Style Guide for Bibliographies and Citations

The Modern Language Association (MLA) provides a method for source documentation that is used in most humanities courses. MLA format places emphasis on authorship, thus, citations involve recording the authors name in in-text citations, and at the beginning of the entry on the “Works Cited” Page.

Based on the MLA Style Manual

This guide lists the most commonly used citations from the MLA Style Manual. These are just the basics. For more information you should refer to an online handbook.

  • Books: Author. “Chapter”. Title of Book. Edition. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.
  • Journal or Magazine Article (In Print): Author. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine.Date: Page(s).
  • Article (Online Databases): Author. “Title” Journal Title. Volume/Issue Number. (Date): Page(s) Name of Database. Location Date of Access.
  • Website: Author. “Title of Web Page.” Title of the Site. Editor. Date and/or Version Number. Name of Sponsoring Institution. Date of Access. <URL>
  • Newspaper Article: Author. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper. Date, Edition: Page(s)

Type of Entry / Full Citation / In-Text
Book – 1 Author / Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation. New York: Knopf, 1993. Print / Brinkley, 89.
Book – 2+ Authors / Randall, John E., Gerald R. Allen, and Roger C. Steene. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997. Print. / Randall, et. al., 153.
Anonymous Works / The Men’s League Handbook on Women’s Suffrage. London. 1912. / Men’s League Handbook, 23
Edited Book / Dong, Madeleine Yue and Joshua L. Goldstein, eds. Everyday Modernity in China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006. / Dong and Goldstein, 87.
Chapter from Book / Thomas, Lynn M. “Schoolgirl Pregnancies, Letter-Writing, and ‘Modern’ Persons in Late Colonial East Africa.” In Africa's Hidden Histories:Everyday Literacy and Making the Self. Editor Karin Barber. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. 180-207. / Thomas, 185.
Government Document / Hawaii. Office of the Auditor. Follow-up Audit of the Child Protective Services System. Honolulu: State of Hawaii, 2003. / Hawaii, 2003.
Journal Article / Bailkin, Jordanna. “Making Faces: Tattooed Women and Colonial Regimes.” History Workshop Journal, no. 59 (2005): 33-56. / Bailkin, 42-43.
EJournal Article / Thomas, Calvin. “Last Laughs: Batman, Masculinity, and the Technology of Abjection.” Men and Masculinities. 2.1 (1999): 26-46. Sociology: A SAGE Full-Text Collection. California State University, Los Angeles, Kennedy Library. 5 Nov. 2008 < / Thomas, “Last Laughs”, 38.
Newspaper Article / Honey, Michael. “Soldier's Duty: Say No to Illegal War.” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jun. 16, 2006. B4. / Honey, 2006.

Website / “Filipino Cannery Unionism Across Three Generations 1930s-1980s.” Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project. Aug 2007. / “Filipino Cannery”
Online Database / Choi, Mihwa. “ContestingImaginariesin Death Rituals during the Northern Song Dynasty.” PhD diss., University of Chicago, 2008. ProQuest (AAT 3300426) 5 Dec 2012. / Choi, “Contesting Imaginaries”
Personal Communications / Rich, Colonel William. Telephone conversation with the author, 12 October 1989. / Rich, 1989.

The Works-Cited Page

The list of all sources you references in your paper should appear on a new page at the end of your paper. This is called the “Works Cited” page, and should be titled as such. When formatting your works cited page, remember the following:

  • Use a hanging indent: the first line is left justified while every other line after is indented.
  • Be consistent and use the same font size and style as the rest of the work.
  • Continue page numbering from the body of your paper (if applicable)
  • Follow all direction about formatting proper MLA citations, and annotations (when required).

Formatting In-Text Citations

The Modern Language Association (MLA)requires either parenthetical or notes-style citations (footnotes are generally used for history papers). These are used to identify where exactly you used each of the sources. You should cite direct quotes, summaries, and paraphrased information.

Format for Parenthetical Citations / Format for Endnotes
  • Always at the end of the sentence;after the last word of the sentence, but before the period.
  • Information you provide in-text must correspond to the information on the Works Cited Page. Whatever signal word or phrase you use in-text, should be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry in the Works Cited List. This may be the authors name, article name, etc.
  • No paragraph or page numbers for Web sources
  • Never include website URLs in parenthetical citations, unless it is the name of the cite, such as Forbes.com
/
  • Use superscript consecutive numbering to indicate footnotes at the bottom of the page. Place footnote superscript numbers after the period in sentences. Footnotes same appear at the bottom of the same page where the information being cited occurs.
  • Word processors can automatically insert a superscript number in-text and a corresponding number at the bottom of the same page.
  • Footnotesmust be in numerical order throughout the document;
  • You may single space your footnotes
  • Thefirst timeyou cite a sourcein a footnote you should include the full citation
  • Any subsequent notes include the abbreviate information (such as author and page number)

Examples:
… noting that the Founding Fathers’ republican ideas were deeply rooted in their education (Ellis, 89).
… Mr. Holmes is known to have said, “general propositions do not decide concrete cases” (Lochner v. New York).
… Overall, the attitude toward Federalism is mixed among prominent historians in the field (Early American Essays). / Example:
In The West in the Early Middle Ages, 300-1050, Thomas Renna states that as a bishop, Augustine campaigned strongly against Donatists who rivaled Catholics; eventually Augustine urged state power to bring Donatists back to Catholicism.1 Renna explains that “if the Donatists had won, the church would have retreated into itself and returned to the pre-Constantine church and remained an ‘insignificant subculture.’”2…

1 Thomas Renna, The West in the Early Middle Ages, 300-1050 (Washington: University Press of America, 1977), 32-34.
2 Renna, 33.