1

MLA Quick Reference Guide, Eighth Edition

Creation: Spring 2017

Document Summary: Provides a brief overview of MLA guidelines and changes to the eighth

edition of the MLA Handbook. This document is not intended to be a complete reference, but it

does provide guidelines for the most common elements used by students when writing research

Section III: In-text Citations

Section IV: Tips and Strategies for Writing in MLA Format

Section V: Examples and Templates

Section I: Elements and Definitions

Citing sources is essential to academic respectability and integrity. In order to ensure that sources

are being cited correctly, certain elements must be provided in the Works Cited page. Some

elements are essential, such as author and title of the source, while others are optional, such as

date of access. Whether an element is essential or optional depends upon the element’s relevance

to your source and to your paper. The elements and their definitions follow below:

2

**If your instructors guidelines differ from the ones outlined here, follow your instructor’s

requirements.**

Author: The main creator of an item. This can be a writer, a director, an editor, a translator, etc.

Title of Source: The title of a book, article, TV show episode, movie, etc. For something like a

tweet, the entire text is considered the title.

Title of Container: The item that contains the source. An article is contained by a website or

journal, a chapter is contained by a book, an episode is contained by a show, a tweet is contained

by Twitter, and so on.

Other Contributors (if any): Anyone besides the author who played a very important part in the

journal is split into volumes, those volumes are split into issues.

Publisher: The publisher of a source. This can be a book publisher or a production company (for

shows and movies).

Publication Date: The date the source cited was published or an episode was first aired.

Location: The location of the source within the container. For example, a journal article might

start on page 7 and end on page 14 within a journal. This can also be the URL of a website or

streaming movie or episode.

Date of Original Publication (optional): If a source has been republished or updated, you can

provide the date of original publication.

City of Publication (optional): Helpful for much older works, but not necessary for the eighth

3

Section II: Works Cited Page

This guide attempts to provide a list of the varied kinds of sources you may for a writing project.

However, this list is not exhaustive. Before the examples, this guide provides the general format

for each kind of source. You should note that not all sources will have all elements as listed on

page 2. You should do your best to locate these elements and then write the works cited entry

with the available elements.

*Entries should be alphabetized.

*All entries in the Works Cited page should have a hanging indent if they are longer than one

Books and Reports

Weir, Andy. The Martian. Broadway Books, 2014.

Two Authors

Garcia, Kami, and Margaret Stohl. Beautiful Creatures. Little, Brown Books, 2009.

Three or More Authors

Burdick, Anne, et al. Digital_Humanities. MIT P, 2012.

Corporate Author

United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and

Organization as Author and Publisher

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. National Endowment for the Arts,

4

More Than One Editor

Journal Articles

General Format: Author(s). “Title of Source.” Title of Container. Version, Number, Publication

Date, Location.

Baron, Naomi S. “Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media.” PMLA,

Kincaid, Jamaica. “In History.” Callaloo, vol. 24, no. 2, Spring 2001, pp. 620-26.

Web Articles

General Format: Author(s). “Title of Source.” Title of Container, Date of Publication, URL.

Guillaume, Jenna. “This ‘Game Of Thrones’ Theory About Daenerys Is Mind Blowing.”

Blanchard, Olivia. “I Quit Teach for America.” The Atlantic, 23 Sept. 2013,

Senthilingam, Meera. “Does this doctor hold the secret to ending malaria?” CNN, 2 June 2016,

@Hozay__. “Sir? Excuse me, sir? Sir? Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior,

@kimkardashian. “Wore my new Yeezy Season 2 heels with an orange Pablo shirt yesterday in

5

CollegeHumor. “If Google Was A Guy.” YouTube, 21 Jan. 2014,

“iPad Pro to Replace iPad mini?” YouTube. Uploaded by David Di Franco, 7 Nov. 2014,

“The Runway Club.” Bob’s Burgers, season 5, episode 16, Fox, 22 March 2015. Netflix,

Movies and TV Shows (non-streaming)

Author(s). Title of Source. Publisher, Year of Publication.

“Black.” Supernatural, directed by Robert Singer, performances by Jensen Ackles and Jared

information in the Works Cited page. Generally, you’ll use the author’s last name and the page

number (if the source cited has page numbers). For the eighth edition, abbreviations such as pg.

or p. are not needed.

Periods should always follow the parenthetical citation. They should NEVER go within the

quotation. Only exclamation points (!) and question marks (?) should be included in the quote.

Additionally, periods should always follow a parenthetical citation at the end of a sentence. The

citation NEVER goes after a period.

Note: Some of the examples below feature direct quotes. In examples where quotes are not

present, the source has been paraphrased or otherwise summarized. In these latter cases,

quotations are not required, but the in-text citation is still mandated.

Single Authors (Books, Articles, and Reports)

6

Two Authors

Three or More Authors

The authors begins with a provocative statement: “Mexican Americans were treated as second

class citizens” (Martinez et al. 1).

OR

Martinez et al. begin by claiming that Mexican Americans once held second class status (1).

Authors with Same Last Name

In order to differentiate authors with the same last name, you’ll have to include the specific work

for each author in the in-text citation.

Reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (Baron, “Redefining” 194).

In this case, you’ll want to include a shortened version of the source’s title.

7

In an Instagram post, Kim Kardashian West recognizes Gun Violence Awareness Day by

wearing an orange outfit (“Wore”). However, many people may not see a dress worn on a single

8

Section V: Examples and Templates

9

Works Cited