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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:
Here are some of the changes in the latest version of MLA Style:
No requirement to state whether your source was in Print or from the Web. Any time you use an online resource, however, make sure you include the web address (URL) at the end of your citation.
No requirement to list the date you accessed an online source, but if an item is undated, you need to include it.
Publisher location is no longer needed if a book is published after 1900. If you're citing a book published before 1900, you do need the location information.
Protocol (http://) is not included as part of the URL.
Use a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) instead of the URL if available.
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].
The information on this page was borrowed from URI LibGuides.
