MLA Style Guide

Lone Star College - Kingwood Library

WORKS CITED: MLA STYLE

From the MLA Handbook for Writers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003 [REF LB2369.G53 2003]
Link to the MLA web site

Link to a PDF version of this guide. (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

General Rules

Pay careful attention to punctuation and type exactly as each example indicates.
Underline or italicize titles of books, magazines, and scholarly journals (consult your professor for preference.) Enclose title of articles, essays, poems, and short stories in quotation marks.
Indent 5 spaces or ½" on all but the first line of each entry.
Double-space throughout.
Use a shortened form of the publisher's name: "New York: Morrow, 2008" rather than William Morrow & Company, 2008.
For pages that are not consecutive, such as newspapers, use a plus sign: "192+." If you have only the starting page number of an article's original print publication, give the number followed by a hyphen, a space and a period: "192- ."
Make sure there is only one space after punctuation.
When listing an online source originally printed in a book, journal, or other printed format, use the general guidelines you would use to cite the printed form, followed by the online citation.
Articles from library subscription services (databases) [MLA 5.9.7] are cited just like the print version with the addition of the name of the database underlined, the name of the service, the library, the date of access, and URL if known.
Alphabetize entries by author. If no author is given, begin with the title.

Parenthetical Documentation

All sources cited in the text should be listed in the Works Cited.

Use the first part of your citation for parenthetical documentation. Usually, that will be the author or authors' last names. Follow with the page number. (Brown and Proper 17).

Use as little information as possible while making a unique identification. If there are two books by the same author, you must include part of the title. (Allison, Whatever 97).
The author's name may be included in the text and only the page numbers in parenthesis. "As Allison asserts (97), the..." Many instructors prefer this method. Be sure to check.

If you have no page numbers, it usually flows better to include the reference in the text. "According to Allison, the..."

PAPER REFERENCES
WEB SITES
ARTICLES FROM ONLINE DATABASES
DATABASE PUBLICATION INFORMATION

Example with appropriate spacing
Author. "Title of Article." Book or Journal Title. Editor. Edition. Volume. Series. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date. Pages.

PAPER REFERENCES

[Remember to double space and indent all but first lines]

BOOK, ONE AUTHOR MLA 5.6.1

Allison, Peter. Whatever You Do, Don't Run. Guilford, CT: Lyons, 2008.

BOOK, TWO OR THREE AUTHORS MLA 5.6.4

Brown, Nathan, and Sheryle A. Proper. The Everything Paying for College Book. Avon, MA: Adams, 2005.

BOOK, MORE THAN THREE AUTHORS. MLA 5.6.4

Gilman, Sandra, et al. Hysteria Beyond Freud. Berkeley: U of California P, 1993.

BOOK, NO AUTHOR MLA 5.6.11 and 5.7.9

Texas Almanac: 2008-2009. Dallas, TX: Dallas Morning News, 2008.

BOOK, AN EDITOR MLA 5.6.2

Lopate, Philip, ed. The Art of the Personal Essay: an Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present.

New York: Doubleday, 1994.

BOOK, CORPORATE AUTHOR MLA 5.6.6

American Heart Asso . Low-Salt Cookbook . New York: Clarkson Potter, 2006.

BOOK, AN EDITOR IN ADDITION TO AN AUTHOR MLA 5.6.12

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. F. W. Robinson. Boston: Houghton, 1957.

ESSAY WRITTEN BY ONE PERSON IN A BOOK EDITED BY ANOTHER MLA 5.6.7

Ferguson, Roger W., Jr. "The Importance of Education." Representative American Speeches. Ed. Jennifer

Curry, et al. New York: Wilson, 2007. 10-16.

BOOK, A SECOND OR SUBSEQUENT EDITION MLA 5.6.14

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.

ARTICLE IN A REFERENCE BOOK MLA 5.6.8

Coulter, Ellis Merton. "John Adair." Dictionary of American Biography. Ed. Allen Johnson. Vol. 1. New

York: Scribner's Sons, 1964.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE, SIGNED MLA 5.6.8

Epps, Helen H.. "Textiles." World Book Encyclopedia. 2003 ed.

ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE or DICTIONARY ENTRY, UNSIGNED MLA 5.6.8

"Onomatopoeia." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003.

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SCHOLARLY ARTICLE REPRINTED IN A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS MLA 5.6.7
(List first the information about where the essay was originally published. When reprinted multiple times, use only the original source and the source where you found the material.)

Frye, Northrop . "Literary and Linguistic Scholarship in a Postliterate Age." PMLA 99 (1984):990-95.

Rpt. in Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-88. Ed. Robert D. Denham. Charlottesville: UP of

Virginia, 1990. 18-27.

EXCERPTED SOURCES FROM MULTIVOLUME CRITICAL ANTHOLOGIES MLA 5.6.7
(includes Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, etc.)

Daches, David. "W. H. Auden: The Search for a Public". Poetry 54 (1939): 148-56. Rpt. in Poetry

Criticism. Ed. Robyn V. Young. Vol. 1. Detroit: Gale, 1991. 332-33.

BOOK IN A SERIES MLA 5.6.16
(like Opposing Viewpoints, Taking Sides, and Contemporary World Issues)

Evans, Kim Masters . The American Economy . Information Plus Reference

Series. Detroit, Gale, 2007.

GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION MLA 5.6.21

"Deaths by Major Causes: 1960 to 2002." United States. Census Bureau. Statistical

Abstract of the United States: 2004-2005. 124th ed. Washington, DC: GPO, 2004.

ARTICLE FROM A MONTHLY MAGAZINE MLA 5.7.6

Hitchens, Christopher. "A Breath of Dust." Atlantic Monthly July-Aug. 2005: 142-46.

ARTICLE FROM A WEEKLY MAGAZINE MLA 5.7.6

Kluger, Jeffrey. "Why We Love ." Time 28 Jan. 2008: 55-60.

ARTICLE FROM A WEEKLY NEWS SERVICE (such as CQ Researcher or Issues and Controversies on File) MLA 5.7.6

Jost, Kenneth. "Independent Counsels Re-examined." CQ Researcher 7 May 1999: 377-84.

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE MLA 5.7.5

Feder, Barnaby J. "For Job Seekers, a Toll-Free Gift of Expert Advice." New York Times

22 Mar. 1994, late ed.: A1+.

ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL WITH CONTINUOUS PAGINATION MLA 5.7.1

Warner, Megan B., et al. “The Longitudinal Relationship of Personality Traits and Disorders.”

Journal of Abnormal Psychology 113 (2004): 217-27.

ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL THAT PAGES EACH ISSUE SEPARATELY MLA 5.7.2

Garrett, Laurie. "The Next Pandemic?" Foreign Affairs 84.4 (2005): 3-23.

ARTICLE WITH NO AUTHOR MLA 5.6.11 AND 5.7.9 (Note: Begin with the title if a source has no author.)

"Evolution: New Evolution Findings from University of Texas Described." Science Letter 20 Nov. 2007: 514.

FILM OR VIDEO RECORDING MLA 5.9.1

Patton . Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner. Perf. George C. Scott. 1970. DVD. Beverly Hills, CA: 20th Century Fox, 2006.

ONLINE VIDEO MLA 5.8.3 and 5.9.1

Bradley, Becky. "The Sun Also Rises: Hemingway in Spain." Video. The Sun Also Rises. Apr. 2007. Lone Star

Coll. Lib., Kingwood, TX. 17 Jan. 2008 <http://kclibrary.lonestar.edu/sunalsorises.htm>.

IMAGE FROM A BOOK MLA 5.8.6

Exekias. The Suicide of Ajax. C. 540 B.C.E. Chateau-Musee, Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. Art

History. By Marilyn Stokstad. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995. Plate 5-29.

WEB SITES

[MLA 5.9.1. to 5.9.4] Use any of the information from the basic entry that you have.

Author. "Article Title." Publication information for a print source. Site Name. Site Editor.

Electronic publication date. Subscription information for databases. Pages only

if numbered. Sponsoring Institution, City, ST or Country. Date site accessed <url>.

BASIC ENTRY MLA 5.9.1

Sutton, Bettye, et al. "1800-1810." 19th Century Cultural History. Ed. Peggy Whitley. 2003.

Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood, TX. 28 July 2007

<http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/19thcentury1800.htm>.

NO AUTHOR MLA 5.9.2

Dutch Recipes. 9 Jun. 1998. 16 Sept. 2003 <http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/verona/190/eten.htm>.

AUTHOR, NO DATE MLA 5.9.1

Mazer, Cary M. Bernard Shaw: A Brief Biography. 16 Sept. 2007<http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/mis1.html>.

ONLINE PERIODICAL MLA 5.9.4. a-b

Sarnoff, Nancy. "Web's Role in House Hunt Grows." Houston Chronicle 1 Dec. 2007. 18 Feb. 2008

<http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/sarnoff/5343966.html>.

ONLINE GOVERNMENT PUBLICATION MLA 5.9.3c

United States. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Ctr. for Disease Control and Prevention. Coordinating Ctr.

for Health Promotion. Targeting Tobacco Use. Apr. 2007. 20 Jan. 2008

<http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/pgang.txt>.

DATABASES [MLA 5.9.7]

The first part of your citation should follow the rules for paper journals, above. Follow with the database information listed below. Some examples:

Scholarly Journal that Pages Each Issue Separately in a Subscription Database

Haycock, John. “Melville and Balzac: The Man in Cream Colors.” College Literature 35.1 (2008): 58-81.

      Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. 20 Feb. 2008

        <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

Online Periodical in a Subscription Database

Clemmitt, Marcia . "Student Aid." CQ Researcher 25 Jan. 2008. Congressional Quarterly. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood

       Lib., Kingwood. 2 Feb. 2008 <http://library.cqpress.com>.

Newspapers in a Subscription Database MLA 5.7.5 and 5.9.7

Lichtblau, Eric. "Administration Plans Defense of Terror Law." New York Times 19 Aug. 2003, late ed.

        (East Coast): A1. ProQuest Newspapers. ProQuest. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. 15 Sept. 2003

        <http://www.proquest.com>.

Journal Article Reprinted in a Reference Book then Reproduced in a Subscription Database MLA 5.7.5 and 5.9.7.
Use the original source, the final source, and the database. Ignore intermediate sources.

Kiskis, Michael J. "Mark Twain and Collaborative Authority." Studies in the Literary Imagination 29:2

        (1993): 29-44. Rpt. in Nonfiction Classics for Students. Vol. 4. Literature Resource Center.

        Thomson Gale. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. 3 Aug. 2003 <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Abstract in a Non-Subscription Database MLA 5.7.8 and 5.9.7

Neumann, P. J., et al. "Can We Better Prioritize Resources for Cost-Utility Research?" Medical Decision

        Making 25.4(2005):429-36. Abstract. PubMed. 28 July 2005

        <http://www.ncbi.nlm.gov/entrez/query?db+PubMed>.

E-Book MLA 5.7.3 and 5.9.7

Bloom, Harold. Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Bloom's Notes. Broomall, PA: Chelsea,

        1996. NetLibrary. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. 14 Sept. 2007 <http://www.netlibrary.com>.

Image from a Database

Duccio. Crucifixion. 1311. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena, Italy. Grove Dictionary of Art Online. 2006.

        Oxford. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. 15 Feb. 2006 <http://www.groveart.com>.

DATABASE PUBLICATION INFORMATION MLA 5.9.1 and 5.9.7

Subscription databases include the subscribing library. Databases available to the public have only the publisher.

Academic Search Complete . EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

Biography Reference Bank . Wilson. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://hwwilsonweb.com>.

Business & Company Resource Center. Gale Cengage. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood.
        Access date <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

CINAHL. EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetry. Columbia U. P. Kingwood Coll. Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www.columbiagrangers.org/grangers>.

Communication & Mass Media Complete. EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

Country Watch. Country Watch, Inc. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www.countrywatch.com>.

CQ Researcher. Congressional Quarterly. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://library.cqpress.com>.

ERIC. EBSCO. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://www2.ebsco.com>.

Gallup Brain. Gallup. Access date <http://institution.gallup.com>.

The Grove Dictionary of Art Online. Grove Art. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www.groveart.com>.

Handbook of Texas Online. Texas St. Hist. Assoc. Access date <http://www.tsha.utexas.edu>.

Health and Wellness Resource Center. Gale Cengage. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

History Study Center. ProQuest. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
       <http://www.historystudycenter.com>.

InfoTrac Custom Newspapers. Gale Cengage. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Issues & Controversies. Publication date. Facts.com. Facts on File News Services. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib.,
       Kingwood. Access date <http://www.2facts.com>.

JSTOR Arts and Sciences. JSTOR. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://www.jstor.org>.

Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Medline Plus. Nat. Lib. of Medicine. Access date <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus>.

NAXOS Music Library. NAXOS. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://naxosmusiclibrary.com>.

NetLibrary. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://www.netlibrary.com>.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale Cengage. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://infotrac.galegroup.com>.

Project Muse. Johns Hopkins. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date < muse.jhu.edu>.

ProQuest Newspapers. ProQuest. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www.proquest.com>.

ProQuest Research Library. ProQuest. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://www.proquest.com>.

PubMed. Nat. Lib. of Medicine. Access date <www.ncbi.nlm.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed>.

Research Library. ProQuest. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://www.proquest.com>.

Stat!Ref. Teton Data Systems. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date
        <http://online.statref.com/Splash.aspx>.

Westlaw Campus Research. West. Lone Star Coll.-Kingwood Lib., Kingwood. Access date <http://campus.westlaw.com>.

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