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ENG 312 – Studies in Shakespeare – Higinbotham – Spring 2021

MLA Style

The MLA or Modern Language Association style of citation is broadly used in the language arts and humanities. The style is currently in its 8th edition.

Purdue OWL MLA Style and Format Guide

MLA OWL

This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (8th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page. Check here for help citing more resources or make an appointment with an Oxford librarian!

  Citing Resources


Why do we need to cite resources that we get information from?

    To acknowledge that the information is from another source and is not our own.
     To give the reader necessary information to find the resource and do further research.
     To avoid plagiarism, or passing off the information as your own.

 

Icons are from the Noun Project and under Creative Commons licence (CCBY): books by sandra, article by Arfan Khan Kamol, website by Julynn B.

Books

BookMLA Style is designed to be flexible and adaptable to many kinds of sources - the citation format centers on the idea of "objects" and the "containers" they live in. Since books are self-contained, they don't usually have a "container" element - this makes them one of the easiest things to cite in MLA.

 

Some example citations are below, from the Purdue OWL MLA Guide. Follow the link for more examples!

How To Cite...

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. MacMurray, 1999.

Noble, Safiya U. Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York University Press, 2018.

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Allyn and Bacon, 2000.

Pratchett, Terry, and Neil Gaiman. Good Omens. Workman, 1990.

List only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (Latin for "and others") in place of the subsequent authors' names.

Wysocki, Anne Frances, et al. Writing New Media: Theory and Applications for Expanding the Teaching of Composition. Utah State UP, 2004.

Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One, edited by Ben Rafoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.

Smale, Maura A. "Always a Novice: Feminist Learning and Leadership Practice." Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership, edited by Shirley Lew and Baharak Yousefi, Library Juice Press, 2017, pp. 7-27.

Articles

 

MLA Style is designed to be flexible and adaptable to many kinds of sources - the citation format centers on the idea of "objects" and the "containers" they live in. The container of an article is usually the journal, magazine, etc it was published in.

 

 

 

Some example citations are below, from the Purdue OWL MLA Guide. Follow the link for more examples!

How To Cite...

McAninch, David. "Seeing France’s Wild Mountains Through a Clouded, Classic Windshield." New York Times, 15 July 2019. nyti.ms/2GgMdkK. Accessed 16 Jul 2019.

Brubaker, Bill. "New Health Center Targets County's Uninsured Patients." Washington Post, 24 May 2007, p. LZ01.

In Print

Duvall, John N. "The (Super)Marketplace of Images: Television as Unmediated Mediation in DeLillo's White Noise." Arizona Quarterly, vol. 50, no. 3, 1994, pp. 127-53.

From an Online Database

Budd, John M. “Public Libraries, Political Speech, and the Possibility of a Commons.” Public Library Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 147–159. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/01616846.2018.1556232.

Krasikov, Sana. "What Children Remember From the War." Review of Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II, by Svetlana Alexievich. New York Times, 13 July 2019, nyti.ms/2JyKt8y. Accessed 15 July 2019.

Weiller, K. H. Review of Sport, Rhetoric, and Gender: Historical Perspectives and Media Representations, edited by Linda K. Fuller. Choice, Apr. 2007, p. 1377.

Websites

Website IconMLA Style is designed to be flexible and adaptable to many kinds of sources - the citation format centers on the idea of "objects" and the "containers" they live in. A website itself is a container, so think of pages on a website like chapters of a book.

 

Citing a web-based resource? MLA style recommends that you include your date of access, as the content may change over time.

 

Some example citations are below, from the Purdue OWL MLA Guide. Follow the link for more examples!

How To Cite...

Mission and Vision - Oxford College Library - Emory University. Oxford College Library, oxford.library.emory.edu/about/About-Oxford/mission-vision.html. Accessed 15 July 2019.

Manila, Ashley. “Coconut Cream Pie Smoothie Recipe.” eHow, ehow.com/how_12343061_coconut-cream-pie-smoothie.html. Accessed 15 July 2019.

"Libraries = Strong Communities: Celebrating National Library Week." Oxford Library Blog, Oxford College Library, 9 Apr. 2019, scholarblogs.emory.edu/oxford/events/libraries-strong-communities-celebrating-national-library-week/. Accessed 15 July 2019.

Images & Video


 

 

*Figures cited in-text must be both captioned and cited in the bibliography.

In-text citation:

(see fig. X)

(see fig. 3)

Caption:

*Include the bibliographic information, while replacing periods with commas.

Fig. X. Artist; Title; Creation Year; Institution, URL. (Licensing information/public domain information/fair use notation)

Fig. 3. Cézanne, Paul; Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses; 1890; The Metropolitan Museum
          of 
Art, metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435882. (Public Domain)

Fig. 5. Holley, LaurenAtlanta Streetcar; 2014; Flickr, flickr.com/photos/atlantadowntown/16106577510/.
         
(CC BY 2.0)

Bibliography:

Last name, First name. Title of the work. YearWebsite publisher, URL.

Cézanne, Paul. 
Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses. 1890The Metropolitan Museum of

Art, metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435882.


Frequently asked questions

Image has no known author?

Omit the author's name, and start with the title:

Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses. 1890The Metropolitan Museum

         of Art, metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435882.

No creation date?

Include an access date instead:

Cézanne, Paul. Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses. The Metropolitan Museum of

Art, metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435882. Accessed 5 Nov. 2019.

Are you citing an image reproduced in a website article?

Read this post from the MLA Style Center for formatting guidelines.

Have you modified the image?

Fig. 3. Adapted from Artist; Title; Creation Year; Institution, URL.

Fig. 3. Adapted from Paul Cézanne; Still Life with Apples and a Pot of Primroses; 1890; The Metropolitan
          Museum of 
Art, metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435882.

Read this post from the MLA Style Center for more information.

Are you using a video screenshot?

Fig. X. Still from Creator, Title of Video (minute:seconds).

Fig. 4. Still from Toledo Museum of Art, What is Visual Literacy? (4:31).

Read this post from the MLA Style Center for more information.

  MLA Video Citation Examples

 

YouTube & Streaming Video:

TitlePlatform, uploaded by Screen name, Day Month (abbreviated). Year, URL.

What is Information Literacy?.YouTube, uploaded by Modern Librarian Memoirs, 2 Nov. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbe6xBibOL4.