This page is designed to be a quick reference guide to the MLA style of documenting sources in research papers.  The “Works Cited” section should appear at the end of your paper and works should be arranged alphabetically by author (or title, if no author appears in the entry.)  In this section you should list only works actually cited.  For further information about types of entries not listed here, refer to Joseph Gibaldi’s MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6^th edition which is available at the circulation desk.  Additional information may be obtained from the official web page of the Modern Language Association http: //www.mla.org.

Format Guidelines

• Entries should be double-spaced.
• Indent the second line and all other lines 5 spaces
• Abbreviate the names of all months using standard abbreviations. Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.

Traditionally, MLA style recommended underlining titles of major works.  Many publications now use italics.  To be safe, check with your teacher.

Citing Works within the Text

To document your sources, cite the author’s name and the page number of the source in parentheses at the end of the sentence, before the final period:
Cross-country is the classic form of orienteering (Boga 31).

If the author’s name is used in your sentence you may just refer to the page numbers:

               Parr asserts that the number one myth about vegetarianism is that it is not natural (16).

If you are referring to the whole work rather than a specific section you may omit any reference in parentheses:

                In her work, Constantino captures the essence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs and
                spirit.

Examples of Correct Format for the “Work Cited” section.

Print Sources:

A Book or Books by One Author

            Ambrose, Stephen E.  Band of Brothers:  E Company, 506^th Regiment, 101^st

                        Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest.  New York:  Simon &

                        Schuster, 2001.

            ---. D-Day, June 6, 1994:  the Climactic Battle of World War II.  Simon &

                        Schuster, 1994.

A Book by Two or More Authors

Bunce, Steve and Bob Mee.  Boxing Greats:  An Illustrated History of the Legends of the Ring.  Philadelphia:  Running Press, 1998.

Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. 

Grammar of the English Language.  London:  Longman, 1985.

A Book by a Corporate Author

             The J. Paul Getty Museum.  Julia Margaret Cameron:  photographs from the J.

                        Paul Getty Museum.  Los Angeles:  The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996.

A Book with an Editor

             Harmon, William, ed.  The Top 500 Poems.  New York:  Columbia University

                        Press, 1992.

A Work in an Anthology

             Stevens, Wallace.  “The Snow Man.”  The Columbia Anthology of American

                        Poetry.  Ed. Jay Parini.  New York:  Columbia University Press, 1995.

An Edition Other Than the First

             Laurence, John.  A History of Russia. 7^th ed.  New York:  Penguin Books USA

                        Inc., 1993.

A Signed Article in a Reference Book

             Gianoulis, Tina.  “Yuppies.”  St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture.  vol 5.

                        Detroit:  St. James Press, 2000.

An Unsigned Article in a Reference Book

             “Aerospace Industry.”  U.S.A. Sixties.  vol. 1.  Danbury:  Grolier, 2001.

An Article in a Journal

             White, Sabina and Andrew Winzelberg.  “Laughter and Stress.”  Humor 5 (1992):

                        343-55.

An Article from a Weekly or Biweekly Periodical

             Weymouth, Lally.  “People Power Turns Sour.”  Newsweek.  28 May 2001:  35-36.

An Article From a Monthly or Bimonthly Periodical

             Luoma, Jon R.  “The Removable Feast.”  Audubon.  May-June 2001:  37-39.

A Signed Article from a Daily Newspaper

             Kalman, Matthew.  “Pressure builds on Arafat.”  USA Today  4 June 2001:  A2+.

An Unsigned Article from a Daily Newspaper

             “Marketers Tweak Strategies as Age Groups Realign.”  The Wall Street Journal

                        15 May 2001,  Marketplace sec.:  B4+.

A Print Image from a Book

            Image author if available. “Description or title of image.” Descriptive word

                        (photograph, cartoon, map, etc.). Author of book. Title of Book.

                        City of Publication: Publisher, Copyright date, Page number of image.

             Adelman, Bob. “I have a dream.” Photograph. Williams, Juan. Eyes on the Prize.

                        New York: Penguin Books, 1987, 203.

Films, Videos and DVDs

It’s a Wonderful Life.  Dir. Frank Capra.  Perf. James Stewart, Donna Reed,   

            Lionel Barrymore, and Thomas Mitchell.  RKO, 1946.

            “Video Visits:  Moscow & Leningrad.”  Videocassette.  International Video

                        Network, 1994.

Hitchcock, Alfred, Dir. Suspicion.  Perf. Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.  1941. 

                        DVD.  Turner, 1995.

A Television or Radio Program

“Yes…but Is It Art?”  Narr. Morley Safer.  Sixty Minutes.  CBS.  WCBS, New

            York.  19 Sept. 1993.

Welles, Orson, Dir.  The War of the Worlds.  By H. G. Wells.  Adapt. Howard

            Koch.  Mercury Theatre on the Air.  CBS Radio.  WCBS, New York.

            30 Oct. 1938.

A Music Video

            Springsteen, Bruce.  “Dancing in the Dark.”  Born in the USA.  Columbia, 1984.     

                        Music video.  Dir. Brian De Palma.  VH1.  10 May 2002

A Musical Composition

Beethoven, Ludwig van.  Symphony No. 7 in A, Op. 92.  New York:  Dover,

            1998.

Personal or Telephone Interview

            Barna, Michael.  Personal interview 19 Mar. 2001.

Electronic Sources:

Although there are numerous sites devoted to citing web sources, these sites frequently vary in their interpretation of how MLA is utilized for online sources.  The most important thing to remember when citing electronic media is to present the reader with as much relevant information as possible (e.g. author, title, publication data).  This information allows the reader to identify the source that you are citing.

The typical entry for an entire online scholarly project, information database, journal, or professional site consists of the following items:

1.      Title of the site

2.      Name of the author or editor

3.      Electronic publication information, including version number (if not part of the title), date of electronic publication or of the latest update, and name of the sponsoring institution or organization.

4.      Date of access and URL

If you cannot find some of this information, cite what is available.

**TIP**  If you are using an online database, especially one that SHS subscribes to such as POWER Library or ProQuest, look for citation information in the database help section or at the end of your article.  Many times they will provide an example of how to cite their database.  Be sure to check that they are using the MLA bibliography format so that you stay consistent on your “Works Cited” page.

Suggestions from MLA

• If the web page lacks numbering, omit numbers from your citation within the text (parenthetical references).
• If your source includes page or section numbers, cite the relevant numbers (Higgins, pars. 7-9).  Pars is the abbreviation for paragraphs.
• “For a document on the Web, the page numbers of a printout should normally not be cited, because the pagination may vary in different printouts.”

An Entire Internet Site

The Cinderella Project.  Ed. Michael N. Salda.  Vers. 1.1.  Dec. 1997. 

De Grummond Children’s Lit. Research Collection, U of Southern Mississippi. 

 15 May 2002 <http://www-dept.usm.edu/-engdept/cinderella/cinderella.html>.

Hoover’s Online.  2002.  Hoover’s, Inc.  19 June 2002

            <http://www.hoovers.com>.

Jane Austen Information Page.  Ed. Henry Churchyard.  6 Sept. 2000.  15 June

            2002 <http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/.html>.

Thomas: Legislative Information on the Internet.  19 June 2001.  Lib. of

            Congress, Washington.  18 May 2002 <http://Thomas.loc.gov>.

Victorian Women Writers Project.  Ed. Perry Willett.  May 2000.  Indiana U.  26

            June 2002 <http://www.Indiana.edu/-letrs/vwwp>.

Home Page for an Academic Department

Microbiology and Immunology.  Dept. home page.  Stanford U School of

            Medicine.  4 Oct. 2002 <http://cmgm.Stanford.edu/micro>.

Personal Home Page

Lancashire, Ian. Home page. 28 Mar. 2002. 15 May 2002

            <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/-ian>.

Entire Online Book

Emerson, Ralph Waldo.  Essays:  First Series.  1841.  12 Feb. 1997

            <ftp://ftp.books.com/ebooks/NonFiction/Philosophy/Emerson/history.txt>.

Part of an Online Book

Keats, John.  “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”  Poetical Works.  1884. 

Bartleby.com:Great Books Online.  Ed. Steven van Leeuwen.  2002.

 5 May 2002 <http://www.bartleby.com/126/41.htm>.

An Article in a Scholarly Journal

Chan Evans.  “Postmodernism.”  Postmodern Culture 10.3 (2000).  Project Muse. 

            20 May 2002 <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/10.3chan.html>.

An Article in a Magazine

Levy, Steven.  “Great Minds, Great Ideas.”  Newsweek 27 May 2002.  20 May

            2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/754336.asp>.

An Article in a Newspaper or on a Newswire

Achenbach, Joel.  “America’s River.”  Washington Post 5 May 2002.  20 May

2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13425-2202

May 1.html>.

An Editorial

“Keeping College Doors Open.”  Editorial.  Christian Science Monitor: 

CSMonitor.com 16 May 2002.  20 May 2002

<http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0516/p08s03-comv.html>.

A Work from a  SHS Library Subscription Service

EBSCOhost (Power Library)

Koretz, Gene.  “Economic Trends:  Uh-Oh, Warm Water.”  Business Week

21 July 1997:  22.  EBSCOhost. Power Library.  Salisbury High School Lib.,

Allentown, PA, 12 Nov. 1999 <http://www.powerlibrary.org>.

ProQuest

McGinnis, Marianne.  “Get Strong and Lose Weight Faster.”  Prevention  Jan.

2005:  57.  ProQuest.  Salisbury High School Lib., Allentown, PA, 9 Feb.

2005  < http://www.proquestk12.com > .

NOTE: First date is date of publication – in this case, January 2005.  A weekly
                        magazine would be 6 Jan. 2005.  In this example, 57 is the volume number -
                        find this information in the citation.  The second date is the date the article was
                        read or copied by you.

History Study Center

Mirabito, Michael M.  “Space Program.”  Reder’s Companion to American

History.  New York:  Houghton Mifflin Co., 1991.  History Study Center. 

ProQuest.  Salisbury High School Lib., Allentown, PA, 9 Feb. 2005 

< http://www.historystudycenter.com >

            NOTE:  To access History Study Center, first go to ProQuest, then click on
                          History Study Center.  Your citation will depend on the category you choose
                          from the list (Reference Library, Document Library, Journal Library).  If it is
                          a book, use the online book citation.  If it is a journal, use the journal online
                          citation.

Online Periodical Database

            Brown, Susan.  “Writing the Perfect Paper.”  High School Weekly. 

                        12 Sept. 1996 <http://ehostweb14.epnet.com>.

             Marshall, Genevieve.  “Son inspires mom, sister to earn diplomas.”  The

                        Morning Call.  11 June 2001 <http://www.mcal.com/library/search.htm>.

A Work from a Subscription Service/Reference

If you are using a source from a subscription service that allows you to retrieve material by entering a key word, complete the citation by writing keyword, with a colon, and the word itself following the name of the service and the date of access.

“Table Tennis.”  Compton’s Encyclopedia Online.  Vers. 2.0. 1997.  America

            Online.  4 July 1998.  Keyword:  Compton’s.

If you use a series of topic labels, write the word path, with a colon, and list the sequence of topics you followed; use semicolons to separate topics.

“Cloning.”  BioTech’s Life and Science Dictionary.  30 June 1998.  Indiana U.

America Online.  4 July 1998.  Path:  Research and Learning; Science; Biology;

Biotechnology Dictionary.

Online Encyclopedia / Reference

            Author.  “Title of Article.  Title of the Database or Online Service.  Date of access

                        <http://address/filename>.

"expressionism." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. March 30, 2006

<http://gme.grolier.com>.

            Murray, Barbara B.  “Consumerism.”  World Book Online.  15 April 2001

                        <http://www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com>.

SIRS Online (Power Library)

Author.  “Article title.”  Original source of article.  Date of original source: 

            pages.  Product name.  Date of access <http://address/filename>.

            Frick, Robert.  “Investing in Medical Miracles.”  Kipling’s Personal

Finance.  Feb.1999: 80-87.  SIRS Knowledge Source:  Research.

25 July 1999 <http://galenet.gale.com>.

CD-ROMs

Non-Periodical (encyclopedias, etc.)

            Author (if known).  “Title of part of work.”  Title of Product.  Edition or release,
                       if relevant.  Publication medium CD-ROM.  City of publication:  Publisher,
                      Year of publication.

            Wallechinsky, David.  “Olympic Games.”  Encyclopedia Encarta. 

                        CD-ROM.  Redmond, WA:  Microsoft 1999.

            Hart, Mary Bronson.  “Biography of Clara Fisher.”  Dictionary of

                        American Biography.  Vol. 3 1931.  Rpt. in Dictionary of American

                        Biography.  CD-ROM.  New York: Scribner’s, 1997.

Online images

            Artist if available.  “Description or title of image.”  Date of image.  Online

                        image.  Title of larger site.  Date of download <http://address>.

            “Mars landing.”  Online image.  3 Nov. 1999.  NASA  7 Apr. 2000

                        <http://www.nasa.org>.

            “Olympics Hockey USA USSR”.  AccuNET/AP Multimedia Archive. 

22 Feb. 1980. 30 Mar. 2006. <http://ap.accuweather.com>.

A Television or Radio Program

Keillor, Garrison.  A Prairie Home Companion.  With Ledward Ka’apana and Owana Salazar.  12 Oct. 2002.  Minnesota Public Radio.  18 Oct. 2002
<http://phc.mpr.org/ri/smil/021012.ram>.

Sound Recording or Sound Clip

            Creator if available.  “Description or title of sound.”  Date of Sound.  Online

                        sound.  Title of larger site.  Date of download <http://address.website.org>

Roosevelt, Franklin D.  “Americanism.”  1920.  American Leaders Speak:  Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election.  1996. American Memory.  Lib. of Congress, Washington.  19 Mar. 2002
<http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mbrs/9000024.ram>.

“This Week’s Saturday Radio Address.”  16 Dec. 2000.  Online sound. 

                        Whitehouse Briefing Room.  8 Feb. 2001

                        <http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/html/briefroom.html>.

Video Clip

            “Description or title of video clip.”  Date of clip.  Online video clip.  Title of 

                        Larger Site.  Date of download <http://address.website.org>.

            “Hindenburg Broadcast.”  6 May 1937.  Online video clip.  Encarta

                        Online Deluxe.  8 May 2000

                        <http://encarta.msn.com/encarta/MediaMax.aspz>.

A Film or Film Clip

                Kurosawa, Akira, dir.  Throne of Blood.  1957.  Macbeth.  By William
                         Shakespeare. Ed.  A.R. Braunmuller.  CD-ROM.  New York:  Voyager,
                         1994.

    Murnau, F.W., dir.  Nosferatu.  1922.  The Sync.  16 June 2002
 <http://www.thesync.com/ram/nosferatu.ram>.

A Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph

Delacroix, Eugene.  Death of Ophelia.  1853.  Louvre, Paris.  Shakespeare illustrated.  Ed.  Harry Rusche.  13 Sept. 2000.  Emory U.  20 Oct. 2002
<http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Shakespeare/Delacroix.
Ophelia.html>.

Evans, Walker.  Penny Picture Display.  1936.  Museum of Mod. Art, New York.
30 May 2002 <http://www.moma.org/collection/photography/pages/evans.
penny.html>.

An Interview

Ackroyd, Peter.  Interview.  Bold Type.  Nov. 2001.  25 June 2002
<http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1101/ackroyd/interview.html>.

A Cartoon or Comic Strip

            Ohman, Jack.  “One Final Carrier Landing Attempt.”  Cartoon.  US News.com 
                         8 Apr. 2002.  29 May 2002
                        <http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/020408/opinion/8cartoon.html>.

An E-mail Communication

             Boyle, Anthony T.  “Re:  Utopia.”  E-mail to Daniel J. Cahill.  21 June 1997.  Harner,
                        James L.  E-mail to author.  20 Aug. 2002.