When You Get to Class: Reviewing MLA Style Citation

While your textbook is very helpful in explaining MLA style, it was written before the latest edition of the MLA style guide came out. If you bought the textbook, it came with a small laminated pamphlet explaining these changes, but if you borrowed the book from the library or photocopied the chapter from elsewhere, you might not have gotten this information. However, both the LaGuardia library website and the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) website contain most of the information you will need for your papers.

Today we are going to review MLA Style citation for different kinds of books. You may want to copy this information into your notes, but it's more important that you read it over and try to understand the different versions of citation. We will be practicing writing these entries later in class.

Book with One Author

Fiedler, Leslie. Freaks: Myths and Images of the Secret Self. New York: Simon, 1978. Print.

Author (last, first.)

Title (in italics, include subtitles after colons, period at the end)
City of Publication (followed by colon)
Publisher (followed by comma, abbreviated)
Date of Publication (followed by period)
Medium of Publication (“Print.” for book, “Web.” for online book (slightly different format), CD, Film, DVD, Performance, etc.)

Any line after the first line is double-spaced and indented one-half inch or five spaces. This is called a “hanging indent.”

Book with Two or Three Authors or Editors

Doane, Janie, and Devon Hodges. Nostalgia and Sexual Difference: The Resistance to Contemporary Feminism. New York: Methuen, 1987. Print.

Notice that any authors’ names after the first author are written with the first name before the last name.

Two or More Books by the Same Author(s)

Lamott, Anne. All New People. New York: Doubleday, 1991. Print.

---. Bird by Bird: Some Instruction on Writing and Life. New York: Doubleday, 1994. Print.

Give the author’s name for the first entry only. After that, type three hyphens in place of the name, followed by a period and one space and then the next title. The three hyphens always stand for exactly the same name as in the preceding entry. The titles of the author’s works should be listed alphabetically.

Book with Translator

Marquez, Gabriel García. Love in the Time of Cholera. Trans. Edith Grossman. New York: Penguin, 1988. Print.

If a book has been translated, after the title of the book, include the abbreviation “Trans.” and the translator’s name (written regularly), followed by a period. The rest of the entry is written in the same way as we learned for a regular book with one author.

Selection from an Anthology or Collection

Mabry, Marcus. “Living in Two Worlds.” Between Worlds: A Reader, Rhetoric, and Handbook. Ed. Susan Bachmann and Melinda Barth. 6th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 109-111. Print.

Give the author and title of the selection, using quotation marks around the title. Then give the title of the anthology, in italics. If the anthology has an editor, note the name or names after the “Ed.” Give the page numbers for the entire selection as shown.