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MLA Style Guide - 9th edition

Resources and Rules

There is now one standard, universal format that researchers can use to create their citations. You will create a citation by following MLA's list of core elements which are assembled in a specific order. The MLA core elements are:

  1. Author.
  2. Title of Source.
  3. Title of Container,
  4. Other Contributors,
  5. Version,
  6. Number,
  7. Publisher,
  8. Publication Date,
  9. Location.

​Template for the Work Cited Entry:

MLA 8 citation template

Common Citation Examples

Journal Article in a Database

Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, spring 

     2010, pp. 69-88. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/41403188.

Print Book 

Mantel, Hilary. Wolf Hall. Picador, 2010.

E-book

MLA Handbook. 9th ed., e-book ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

[Use this example when you are citing a whole e-book—that is, a book that lacks a URL and that you use software to read on a personal device or computer.  An example might be when you download a book from the public library on a Kindle.]

Chapter in an Edited Print Book

Sweeney, John. "The New Internationalism." Global Backlash: Citizen Initiatives in a Just World Economy, edited by Robin

     Broad, MacMillan Press, 2002, pp. 55-62.

[The book has an editor(s) and each chapter is written by a different author.  This is usually the case with textbooks, for example.  Edited book = anthology]

Chapter in an Edited E-book

Bould, Mark. “Speculative Fiction.” The Cambridge Companion to Twenty-First Century American Fiction, edited by Joshua

     Miller, Cambridge UP, 2021, pp. 63–78. Cambridge Core, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108974288.005.

[You might read a chapter in an e-book in one of the library's databases, for example. Add the page numbers if they are available.]

Essay in a Textbook

Graff, Gerald. “Disliking Books.” From Inquiry to Academic Writing: A Practical Guide, by Stuart Greene and April

     Lidinsky, 2nd ed., Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2012, pp. 22-26.

Chapter in a Book/Novel written by One Author

Enjoe, Toh. Self-Reference Engine. Haikasoru, 2013.

[Create a works-cited-list entry for the whole book. If you want your readers to know the chapter titles, you can provide them in your text/writing/paper. You can add the specific page numbers you used in parentheses ( ) as in-text citations in your paper.]

Page on a Web Site - Known Author

Lundman, Susan. “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.

Page on a Web Site - No Author

“Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview.” WebMD, 25 Sept. 2014, www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-

     topic-overview.

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