07/07/day- history-construction-began-hoover-dam. |
When in doubt, check with your instructor with specific questions about formatting your paper and creating citations.