Citing Sources

Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (also known as Purdue OWL) is the best and most current source on the internet. It contains quick and easy-to-follow guides for all popular citation styles. Below are helpful links for MLA style:

• Set all margins to 1 inch.
• Font should be 12 pt. and double-spaced.
• All paragraphs should be indented half an inch.
• Name, instructor, course, and date in upper-left corner of first page, in that order.
• Create a running header with your last name and page number.
• The last page should be a Works Cited page listing all sources of information cited in MLA style.

When deciding how to cite your source, start by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order:

1. Author
2. Title of source
3. Title of container
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date
9. Location

Each element should be followed by the punctuation mark shown here.  --from Purdue OWL

Whenever you include information from your source in the body of your paper, you must include an in-text citation in the same sentence. This gives credit to the original source and helps readers link the passage, excerpt, quotation, or paraphrased information that you are sharing in the body of your paper to the full citation on your Works Cited page at the end of your paper.

With author in sentence

Naomi Wolf argues that women's magazines have instilled a message that women have to look a certain way to experience happiness and excitement (61).

Without author in sentence

"A girl learns that stories happen to 'beautiful' women, whether they are interesting or not" (Wolf 61).

In-text citations for print source with no known author

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climatic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change..." ("Impact of Global Warming" 6).

Tip: When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number.

Book with 1 Author

Format: Author Name (Last Name, First Name). Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.

Example: Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Doubleday, 1991.

Book with 2 Authors

Format: Author Name (first author appears Last Name, First Name; second author appears First Name Last Name). Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.

Example: Beecher, Willard, and Marguerite Beecher. Beyond Success and Failure. Julian Press, 1966. 

Book, No Author

Format: Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
Example: The Book of Common Prayer. Seabury Press, 1979.

Journal Article, 3 authors

Format: Author Name (first author appears Last Name, First Name: second and third appear First Name, Last Name). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, volume #, issue #, publication date, page range.

Example: Green, Cheryl, Walter Knysz, III, and Ming T. Tsuang. "A Homeless Person With Bipolar Disorder and a History of Serious Self-Mutilation." American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 157, no.1, 2000, pp 1392-1397.

Article Accessed From Electronic Database (more than 3 authors)

Format: Author Name (first author appears Last Name, First Name - followed by et al.) "Title of Article." Title of Journal, volume #, issue #, page range, URL. Date Accessed.

Example: Coulton, Keith, et al. "Eleni's Creepy Cookies."  People Magazine, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 6-10, web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=9995b4bb-b145-4cc7-86bb-dc238fe58a3c%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4209&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3
QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=117003555&db=a9h. Accessed 12 August. 2016.

Webpage

Format: Name of Site. Name of Institution/organization affiliated with the site, date of resource creation (if available), URL, Date of Access (if applicable).

Example: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl. Accessed 23 Apr. 2008.