Citation Support
Create Citations
- Creating Citations- MLA or APA
- Elements of a Citation in MLA and APA Format
- MLA Citation Examples
- Works Cited List- Guide Principles
- Works Cited Page Format
Creating Citations- MLA or APA
Elements of a Citation in MLA and APA Format
MLA Citation Examples
MLA Citation Examples
These are examples of some of the more common citations, but your citation might vary depending on the information available about your resource. When creating your citation use the list of elements 1-9 below.
| Book |
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Bantam Books, 1986. |
| eBook |
Manning, Harriet J. Ashgate. Popular and Folk Music Series: Michael Jackson and the |
| Newspaper, print |
Perez, Rob. "City Pushes to Keep Its Elevated-Rail Plan." Honolulu Advertiser,18 Jan. |
| Newspaper, online |
Knopper, Steve. “How Hip-Hop Lost its Group Dynamic.” Wall Street Journal - Eastern |
| Magazine, print | Hitchens, Christopher. "Bring the Pope to Justice." Newsweek, vol. 155, no. 18, 3 May 2010, pp.42-43. |
| Magazine, online |
Samuels, Allison, et al. “Battle for the Soul of Hip-Hop.” Newsweek, vol. 136, no. 15, 9 Oct. |
| Journal Article, print |
Molina, Natalia. "In A Race All Their Own: The Quest to Make Mexicans Ineligible for U.S. |
| Journal Article, online |
Boyer, Holly, and Aimee Graham. “Hip Hop in the United States.” Reference & User |
| Video, online |
Rhyme Pays: Hip-Hop and the Marketing of Cool. Films Media Group, 2004. Films On |
| Image, online |
Micelotta, Frank, photographer. VH1 Hip Hop Honors - Show. Getty Images, 3 Oct. 2004. |
| Website |
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), et al. “CDC: Zika Virus.” Centers for |
| Note about URLs: |
|
Works Cited List- Guide Principles
Works Cited List - Guide Principles
Directions for how to cite using MLA style has changed from the 7th edition to the 8th edition. Please use this new set of guidelines to create your MLA Works Cited list. Refer to the MLA Handbook in the library or the MLA website help page for a detailed explanation.
The new style states that the following elements should be used in the below order for creating a citation for all types of sources. If one of the elements is not available, then move to the next one on the list. For some citations 3-9 will repeat. For example, if you found a journal article in an article database, such as Academic Search Complete. The journal is the first container (steps 3-9) and the database is the second container (repeat steps 3-9). Please refer to the MLA Quick Guide and the MLA 8th Practice Template for further explanation.
Image from:
"Works Cited: A Quick Guide." The MLA Style Center: Writing Resources from the Modern Language
Association. Modern Language Association (MLA), 2016, https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/.
Works Cited Page Format
In-Text Citation
- Citation Basics
- Short Quotations
- Long Quotations
- Quotations from Sources Without Pages
- Summary or Paraphrase
Citation Basics
MLA IN-TEXT CITATION
A basic MLA in-text citation includes the author's last name and specific page number your information came from. Parenthetical citations come before the final period of a sentence, but after any quotations marks used to indicate a direct quote.
(Lastname #) e.g. (Smith 14)
1 Author
You only need the author's last name and the page number.
(Burke 3)
2 Authors
Connect both authors' last names with and, and include the page number.
(Best and Marcus 9)
3 or More Authors
Use the first author's last name and et al., and include the page number.
(Franck et al. 327)
No Authors
Use a shortened title of the work.
("Impact of Global Warming")
APA IN-TEXT CITATION from the OWL AT PURDUE
Note: On pages 117-118, the Publication Manual suggests that authors of research papers should use the past tense or present perfect tense for signal phrases that occur in the literature review and procedure descriptions (for example, Jones (1998) found or Jones (1998) has found...). Contexts other than traditionally-structured research writing may permit the simple present tense (for example, Jones (1998) finds).
APA Citation Basics
When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998). One complete reference for each source should appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
If you are referring to an idea from another work but NOT directly quoting the material, or making reference to an entire book, article or other work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication and not the page number in your in-text reference.
On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201). This information is reiterated below.
Regardless of how they are referenced, all sources that are cited in the text must appear in the reference list at the end of the paper.
In-text citation capitalization, quotes, and italics/underlining
- Always capitalize proper nouns, including author names and initials: D. Jones.
- If you refer to the title of a source within your paper, capitalize all words that are four letters long or greater within the title of a source: Permanence and Change. Exceptions apply to short words that are verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs: Writing New Media, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
(Note: in your References list, only the first word of a title will be capitalized: Writing new media.)
- When capitalizing titles, capitalize both words in a hyphenated compound word: Natural-Born Cyborgs.
- Capitalize the first word after a dash or colon: "Defining Film Rhetoric: The Case of Hitchcock's Vertigo."
- If the title of the work is italicized in your reference list, italicize it and use title case capitalization in the text: The Closing of the American Mind; The Wizard of Oz; Friends.
- If the title of the work is not italicized in your reference list, use double quotation marks and title case capitalization (even though the reference list uses sentence case): "Multimedia Narration: Constructing Possible Worlds;" "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry."
Short Quotations
If you are directly quoting from a work, you will need to include the author, year of publication, and page number for the reference (preceded by "p." for a single page and “pp.” for a span of multiple pages, with the page numbers separated by an en dash).
You can introduce the quotation with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the date of publication in parentheses.
According to Jones (1998), "students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199).
Jones (1998) found "students often had difficulty using APA style" (p. 199); what implications does this have for teachers?
If you do not include the author’s name in the text of the sentence, place the author's last name, the year of publication, and the page number in parentheses after the quotation.
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.
Long Quotations
Place direct quotations that are 40 words or longer in a free-standing block of typewritten lines and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph. Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing throughout, but do not add an extra blank line before or after it. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
Because block quotation formatting is difficult for us to replicate in the OWL's content management system, we have simply provided a screenshot of a generic example below.
Formatting example for block quotations in APA 7 style.
Quotations from Sources Without Pages
Direct quotations from sources that do not contain pages should not reference a page number. Instead, you may reference another logical identifying element: a paragraph, a chapter number, a section number, a table number, or something else. Older works (like religious texts) can also incorporate special location identifiers like verse numbers. In short: pick a substitute for page numbers that makes sense for your source.
Jones (1998) found a variety of causes for student dissatisfaction with prevailing citation practices (paras. 4–5).
A meta-analysis of available literature (Jones, 1998) revealed inconsistency across large-scale studies of student learning (Table 3).
Summary or Paraphrase
If you are paraphrasing an idea from another work, you only have to make reference to the author and year of publication in your in-text reference and may omit the page numbers. APA guidelines, however, do encourage including a page range for a summary or paraphrase when it will help the reader find the information in a longer work.
According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.
APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).
Annotated Works Cited
Overview
ANNOTATED WORKS CITED
An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited.
THE PROCESS
Write a concise paragraph that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or article. Include one or more sentences that (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, (b) comment on the intended audience, (c) compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your topic. Do NOT summarize the book or article, explain why you chose this article over many others to use in your research.
CHOOSING THE CORRECT FORMAT FOR THE CITATIONS
At NHS we use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style. Her is a link from the MLA Guide at the OWL at Purdue.
Please keep in mind that all your text, including the write-up beneath the citation, must be indented so that the author's last name is the only text that is flush left.
Sample MLA Annotation
SAMPLE MLA ANNOTATION
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.
Lamott's book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in Lamott's book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one's own internal critic. Rather than a practical handbook to producing and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth humor, and its encouraging approach.
For information on formatting MLA citations, see our MLA 9th Edition (2021) Formatting and Style Guide.
Hanging Indents
How to Create a Hanging Indent
Watch this Youtube Video that explains how to create a hanging indent!