MLA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the Modern Language association applied to resources used in a research paper. The use of MLA citation style includes citation in texts that point to an alphabetical works cited list
Citations in texts imply the use of essential information to identify a source
and it includes the last name of the author and page numbers parenthesized.
The examples of citations in texts are as follows:
Author's name in text Dover has expressed this concern (118-21).
Author's name in reference This concern has been expressed (Dover 118-21).
Multiple authors of a work This hypothesis (Bradley and Rogers 7) suggested
this theory (Sumner, Reichl, and Waugh 23).
Two locations Williams alludes to this premise (136-39, 145).
Two works cited (Burns 54, Thomas 327)
Multivolume works
References to volumes and pages (Wilson 2:1-18)
References to an entire volume (Henderson, vol. 3)
In text reference to an entire volume In volume 3, Henderson suggests
Corporate authors (United Nations, Economic Commission for Africa 51-63)
Works with no author
When a work has no author, use the work's title or a shortened version of the
title when citing it in text:
as stated by the presidential commission (Report 4).
Online source with numbered paragraphs (Fox, pars. 4-5)
The works cited page contains the list of all sources arranged in alphabetical
order and containing all publishing information, including the author(s)/editor(s)
name, the complete title, edition, if indicated, place of publication, the shortened
name of publisher and date of publication.
Examples:
One author:
Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1955.
Another work, same author:
---.Speak, Memory: An Autobiography Revisited. New York: Knopf, 1999.
Two authors:
Cross, Susan, and Christine Hoffman. Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience. New
York: Guggenheim Museum; London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.
Three authors:
Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg, and Steve Jackson. Analyzing American Government:
American Government, Freedom and Power. 3rd ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
More than three authors:
Gilman, Sandor, et al. Hysteria beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.
Corporate author:
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art. A Guide to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of
Art, Cornell University. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1973.
Multivolume work:
Morison, Samuel Eliot, Henry Steele Commager, and William E. Leuchtenburg. The
Growth of the American Republic. 2 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1980.
Article or chapter from a book:
Nielsen, Jorgen S. "European Culture and Islam." Encyclopedia of Islam
and the Muslim World. Ed. Richard C. Martin. New York: Macmillan Reference-Thomson/Gale,
2004. 1126-45.
Journal article:
Shefter, Martin. "Institutional Conflict over Presidential Appointments:
The Case of Clarence Thomas." PS: Political Science & Politics 25.4
(1992): 676-79.
In a journal article 25.4 reads Volume 25, issue 4, which is followed by the
date of publication and page number.
Online book within a scholarly project:
Frost, Robert. North of Boston.1915.Project Bartleby. Ed. Steven van Leeuwen.1999.
29 October 1999 <http://www.bartleby.com/118/index.phpl>.
Article from an online encyclopedia:
"Einstein, Albert."Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 1999. Encyclopedia
Britannica. 27 April 2004 <http://search.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=108494&sctn=1>.
