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Citation Styles and Tools

MLA Citation Style

MLA 9th HandbookMLA (Modern Language Association) style is frequently used in arts and humanities disciplines. MLA uses an author-page method of in-text citations. For example, (Steinbeck 250).

MLA uses a style of documentation that is based on a general method that may be applied to every possible source. This is intended to be a flexible method that is universally applicable.

When deciding how to cite your source, refer to  the list of core elements (see chart below). These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order followed by the punctuation mark indicated in the chart.

MLA Citation Elements: 1) Author. 2) Title of source. 3) Title of container, 4) Other contributors, 5) Version, 6) Number, 7) Publisher, 8) Publication date, 9) Location.

Works Cited example of a citation from a journal article:

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.

The following is a video from Kyle Stedman, an assistant professor of English at Rockford University, that discusses the various changes in MLA style in the new, 8th edition. He talks quickly, so put on the Closed Captioning by clicking the "CC" button on the video when it starts playing. 

MLA (Modern Language Association)

Citing Government Documents in MLA Style