Writing Guide: MLA Format, 9th Edition

Still have questions? Click here.

When you reference another’s work in your own papers or essays, you need to cite that author’s work.  MLA Citation Style is typically used to cite work in English and humanities disciplines.

---

When creating a citation, you will need two things:

• In-text or parenthetical citations – located within the body of your paper
• Works Cited or Bibliography – reference list that appears at the end of your paper.

Here are some of the changes in the latest version of MLA Style:

• New chapters about inclusive language, formatting a research paper, and using notes.

• An expanded description of the core elements, more descriptive explanations of in-text citations and guidelines for avoiding plagiarism.

• New suggestions about citing works contained in apps and databases.

• Examples about how to cite and list sources.

---

 

Articles 

Article (from a database) with one author:

Lastname, First M.  "Title of Article." Title of Publication, vol. #, no. #, date, pages. Name of Database, URL.

Geuss, Raymond. "Happiness and Politics." Arion: A Journal of Humanities

and the Classics, vol. 10, no. 1, Spring-Summer 2002, pp. 15-33. JSTOR,

www.jstor.org/stable/20163869.

 

Article (print) with one author:

Lastname, First M.  "Title of Article." Title of Publication, vol. #, no. #, date, pages. 

Fromm, Erich. "What is Happiness?" Science Digest, vol. 39, March 1956, pp. 43-7.

 

Article (found using Google) with one author:

Lastname, First M.  "Title of Article." Title of Publication or Overall

Website, vol. #, no. #, date, pages [if available], URL.

Cohen, Patricia. "Author's Personal Forecast: Not Always Sunny But

Pleasantly Skeptical." New York Times, 9 Oct.

2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/books/10ehrenreich.html.

 

Article (from a publisher website with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI)) with two authors:

Lastname, First M., and Firstname M. Surname. "Title of Article." Title of

Publication, vol. #, no. #,  date, pages. Name of publishing site or database, DOI. 

Lykken, David and Auke Tellegen. "Happiness is a Stochastic Phenomenon."

Psychological Science, vol. 7, no. 3, May 1996: 186-189. SAGE Journals,

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.1996.tb00355.x.

 

Article (from a database) with three authors:

Lastname, First M., Annie B. Surname, and Anon Y. Mous. "Title of Article." Title of

Publication, vol. #, no. #,  date, pages. Name of publishing site or database, URL.

 

More than three authors? List all authors or use the format below:

Authorone, First M. et. al. "Title of Article." Title of Publication, vol. #, no. #, date, pages.

Name of publishing site or database, URL.

 

Books

Book with one author, published after 1900:

Lastname, First M.  Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Publisher, Date. 

Munro, Alice. Too Much Happiness: Stories. Yale UP, 2009. 

 

Book with one author, published before 1900:

Lastname, First M.  Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Location, Publisher, Date. 

Beecher, Catharine E. Letters to the People on Health and Happiness. New York, Harper and Brothers, 1855.

 

Books with multiple authors, published after 1900:

The author name format follows the author format as listed under articles. Follow the rest of the format for books.

 

An edited book, published after 1900:

Editor, First M., editor. Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Publisher, Date.

Cahn, Steven M., and Christine Vitrano, editors. Happiness: Classic and

Contemporary Readings in Philosophy. Oxford UP, 2007. 

 

An online book published after 1900:

Lastname, First M.  Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Publisher, Date. URL.

McMahon, Darrin M. Happiness: A History. Grove Press, 2006. 

https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0802142893.

 

An online book published before 1900 (requires listing the publication location):

Lastname, First M.  Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Location, Publisher, Date. URL.

Wainewright, William. On the Elements of Human Happiness. London, William

Skeffington, 1857. books.google.com/books?id=51cCAAAAQAAJ.

 

Web Sites & Pages

Web site with one author and publication date:

Author, Firstname M. Title of Site. Publication date, URL.

Veenhoven, Ruut. World Database of Happiness. 1984-2014, worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/. 

 

Web site with a corporate or organizational author and publication date:

Title of Site. Sponsor of Site, publication date. URL. 

Well-Being Concepts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

31 May 2016. www.cdc.gov/hrqol/wellbeing.htm.

 

Web site with a corporate author but no publication date:

Title of Site. Sponsor of Site. URL. Accessed date.

Why Happiness. Action for Happiness. www.actionforhappiness.org/why-happiness.

Accessed 26 Aug. 2016.

 

Web page with a corporate author but no publication date:

"Title of page." Title of Site. Corporation Name. URL. Accessed date.

"Happiness" Employee Health & Fitness Program. City of Eugene, City

Manager's Office. www.eugene-or.gov/2535/Happiness. Accessed 6 Jan. 2017.

 

Images

Image from an online source with a creator listed:

Creator, First M. Title of Image or Description of Image. Date created, URL.  

Gelman, Andrew. Average Happiness as a Function of Age, from General

Social Survey. 26 Dec. 2010, andrewgelman.com/2010/12/26/age_and_happine/.

 

Image from an online source with a title, but no creator listed:

Title of Image or Description of Image. Date created, URL.

Smiling Woman at Desk. 13 Aug. 2013, www.bbc.com/news/business-23640900.

 

Image from a print source with a creator listed:

Creator, First M. Title of image or Description of Image. Date created,  [Continue the remainder of the citation

with title of book or article as appropriate].