Cheat Sheet for Research Paper - MLA Citation Examples
Book with One Author
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. New York: Penguin Books, 1987.
Parenthetical Citation: (Gleick).
Book with More Than One Author
First author name is written last name first; subsequent author names are written first name, last name.
Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Boston: Allyn, 2000.
Parenthetical Citation: (Gillespie and Lerner).
**If there are FOUR or more authors in the works cited entry, your parenthetical will only mention the last name of the first author and et al.
Parenthetical Citation:(Johnson et al.)
A Work in an Anthology, Reference, or Collection
Book parts include an essay in an edited collection or anthology, or a chapter of a book.
Lastname, First name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Ed. Editor's Name(s). Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Pages.
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben
Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34.
Parenthetical Citation: (Harris).
Article from a database
Last Name, First Name of Author. “ArticleTitle.” Periodical Title Volume Number (Year): Page numbers. Name of Database. Name of the subscription service. Name of library where you accessed the article. Date you accessed the article. <web address>.
Singer, P.W. “Outsourcing War.” Foreign Affairs 84.2 (2005): 119-. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. U of
Missouri Lib., Columbia. 10 June 2005 <
Parenthetical Citation: (Singer).
Article from a magazine or newspaper
Last name, First Name of Author. “Article Title.” Magazine/ Newspaper Title Volume Number Date of Publication: Page numbers.
Webster, Jeffrey. “Job Searches Becoming Obsolete.” Time143 March 20, 2011: 23-39.
Parenthetical Citation:(Webster 24).
Article from a magazine or newspaper Without an author
“Article Title.” Magazine/ Newspaper Title Volume Number Date of Publication: Page numbers.
“Job Searches Becoming Obsolete.” Time. 143 April 14, 2011 23-39.
Parenthetical Citation:(“Job Searches Becoming Obsolete” 24). Condensed Title(“Job Searches” 24).
Article from a web magazine or newspaper
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Online Publication. Date of Publication. Date of Access <electronic address>.
Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing The Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. No. 149 (16
Aug. 2002). 4 May 2006 <
Parenthetical Citation: (Bernstein).
Article Without an Author from a web magazine or newspaper
“Title of Article.” Title of Online Publication. Date of Publication. Date of Publication. Date of Access <electronic address>.
“10 Tips on Writing The Living Web.” A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites. No. 149 (16 Aug. 2002). 4 May 2006 <
Parenthetical Citation:(“10 Tips on Writing”). **Condense the title of a long article with the FIRST major words of title only**
An Entire Web Site
Name of Site. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sometimes found in copyright statements). Date you accessed the site [electronic address].
It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available on one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Here are some examples:
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and PurdueUniversity. 23
April 2006 <
Parenthetical Citation:(Purdue OWL Family of Sites) or condensed version (Purdue OWL)
Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. 28 Nov. 2003. PurdueUniversity. 10 May 2006
<
Parenthetical Citation:(Felluga).
Video from website
Title of Video. Organization sponsoring video. Date created. Name of Website received. Date accessed, web address.
Behind the Screens. Challenging Media, 3 Oct. 2006. YouTube.com. 24 Oct. 2008 <
Parenthetical Citation:(Behind the Screens).
A Personal Interview
Person interviewed. Type of interview. Date of interview.
Purdue, Pete. Personal interview. 1 Dec. 2000.
Parenthetical Citation: (Purdue).
A Lecture or Speech
Speaker’s name,Title of the speech (if any) in quotes, details about the meeting or event where the speech was given, including its location and date of delivery. In lieu of a title, label the speech according to its type, e.g., Guest Lecture, Keynote Address, State of the Union Address.
Stein, Bob. “Keynote Address.” Computers and Writing Conference. Union Club Hotel, PurdueUniversity, West Lafayette, IN. 23 May 2003.
Parenthetical Citation:(Stein).
Quoting From Another Source—If your source is actually quoting or citing from an outside source, you will follow the following format:
Your Works Cited entry will remain the same; however, your parenthetical citation will be different.
You would abbreviate and lower case quoted in plus your source.
If your source is an author, you would only include the author’s last name as follows:
Parenthetical Citation: (qtd. in Stein)
If your source does not have an author, you will use qtd. in plus a condensed version of your article in quotation marks or italicized, depending how it is already documented.
Parenthetical Citation:(qtd. in “Keynote Address”).
ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR USING PARENTHETICAL CITATIONS
1. If you have an author’s last name, you will only put the last name and page number, if provided.Example: (Smith 21).
2. If you have an author and no page number, only the author’s last name/s is/are given. Example: (Smith).
Example:(Smith and Brown).
3. If you include the author or source (if no author) in the sentence, then only the page number is required.
Example:Johnson notes the theory of astral projection is an easily arguable concept and often misinterpreted (14).
4. If you include the author or source (if no author) in the sentence, and no page number is provided, then no in-text/ parenthetical citation is needed.
5. You will use an extended quote when you want to cite a direct quote that is more than 4 MLA double spaced typed lines and less than 10 lines. Use the following rules when creating an extended quote:
1. Provide a lead-in with a colon in the previous paragraph
2. After the colon, hit enter and 2 tabs to begin your extended quote
3. The entire quote is to be indented 2 tabs and to be double spaced
4. NO QUOTATION MARKS ARE USED
5. The period goes directly after quote and before citation this time.
6. Do not make a separate paragraph for an extended quote
Source: Konigsberg, Eric. “Living Together: Beloved Pets Everlasting?” Time December 31, 2008: 24-27.
Example:
Cloning pets has been a competitive science, arguing who was the first company to be successful:
Mr. Hawthorne claims Missy’s clones are the world’s first commercially cloned dogs, although RNL Bio, a Korean company with which he is embroiled in a legal dispute over patent rights — and the chance to dominate the dog-cloning market — has also made this claim. Between 2004 and 2006, another company Mr. Hawthorne ran cloned cats for a handful of paying customers. Dogs are among the most difficult mammals to clone, scientists say, because their reproductive systems are highly atypical, but Mr. Hawthorne thinks that the market is keen. (Konigsberg 26)
The argument does not explain ethical validity. Instead, the point establishes the importance of competition and being acknowledged as the first to effectively complete the daunting process of cloning a beloved pet.
6. If your source has italics in the Works Cited entry, then you must also italicize it inside your parentheses.
Parenthetical Citation:(Inside the World of Careers).
7. If your source has quotation marks surrounding the title in the Works Cited entry, then you must also put quotation marks around the title inside the parentheses.
Parenthetical Citation: (“Running Away From Responsibility”)
8. If you have more than works cited entry by the same author, you must include the author and the source in the parenthetical citation.
Parenthetical Citation:(Steinbeck, Of Mice and Men 112).
**Notice for this rule, you must place a comma between author and source but no punctuation between source and page number**