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How To Cite References - MLA Style

When using EndNote bibliographic software, please use the following output style - MLA.
Please remember to check with your unit co-ordinator or tutor before submitting your assignments,
as their style preference may vary from the guidelines presented here.

Updated February 2008

Contents

Citation Within The Text

The aim of the MLA System is to be brief and to provide only as much detail as is necessary to identify the work cited and the location of the information in that work. The flow of the text should not be interrupted.

The reference in the text of your work should appear in parentheses at the end of a sentence before the full stop and include the author's surname and relevant page number or the authors surname may be integrated into the text. The full reference must be listed at the end of your essay in the works cited list.

Capitalise the first and last words and all principal words of a title and subtitle. Underline journal and book titles.

Titles of journal articles and book chapters are enclosed in quotation marks. When citing a journal, omit any introductory article, eg "...Australian Journal of Language and Literacy ...", not "...The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy".

Further information is available in Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (238-258), or refer to the other items listed under Other Sources of Information

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Citation within the text - Print Documents

Standard citation

Usually the author's last name and the appropriate page numbers as a reference in parentheses are sufficient, eg "...(Huntley 46-47)...". If the author's last name is mentioned in the body of the text then the page reference only is enclosed in parentheses, eg "...Huntley has discussed (47)...".

Authors' initials are given only if there are two or more authors with the same last name.

Page number(s) must be given for direct quotations, paraphrased or summarised material, and information or ideas from source materials which you have incorporated into the text of your essay, thesis or assignment.

If citing an entire work, page numbers are not given and the author's name is usually incorporated in the text.

.... Huntley explores the rich tapestry created in each of the novels of Amy Tan.

Page numbers are also omitted when citing one-page articles or articles in works arranged alphabetically (such as encyclopaedias).

Two or three authors
When referring to a work with two or three authors, give the last name of each person,
eg "...(Alsop and Walsh 119)...".

More than three authors
If a work has more than three authors, give the first author's last name followed by et al., eg "...(Blackford et al.)..." or give all the last names. Use the same format when listing the work in the works cited list.

Multiple works by same author
If listing one of two or more works by the same author, insert a comma after the author's name, then add the title, or a shortened version of it, and the page reference.

...The experience of austerity and the experience of maturity are connected (Bly, The Sibling Society 49)...

More than one work cited
If citing two or more items in a single parenthetical reference, separate each citation by a semicolon.

...(Alsop and Walsh 66; Blackford 49)...

Corporate author
When citing works by a corporate author, it is preferable to include the author's name in the text to avoid interrupting the reading with an extended parenthetical reference.

... as recorded by Australia's Office of Multicultural Affairs (13-14, 24-25) ...

Multivolume work
Textual references to a multivolume work include the volume number before the reference, eg "...(Summerfield 2: 73-74)...". The citation in the works cited list gives the total number of volumes.

No author
Works listed by title are cited as "...('At Home on the Earth' 98)...", or "...these issues are raised in At Home on the Earth (98)...". Shorten the title if it is long.

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Citation within the text - Electronic documents

Documents published in electronic formats are cited in the same way as print documents. If the electronic document has an author and page numbers, use these for the in-text citation. The full description of the document (including its electronic source data) will be given in the works cited list or bibliography at the end of your essay or assignment.

If page numbers are not given, use paragraph or other section numbers, if you need to be specific. This is particularly useful in the case of email and online postings.

If there is no author given follow the guidelines above for print resources.

In the unlikely case that the document has no author, date or obvious title then the internet address may be cited in the text.

Internet site
Kidspsych (http://www.kidspsych.org) is a wonderful interactive Internet site for children.

To direct readers to an entire internet site (but not a specific document on the site), it is sufficient to give the address of the site in the text. Make sure the internet address you provide is current and links to the site. Remember that web addresses may change.

No Page Numbers
(Derrida, sect. 2, par. 7)

Use a paragraph number if no page numbers are present. Separate the paragraph or section numbers from the authors surname with a comma.

No Author, Date or Title
It has been stated that the problem cannot be solved (http://www.xyz.com).

Please keep in mind that citing information from an internet page with so few credentials may not be suitable in an academic publication.

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Creating a bibliography or works cited list

Print Documents

Books

Standard format
Author/editor. Title: Subtitle. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Publisher, Year.

Single author
Boyle, Jimmy. The Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1984.

Anthology or compilation (an edited book)
West, T. G., ed. and trans. Symbolism: An Anthology. London: Methuen, 1980.

Two or more books by the same author
Pilger, John. Distant Voices. London: Vintage, 1992.

---. A Secret Country. London: Cape, 1989.

Multivolume work
Summerfield, Geoffrey. Voices: An Anthology of Poetry and Pictures. 3 vols. London: Penguin, 1968.

Later edition
Newcomb, Horace, ed. Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. F. N. Robinson. 2nd ed. London: Oxford UP, 1957.

More than one author
Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue, Stuart G. Shanker and Talbot J. Taylor. Apes, Language and the Human Mind. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.

Dollimore, Johnathon, and Keith Hall, ed. Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism. 2nd ed. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1994.

Three or more authors
If there are more than three authors or editors you may list all authors OR name only the first and add et al. ("and others") instead of listing all the names. Both examples below are correct citations for the same work.

MacIntosh, Angus, M.L. Samuels, Michael Benskin, Margaret Laing, and Keith Williamson. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. 4 vols. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1987.

OR

MacIntosh, Angus, et al. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Mediaeval English. 4 vols. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1987.

Series
Lynn, Richard John. Chinese Literature: A Draft Bibliography in Western European Languages. Oriental Monograph Ser. 24. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1979.

Translation
Moliere. Five Plays: Moliere. Trans. John Wood. Melbourne: Penguin, 1953.

Corporate author (ie: a company or organisation)
Australian Copyright Council. Copyright for Book Publishers: A Practical Guide. Redfern, NSW: ACC, 1997.

Conference (no editors)
Multimedia Conference, 4th, 1998. Australian Film Commission. Being Connected: The Studio in the Networked Age. Sydney: Australian Film Commission, 1998.

(Please note: In this case the title of the conference proceedings, which is underlined, is different from the name of the conference. The work is entered under the name, which is similar to a corporate author.)

Conference (complete conference proceedings)
Balakian, Anna and James J. Wilhelm, ed. Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association: New York, NY, 1982. New York: Garland, 1985.

Government publication
Australia. Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs. Programs in Action for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Achievements. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service for Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs, 1989.

Thesis or dissertation
Woznica, Mirek. "A Counter-History of Art." Diss. Murdoch U, 1997.

(Please note: Titles of unpublished works are not underlined)

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Parts of a Book

These examples are for chapters or parts of edited works in which the chapters or parts have individual title and author/s, but are included in collections or textbooks edited by others. If the editors of a work are also the authors of all of the included chapters then it should be cited as a whole book using the examples given above (Books).

Article in an encyclopaedia, signed
Fowler, Alastair. "Genre." International Encyclopedia of Communications. Ed. Erik Barnouw, et al. 4 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, c1989.

Article/Chapter in a book
Sweeney, John. "The New Internationalism." Global Backlash: Citizen Initiatives in a Just World Economy.    Ed. Robin Broad. London: MacMillan Press, 2002. 55-62.

Single chapter from an anthology or compilation
Calvino, Italo. "Cybernetics and Ghosts." Trans. Patrick Creagh. The Uses of Literature: Essays. San Diego: Harcourt, 1982. 3-27.

Conference or seminar paper (one paper from a conference proceedings)
Mann, Jill. "Chaucer and the 'Woman Question.'" This Noble Craft: Proceedings of the Tenth Research Symposium of the Dutch and Belgian University Teachers of Old and Middle English and Historical Linguistics, Utrecht, 19-20 January 1989. Ed. Erik Kooper. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1991. 173-88.

Study Guides and Unit Readers
Note: You should not cite from Unit Readers, Study Guides, or lecture notes, but where possible you should go to the original source of the information. If you do need to cite articles from the Unit Reader, treat the Reader articles as if they were book or journal articles. In your citations refer to the page numbers from the Reader, not the original page numbers (unless you have independently consulted the original). In the reference list or bibliography use the bibliographical details as quoted in the Reader.

Dillard, Annie. “When You Write.” The Writing Life. London: Pan Books, 1990. 3-21. Reprinted in Introduction to Creative Arts (EGL114) Study Guide and Reader. Murdoch: Murdoch University, 2004.

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Journal Articles

Standard format
Author of article. "Title of Article." Title of Journal. volume.issue number (year): page number/s.

Journal article: Continuous pagination across issues
Yeh, Michelle. "The 'Cult of Poetry' in Contemporary China." Journal of Asian Studies 55 (1996): 51-80.

Journal article: New paging in each issue (include issue number)
Hallin, Daniel C. "Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections, 1968-1988." Journal of Communication 42.2 (1992): 5-24.

Newspaper article
Buchanan, Rachel. "Truth and Valour: Anzac Day, the Myth". Sydney Morning Herald.  24 Apr. 1999, Good Weekend: 43-44.

Magazine article
Frank, Diana and Jeffrey Frank. "A Melancholy Dane: The Real Hans Christian Andersen." New Yorker 8 Jan. 2001: 78-84.

Anonymous article
"Conscious Activism: Resources." Earth Light Summer 2001: 36.

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Electronic documents

E-Books

Use the descriptive elements listed in the example below to cite e-books retrieved from the library catalogue.

Author, A., and B. Author. Title of e-book. Place of Publication: Publisher, date of original publication. Source. Date accessed. <url>.

Bass, Len, Paul Clements, and Rick Kazman. Software Architecture in Practice. 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 2003. Safari. 22 Oct. 2004 <http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/>.

Eckes, Thomas. The Developmental Social Psychology of Gender. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2000. netLibrary. 22 Oct. 2004 <http://www.netlibrary.com>.

Online encyclopaedia or reference database

Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2001. Microsoft. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://encarta.msn.com>.

Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Jan. 2001. Indiana U. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://www.indian.edu/~letrs/vwwp/>.

Article in online encyclopaedia
"Fresco." Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2001. Microsoft. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://encarta.msn.com/>.

Hull, David L. "Philosophy of the Life Sciences." Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences. Mar. 2001. Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://www.els.net>.

Lai, M.C.C. "Hepatitis delta virus." Encyclopedia of Virology. 2nd ed. Ed. Allan Granoff and Roberts Webster. 1999. San Diego, CA: Academic. ScienceDirect. 22 Oct. 2004 <http://www.elsevier.com>.

"Suffragettes." A Dictionary of Contemporary World History. Ed. Jan Palmowski. 2003. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Oxford Reference Online. 22 Oct. 2004 <http://www.oxfordreference.com>.

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E-Journals

Standard format
Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal. Volume.issue (if necessary) (year): page/paragraph numbers. Format. Database Name. Supplier/Publisher. Date of access <internet address >.

Journal article from online full-text database

Note: When including the internet address, please use the Recommended URLs for Full-text Databases, which are the URLs for the main entrance to the service and are easier to reproduce.

Hill, Thomas D. "Beowulf's Roman rites: Roman ritual and Germanic tradition." The Journal of English and Germanic Philology. 106.3 (July 2007): p325-335. Academic OneFile. Gale Group. Murdoch University Library, Australia. 18 Sept. 2001 <http://find.galegroup.com>.

Jacobs, Miriam. "Global Economic Trends." New Business Week 63 (2001): 34-39. ProQuest. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Murdoch University Library, Australia. 16 Jan. 2004 <http://il.proquest.com>.

Journal article abstract accessed from online database
Spencer, H.L. "Book and Verse: A Guide to Middle English Biblical Literature." Review of English Studies. 52.206 (2001): 249. Abstract. ProQuest. ProQuest Information and Learning Company. Murdoch University Library, Australia. 16 Jan. 2004 <http://www.umi.com/proquest/>.

(Please note: Abstract citations are only included in a works cited list if the abstract is substantial or if the full-text of the article could not be accessed.)

Journal article in a scholarly journal (published free of charge on the www)
Willinsky, J. "Proposing a knowledge exchange model for scholarly publishing." Current Issues in Education. 3.6 (2000). Murdoch University Library, Australia.18 Sept. 2001 <http://cie.ed.asu.edu/volume3/number6/>.

Journal article in electronic journal subscription
Hampton, Mark. "The Press, Patriotism, and Public Discussion: C. P. Scott, the Manchester Guardian, and the Boer War, 1899-1902." Historical Journal. 44.1 (2001): 177-197. Cambridge University Press. Murdoch University Library, Australia.18 Sept. 2001 <http://journals.cambridge.org>.

Newspaper article from online database
"Moving up the Charts." South China Morning Post. 26 May 1995, Friday Entertainment: 24.  Lexis-Nexis. ASIAPC/SCHINA. Murdoch University Library, Australia.19 Sept. 2001 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/>.

(Please note: This is an example of an article from a special section of the newspaper.)

Newspaper article from the World Wide Web
Le Grand, Danielle. "Record Crowds Say So Much for Monet." West Australian Online. 18 Sept. 2001. Murdoch University Library, Australia.18 Sept. 2001 <http://www.thewest.com.au>.

(Please note: The first date is the date of publication of the article and the second is the access date, which happens to be the same in this case.)

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Internet Documents

Standard format
Author's name. "Title of the document."  Title of internet site or document. Date of internet publication. Editor of site or document. Source/production information. Date of access <internet address >.

Entire internet site
Romance Languages Resources Page. Aug. 2001. U of Chicago. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://humanities.uchicago.edu/depts/romance/resources/index.html>.

Jan Austen Information Page. Ed. Henry Churchyard. 6 Sept. 2000. 15 June 2002 <http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janeinfo.html>.

Personal internet site
Lancashire, Ian. Home page. 28 Mar. 2001. 15 May 2002<http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ian/index.html>.

General internet site
Harris, Jonathan G. "The Return of the Witch Hunts." Witchhunt Information Page. 12 Sept. 2001. 4 Oct. 2002 <http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Embassy/9062/fellsshort.html>.

Online book
Nesbit, E. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. May 2000. Indiana U. 26 June 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html>.

Online poem
Nesbit, E. "Marching Song." Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. May 2000. Indiana U. 26 June 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html#p9>.

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Non-Book Formats

Podcasts

“From Lake Baikal to the Halfway Mark, Yekaterinburg.” Rep. Warren Brown and Keith Brodie, Prod. Peter George. Peking to Paris: Episode 3. 4 Jun. 2007. ABC Television. 4 Feb. 2008 <http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pekingtoparis/podcast/pekingtoparis.xml>.

“Black Hole Death Ray.” Rep. Stuart Gary. StarStuff. December 23. 2007 ABC News Radio. 4 Feb. 2008 <http://abc.net.au/newsradio/podcast/STARSTUFF.xml>.

Other Formats

Film
Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. Warner Brothers, 1982.

Television programme (off-air recording)
"Advance Australia Fare." Rep. Jonathan Holmes, Prod. Anna Cater. Four Corners. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 1 Aug. 1994.

DVD or Video recording
2001: A Space Odyssey. Dir. and Prod. by Stanley Kubrick. DVD. Warner Home Video, 2001

The Neon Bible. Writ. and Prod. by Terence Davies. Videocassette. Triumph Video, 1998.

Sound recording
Young, Dougie. "I don't want your money." The Songs of Dougie Young. National Library of Australia, 1994.

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Personal Communications

Interview
Pei, I.M. Personal interview. 22 July 2003.
Poussaint, Alvin F. Telephone interview. 10 Dec. 2004.

Letter
Morrison, Toni. Letter to the author. 19 Mar. 2005.

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

(Please note: the title of personal communications is not underlined as this material is unpublished.)

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A works cited list: what should it look like?

The works cited list should appear at the end of you paper. Begin the list on a new page. The title Works Cited should be centered on the page.

(Please note: the hanging indent for each reference makes the alphabetical sequence more obvious.)

Australia. Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs. Programs in Action for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People: Achievements. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service for Dept. of Aboriginal Affairs, 1989.

Australian Copyright Council. Copyright for Book Publishers: A Practical Guide. Redfern, NSW: ACC, 1997.

Balakian, Anna and James J. Wilhelm, ed. Proceedings of the Xth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association: New York, NY, 1982. New York: Garland, 1985.

Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. Perf. Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young. Warner Home Video, 1983.

Boyle, Jimmy. The Pain of Confinement: Prison Diaries. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1984.

Buchanan, Rachel. "Truth and Valour: Anzac Day, the Myth". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 Apr. 1999, Good Weekend: 43-44.

Frank, Diana and Jeffrey Frank. "A Melancholy Dane: The Real Hans Christian Andersen." New Yorker 8 Jan. 2001: 78-84.

"Fresco." Encarta Online Encyclopedia. 2001. Microsoft. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://encarta.msn.com/>.

Hallin, Daniel C. "Sound Bite News: Television Coverage of Elections, 1968-1988." Journal of Communication 42.2 (1992): 5-24.

Harris, Jonathan G. "The Return of the Witch Hunts." Witchhunt Information Page. 12 Sept. 2001. 4 Oct. 2002 <http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Embassy/9062/fellsshort.html>.

Hull, David L. "Philosophy of the Life Sciences." Encyclopedia of the Life Sciences. Mar. 2001. Nature Publishing Group, Macmillan. 12 Sept. 2001 <http://www.els.net>.

Hampton, Mark. "The Press, Patriotism, and Public Discussion: C. P. Scott, the Manchester Guardian, and the Boer War, 1899-1902." Historical Journal. 44.1 (2001): 177-197. Online. Cambridge University Press. 18 Sept. 2001.

Le Grand, Danielle. "Record Crowds Say So Much for Monet." West Australian Online. 18 Sept. 2001. 18 Sept. 2001 <http://www.thewest.com.au>.

Lynn, Richard John. Chinese Literature: A Draft Bibliography in Western European Languages. Oriental Monograph Ser. 24. Canberra: Australian National UP, 1979.

Multimedia Conference, 4th, 1998. Australian Film Commission. Being Connected: The Studio in the Networked Age. Sydney: Australian Film Commission, 1998.

Nesbit, E. Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. May 2000. Indiana U. 26 June 2002 <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/ballsoc.html>. 

Newcomb, Horace, ed. Television: The Critical View. 6th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.

Pilger, John. Distant Voices. London: Vintage, 1992.

--- . A Secret Country. London: Cape, 1989.

Savage-Rumbaugh, Sue, Stuart G. Shanker and Talbot J. Taylor. Apes, Language and the Human Mind. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.

Summerfield, Geoffrey. Voices: An Anthology of Poetry and Pictures. 3 vols. London: Penguin, 1968.

West, T. G., ed. and trans. Symbolism: An Anthology. London: Methuen, 1980.

Woznica, Mirek. "A Counter-History of Art." Diss. Murdoch U, 1997.

Yeh, Michelle. "The 'Cult of Poetry' in Contemporary China." Journal of Asian Studies 55 (1996): 51-80.

Young, Dougie. "I don't want your money." The Songs of Dougie Young. National Library of Australia, 1994.

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Abbreviations

Standard abbreviations may be used in your citations. A list of appropriate abbreviations can be found in MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., pp. 265-272. Some of the more often used examples are listed here:

app. appendix
art. article
bk. book
ch. or chap. chapter
comp. compiler, compilers, compiled by
dir. director, directed by
div. division
ed. editor, edition, edited by
et al. and others (from Latin et alii, et aliae)
illus. illustrator, illustrators, illustrated by
n.d. no date of publication
no. number
n.p. no place of publication, no publisher
p., pp. page, pages
par. paragraph
prod. producer, produced by
rev. revised, revised by
sec. or sect. section
ser. series
supp. supplement
trans. or tr. translation, translator, translated by
vol., vols. volume, volumes
writ. writer, written by

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Other sources of information

PLEASE NOTE: This list of examples is in no way exhaustive. Only the most often-used types of references are listed here. Refer to the following publications for more information on citing references using the MLA style.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Languages Association of America, 2003.
Link Level 3 R 808.02 GIB 2003

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998.
Link Level 3 R 808.027 GIB 1998

 

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