MLA Handbook 8th edition Quick Reference

# / Element / Details
1 / Author. / a)For 3 or more authors, after first author use: et al.
b)Editor may be used; add: editor.
c)Translator should be used when the focus is on the translation. Add: , translatorand put author’s name under other contributors with: by.
d)For creative works, use focus, e.g. actor’s name or show creator with , performer or , creator.
e)Pseudonyms such as online handles or screennames may be used, but skip if the author is also the publisher; just put the pseudonym in publisher.
2 / Title of Source. / a)Standard capitalization and punctuation.
b)Parts (e.g. chapter names, articles in journals) go in “ ” while Wholes (e.g. books, journals) go in italics.
c)When a source is untitled provide a concise description that is neither in “ ” or italicized.
3 / Title of Container, / a)Standard capitalization and punctuation.
b)Books, periodicals, and websites go here.
4 / Other contributors, / a)Translators and editors go here. Use edited by, translated by, etc. before the name.
5 / Version, / a)Editions go here. Use ed. (e.g. 7th ed. or 12th ed.)
b)For media, this is where you put things such as director’s cut.
6 / Number, / a)Use abbreviations such as vol., no. (e.g. vol. 3, no. 7).
b)Season of episode numbers also go in this space.
7 / Publisher, / a)For university presses, use UP.
b)For other publishers, write out Press.
c)If multiple, put all divided by /.
d)Omit for periodicals and websites whose titleis the same as the publisher.
8 / Publication Date, / a)Day Month Yearformat; abbreviate months except May, June, and July(e.g. 10 Sept. 2016)
b)For online publications, cite the most meaningful one, e.g. if the article has been reprinted, use the reprint date—not the original date.
c)If no date is available for an online publication, use the access date (e.g. Accessed 10 July 2016).
d)Use the historical date if the context is important, e.g. the original air date for a TV episode.
e)May use a range of dates for a website developed over time, e.g. 1994-2014.
f)Always use the date from the source itself, not a library catalog, Google Books, or Amazon.
9 / Location. / a)For page numbers use p. for single page orpp. (e.g. p. 5or pp. 5-10).
b)Use DOI for electronic sources, when available.
c)For URLs, omit but include the entire URL(e.g. libguides.valenciacollege.edu/mla8). Use permanent URLs for databases when possible.

MLA 8 removed:

a)Place of publication

b)Publication medium (e.g. Print, Web, etc.)

c)Date of access (except when there is no other date)

Think about MLA Citations like a Fill-in-the-Blank question. Use the information you have; omit the information you do not have and/or is not relevant to your source.

Here’s a blank citation:

Author. / Title of Source. / Title of Container,
Other contributors, / Version, / Number,
Publisher, / Publication Date, / Location.

I did not come up with this handout myself. I made some changes and added some things, but it’s not entirely my own work. I need to cite my source. To create a citation for the information on this handout, I’m going to start filling in the blanks with the information I have:

“Core Elements Overview.” / MLA 8th Edition Citation Guide,
Valencia College Library, / 30 June 2016, / libguides.valenciacollege.edu/mla8.

Notice that I don’t have certain information. That’s okay! I filled in what I could. Here is what my citation will look like this:

“Core Elements Overview.” MLA 8th Edition Citation Guide, Valencia College Library, 30 June 2016, libguides.valenciacollege.edu/mla8.

Here’s another example for a citation of a book I read this summer:

Fleming, Robin. / Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070.
Penguin Press, / 2010.

Here is what my finished citation will look like:

Fleming, Robin. Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070. Penguin Press, 2010.

Or, what about just a chapter from that book? Spot the changes:

Fleming, Robin. / “New Towns: The Ninth to Eleventh Century.” / Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070,
Penguin Press, / 2010, / pp. 241-268.

Here is what my finished citation will look like:

Fleming, Robin. “New Towns: The Ninth to Eleventh Century.” Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070, Penguin Press, 2010, pp. 241-268.

~More Examples and Tips~

Works Cited Entries

  1. Book with One Author

Jarrell, Adam. The History of the English Language. Oxford UP, 2012.

  1. Book with Two Authors

Davis, Mark, and Eloise Null. The Crown and the Throne. Harper Publishers, 2000.

  1. Source with Three or More Authors

Branden, Anna, et al. Digital Media. MIT P, 2013.

  1. Book with an Editor

Nunnery, Geoffrey, editor. The Future of Politics. U of Virginia P, 1999.

  1. Book with Two Editors

Holland, Matthew, and Ronald Patricks, editors. The Complete Short Stories of William Faulkner.

Harcourt, 1991.

  1. Short Story or Poem from Anthology with Editors (using only one primary source)

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, edited by

Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, Wadsworth-Cengage, 2013, pp. 405-15.

  1. Play, Epic Poem, or Novel from Anthology with Editors (using only one primary source)

Wilson, August. Fences. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing, edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen

R. Mandell, Wadsworth-Cengage, 2013, pp. 405-15.

  1. Source from an Anthology Volume (using only one primary source)

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. The Longman Anthology of World Literature, edited by David

Damrosch and David L. Pike, 2nd ed., vol. E, Pearson, 2009.

  1. If you are documenting two or more works by the same author from one source, such as a textbook, use three hyphens in place of the author’s name for the second listing.

Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” Kirszner and Mandell, pp. 273-277.

---. “The Story of an Hour.” Kirszner and Mandell, pp. 201-203.

  1. If you are using two or more sources from one book, such as an anthology, cite the book and use a shortened version for the individual sources.

Chopin, Kate. “The Storm.” Kirszner and Mandell, pp. 273-277.

Faulkner, William. “Barn Burning.” Kirszner and Mandell, pp. 335-347.

If the source is from a volume of an anthology and you are using more than one volume:

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Damrosch and Pike, vol. E, pp. 120-342.

  1. EBSCO article

Folks, Jeffrey. “Crowd and Self in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.” Southern LiteraryJournal, vol. 34,

no. 2, 2002, pp. 301-306. EBSCO, Access No: 6970238.

  1. E-book

Young, Kevin, and Kevin B. Wamsley. Global Olympics: Historical and Sociological Studies of the Modern Games. Emerald Group Publishing, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Access no: 166397.

In-Text Citations

  1. One author and page number

According to Naomi Byrd, reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (194).

Reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (Byrd 194).

  1. If no author is given, then use a shortened version of the title in place of the author.

A group of researchers discovered that reading is exercise for the mind and is just as important as physical exercise for the body (“Redefining Reading” 201).

  1. If using more than one source from the same author

Reading is “just half of literacy. The other half is writing” (Byrd, “Reading and Writing” 194).

  1. If paragraphs instead of page numbers must be used (use pars. for plural)

There is more than enough evidence to show that “Nixon was not a bad president, but he did have bad luck in getting caught” (Chase, par. 38).

  1. For poems, use / between lines and // between stanzas and use line numbers instead of page numbers.

The poem illustrates the complexities of life in the following lines: “Does the road wind uphill all the way? / Yes, to the very end” (Rosetti 1-2).

  1. When citing plays and epic poems, use the act, scene, line numbers or the section or book number and lines

Hamlet’s existential angst is expressed in his famous soliloquy: “To be, or not to be: that is the question” (Shakespeare 3.1.56).

Milton’s epic poem, Paradise Lost, opens with the line, “Of man’s first disobedience and the fruit” (1.1).

  1. Use an ellipsis (…) to indicate when you have omitted information from the middle or end of a quote.

The narrator implies that the results of the magical water are not real in his comment that the "improvement... was not unlike what might have been proceeded by a glass of generous wine" (James 948).

  1. When omitting an entire line or more in the middle of a poetry quotation, use a series of spaced periods that is approximately the same length of the line.

Anne Bradstreet’s “The Author to Her Book” appeals to mothers who are writers in the following lines:

I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,

And rubbing of a spot still made a flaw.

…………………………………………..

If for the father asked, say thou hadst none. (13-14, 22).

  1. Indirect Source

Thomas Jefferson wrote that Benjamin Franklin was an “extraordinary man” (qtd. in Bickerworth 412).

  1. Repeated Use of a Source

If two quotes are closely used with no other source between them:

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: “the world of the everyday…and the world of romance.” Although the two lovers are part of the world of romance, their language of love nevertheless becomes “fully responsive to the tang of actuality” (Zander 140, 152).

If you choose to break the first quote into two parts and then add the third part:

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: “the world of the everyday,” associated with the adults in the play, and “the world of romance, ” associated with the lovers (Zander 140). The language of love nevertheless becomes “fully responsive to the tang of actuality” (152).

If you choose to identify the source within the attributive tag:

According to Robert Zander in his article, Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: “The world of the everyday,” associated with the adults in the play, and “the world of romance,” associated with the lovers (140). The language of love nevertheless becomes “fully responsive to the tang of actuality” (152).