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MLA Format Issues

  1. All MLA citations should be double spaced.
  2. The first line should be flush with the left margin. All other lines should be indented.
  3. Use the author's full name as it appears on the title page, not an abbreviation. (This may differ from the database where you originally found the citation.)
  4. Capitalize every important word in the title. See p. 102-104 in the book.
  5. Underline titles of books; put article titles in quotation marks.
  6. If the book has a subtitle, put a colon between the main title and the subtitle. Subtitles do need to be included in the citation – go with what is on the title page of the book, not the spine.
  7. If the place of publication is a well-known city (New York, London, Chicago, Paris, etc.) you do not need to put the state or the country. If, however, it is a lesser-known city or if there are more than one major city by that name, you do need qualifying information. Birmingham, for example could mean Birmingham, Eng. or Birmingham, AL so you would need to indicate which one. See p. 150-152.
  8. If you use the electronic version of a book, journal, etc., you must cite the electronic version.
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Dictionary Entry or Encyclopedia Article

Full publication information is not necessary for well-known reference books like Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (just include ed. number and year). The definition entry or article title, with or without an author (depends on source), is contained within quotation marks. To cite an entire reference work, use the Books with an Editor or Books with an Author format as appropriate.

Matheson, Katy. "Improvisation." International Encyclopedia of Dance. Ed. Selma Jeanne Cohen. 6 vols. New York: Oxford UP, 1998.
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Books with an Editor

Worell, Judith, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and Gender. San Diego: Academic, 2001.
Tannen, Deborah, and Muriel Saville-Troike, eds. Perspectives on Silence. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1985.
Blanco, Richard L., ed. The American Revolution, 1775-1783: An Encyclopedia. 2 vols. Hamden, CT: Garland, 1993.

Note: Use (ed.) or (eds.) to indicate editor(s). For major reference works with a large editorial board, list the name of the lead editor, followed by et al. (see p. 167 for an example).

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Book (single author)

Streeby, Shelly. American Sensations: Class, Empire, and the Production of Popular Culture. Berkeley: U of California P, 2002.
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Book (multiple authors)

Lommard, Roy, and Robert Vitone. The American Films of Michael Curtiz. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1986.

Note: Use the order of authors listed on the title page (not necessarily alphabetical). For books with more than three authors, you may list the first author followed by et al. or you may list all authors.

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Scholarly Journal Article

Messinger, Penny. "Interdisciplinarity and Institutional Change." Journal of Women's History 15.1 (2003): 172-74.

Only the volume no. is needed (15, in the example) when the pages are numbered consecutively within a volume (there can be several issues). If the pages are numbered separately in each issue, you must include the issue number. Use the issue number alone if no vol. number is used.

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Magazine Article

Fonseca, Nicholas. "The Crass Menagerie: Risky Content of TV Shows." Entertainment Weekly 7 June 2002: 8-9.
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Newspaper Article

Wilgoren, Jodi. "College Education Seen as Essential." New York Times 4 May 2000, late ed.: A23.

Note: When no city name is in the title, add it in brackets; for example: Globe and Mail [Toronto]

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Government Publication

United States. Dept. of Labor. Employer Centers and Childcare Liability Insurance. Washington: GPO, 1989.

Note: For more examples of government publications, see pages 174-176.

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Film, Videocassette or DVD Recording

The Wizard of Oz. Dir. Victor Fleming. Perf. Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton. 1939. DVD. MGM, 1998.
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Online Book (E-Book)

Lively, Lynn. Managing Information Overload. New York: ANACOM, 1996. NetLibrary. 19 Aug. 2006 <http:// www.netlibrary.com/ebook_info.asp?product_id=2005>.

Note: The date preceding the URL is the date you last accessed the book.

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Online Government Publication

United States. Dept. of Justice. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Effectiveness of School-Based Violence Prevention Programs for Reducing Disruptive and Aggressive Behavior. By Sandra Jo Wilson and Mark W. Lipsey. May 2005. 26 Nov. 2006 <http:// www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/211376.pdf>.

Note: The date preceding the URL is the date you last accessed the document. The date after the authors is when the document was published.

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Article from a Library Subscription Service or Database

The URL of the database's search page is sufficient. If only the first page is given for an article, and the total number of pages can not be determined via a PDF of the article, one has the option of giving the first page number, adding a hyphen, a space, and a period: "145- ."

Pearson, Marcia Claire. "The Glow of Beauty." Nutrition Health Review 63 (1992): 18- . Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Wake Forest U, Z. Smith Reynolds Lib., Winston-Salem, NC. 19 Aug. 2003 <http://search.epnet.com>.
Schork, Richard James. "James Joyce and the Eastern Orthodox Church." Journal of Modern Greek Studies 17 (1999): 107-24. Project Muse. 19 Aug. 2003 <http:// muse.jhu.edu>.

Note: In the second example above, notice that the subscribing institution, in this case WFU, is not mentioned. MLA distinguishes between subscription services like EBSCO and ProQuest, etc. and archival databases of journals such as Project Muse and JSTOR. For these archival databases (Project Muse and JSTOR), one has the option of including or not including the subscribing library's name.

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Electronic Periodical Document

From an online journal, magazine, newspaper, or encyclopedia

(Encyclopaedia Brittanica Online and many other online reference works and databases provide examples on how to cite articles on their websites.)

"Accounting." Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 2003. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 18 Aug. 2003 <http:// search.eb.com/>.
Murphy, Cullen. "Out of the Ordinary: 'Mundane Studies' Comes of Age." Atlantic Online Oct. 2001. 19 Aug. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/10/murphy.htm>.
Bergman, Peter. "Media Storm is Coming." Old Gold and Black Online 20 Oct. 2004. 22 Oct. 2004 <http://ogb.wfu.edu/ ?id=1706_0_7_0_M>.
Katel, Peter. "Rebuilding New Orleans." The CQ Researcher 16.5 (2006): 97-120. CQ Researcher Online. CQ Press. Wake Forest U, Z. Smith Reynolds Lib., Winston-Salem, NC. 29 May 2006 <http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/ cqresrre2006020300>.
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Citing Full-Text Articles from Library Databases

Full-text articles from library databases can be very convenient resources for your research projects. However, creating MLA citations for these sources can sometimes be a little tricky. This guide will help you to identify the information you will need to include in your MLA citations for many of the Library's most popular full text databases.

Authoritative directions on how to cite works from library databases can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 6th edition – available at the reference desk. See section 5.9.7 (page 229) and 1.4.6d page 28. According to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 6th edition, citations for works from library subscription services should include the following:

The following table will provide the name of the database, the name of the service and the URLs of the Library's most popular databases:

Database Name Service <URL>
Academic Search Premier EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
ATLA Religion EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
Business Source Complete EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
Communication and Mass Media Complete EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
ERIC EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
JSTOR <http://www.jstor.org/>
LexisNexis Academic LexisNexis <http://www.lexis-nexis.com/universe>
MLA International Bibliography EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
Project Muse <http://muse.jhu.edu/>
Proquest Proquest <http://www.proquest.com/>
PsycInfo EBSCO <http://search.epnet.com>
Aldama, Frederick Luis. "Race, Cognition, and Emotion: Shakespeare on Film." College Literature 33.1 (2006): 197-214. Proquest. Wake Forest U, Z. Smith Reynolds Lib, NC. 7 June 2006 <http:// www.proquest.com/>.
Pearson, Marcia Claire. "The Glow of Beauty." Nutrition Health Review 63 (1992): 18-. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Wake Forest U, Z. Smith Reynolds Lib., Winston-Salem, NC. 19 Aug. 2003 <http://search.epnet.com/>.
Shohet, Lauren. "Shakespeare's Eager Adonis." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 42.1 (2002): 85-102. JSTOR. 7 June 2006 <http://www.jstor.org/>.

A Note about Page Numbers

If the database does not give you an exact page number range for the article you are citing, you should open the PDF of the article in question and see what the page range is. If there is no PDF of the article, you should give the beginning page number followed by a hyphen a space and a period.

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Free Internet Sites

When citing free web sites (those sites accessed on the WWW without going through an online database) you want to include the items from the list given on the MLA FAQ List. See MLA - How to Cite Web Sources for details. Examples of items to include are: the author of the information (if known), the title of the article (in quotation marks), the title of the site, editor information, the date of publication or last update date if known, and the name of any institution or organization that sponsors the site. You must also include the date you accessed the site and the URL of the site.

General format for citing web sites should be as follows. Any information not available should be omitted. All citations must include the Title of the Web Site, the Date Accessed and the URL.

AuthorLast, AuthorFirst. "Title of Article." Title of Website. Editor Information. Date of publication/update. Institution/organization information. Date Accessed <URL>.
Voice of the Shuttle. Ed. Alan Liu. 2003. English Department, University of California, Santa Barbara. 19 Aug. 2006 <http://vos.uscb.edu>.
Jane Austen Information Page. Ed. Henry Churchyard. 6 Sept. 2000. 15 June 2006 <http://www.pemberly.come/janeinfo/ janeinfo.html>.
"Nutrition for Cancer Patients." American Cancer Society. 22 Oct. 2006 <http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MBC/ MBC_6.asp?>.
"Anorexia Nervosa." Familydoctor.org. April 2005. American Academy of Family Physicians. 22 Oct 2006 <http://familydoctor.org/063.xml>.
Womack, Giz. Home page. 10 Oct 2004. 22 October 2006 <http:// www.gizwomack.com>.
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Getting Started

Consider the information here only as a starting point. If you encounter a case not covered in these examples, you are expected to consult the book for the correct answer.

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