*English Language & Literature
Style Manuals & Citation Help
MLA style is a popular citation style for English language and literature, but it is not the only one. Some professors (or publishers, if you are writing an article to be published) may prefer a different style, such as Chicago style, so always check before you format and submit your work.
- MLA Handbook Plus This link opens in a new windowThe online ninth edition builds on the MLA’s unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, YouTube videos, dissertations, and more.
MLA Handbook 9th ed. by ISBN: 9781603293518Publication Date: 2021Relied on by generations of writers, the MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association and is the only official, authorized book on MLA style. The new, ninth edition builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements--facts, common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date--that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today.
- The MLA Style Center - Using MLA FormatThe official website on MLA style. This site will show you how to document sources, set up your paper, and improve your writing.
- Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting & Style GuideAn essential resource from Purdue University with examples and advice for creating in-text citations and bibliographies using MLA style.
- Chicago Manual of StyleThe official style guide for CMS.
- Purdue OWL: Chicago Manual of StyleA great resource from Purdue University with lots of examples for citing sources in CMS.
- Chicago Style: Notes and Bibliography: Sample CitationsExamples of note and bibliography citations for books, chapters from edited volumes, electronic resources, newspaper articles, interviews, websites, and social media content.
Sample Citations in MLA Style
Scholarly Article Citation
General Format:
Author (last name, first name). "Title of Article." Journal Title, volume number (vol. #), issue number (no. #), year, pages (pp. #-#).
Example:
Hoeveler, Diane Long. “Gothic Chapbooks and the Urban Reader.” The Wordsworth Circle, vol. 41, no. 3, 2010, pp. 155–58.
Essay in an Edited Book
General Format:
Essay Author (last name, first name). "Title of Essay." Title of Book Collection, edited by Name of Editor(s), Publisher, year, pages (pp. #-#).
Example:
Potter, Franz. “Chapbooks, Pamphlets, and Forgotten Horrors.” The Palgrave Handbook of Steam Age Gothic, edited by Clive Bloom, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 27–38.
Sample In-Text Citations MLA style
General in-text citation: (Author page number(s))
Example: (Hoeveler 155).
If I have more than one article by Hoeveler in my Works cited, I would add part of the title (to identify to which workyou are referring):
Example: (Hoeveler, "Gothic Chapbooks" 155).
When citing an essay from a book collection, use the essay author in the citation (not the editor(s) name(s)).
Citation after quotation: "Here is my quotation" (cite).
Example: According to Hoeveler, "One cannot discuss the gothic chapbook phenomenon without also briefly addressing the development of the circulating library" (156).
Or paraphrase of information (cite).
Example: The growth of gothic chapbooks is tied closely to the establishment of circulating libraries (Hoeveler 156).