HIST 151 - Visiting a Place in the Past: MLA Citations

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This document, created by WCC librarians for WCC students, has a selection of commonly used sources and how to appropriately cite them using MLA style.

Below are links to some of the most commonly cited types of sources.

The Modern Language Association advises you to: 

• Cite any generative AI tool you use, whether you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate it into your work. 
• Acknowledge how the tool was used.
• Verify any sources it references.

The Works Cited is a listing of all sources used in your paper. It is located after the main body of the paper and before any appendices. 

Your Works Cited list should have all citations alphabetized, double-spaced, and in 12pt Times New Roman font. If your citation takes up more than one line a hanging indent must be used. For further information on this topic please see the MLA Paper Format section of this subject guide.

Below you will find information on how to accurately cite information using MLA style. This is not a comprehensive guide. Please see the MLA Handbook or the Purdue OWL for more complete information.

Please click on one of the links below to jump to that section.

• General Information
• Core Elements
• Articles
• Books
• Webpages
• Generative A.I.

Some tips on formatting your MLA style citations:

• Your reference list should be titled "Works Cited". 
• Capitalize the first letter of each principal word in the title and subtitle.
• For online sources with no publication/posting date, give the date you accessed the source.
• If no author is named, begin the entry with the title.
• If the title and publisher are the same, provide just the title.
• Pay attention to the punctuation used in your citations.
• The http:// or https:// is optional in URL’s, and is best used for clickable links.
• If a source has a DOI, include it instead of the URL.

MLA identifies nine core elements that make up a citation:

1. Author: The author or creator of the book, article, chapter, etc. 
2. Title of the source: The title of the specific article, chapter, part, etc. 
3. Title of the container: The title of the larger work in which the source is contained, such as a book, journal, website, database, etc.
4. Other contributors: People other than the authors who contributed to the work (editors, translators, illustrators, etc.)
5. Version: If the work is released in more than one form, this describes the one used (edition, cut, etc.) 
6. Number: Volume and issue numbers (periodicals), episode numbers, etc. 
7. Publisher: The name of the entity responsible for making the work available to the public. 
8. Publication date: Date of publication or posting. Use this format: DD Month YYYY (abbreviate longer month names)
9. Location: Where the material is found (pages, DOI, URL, etc.)

 For details, see pages 20-58 of the MLA Handbook, 8th ed.)

The basic format for citing an article is:

Author name(s). “The Title of the Specific Source.” The Title of its Container (publication), Publisher, version (volume), number, publication date, location (pages). The Title of the Second Container (database, website, etc.), Publisher, location (DOI or URL, but the http:// is optional).
 

For example:

Journal article with DOI:

Morrison, Lloyd W. "Species Assembly Patterns in Polynesian Ants." Pacific Science, vol. 69, no.1, Jan. 2015, pp. 81-94. Academic Search Complete, EBSCO, doi: 10.2984/69.1.6.  

Note that the databaseʻs publisher name is optional. Itʻs included in the example, but it can be left out. 

Online Journal article (no DOI):

Lindsey, David. “Evaluating Quality Control of Wikipedia’s Feature Articles.” First Monday, vol. 15, no. 4-5, Apr. 2010, http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2721/2482.

The basic format for citing a book is:

Author name(s). The Title of the Book. Version (edition), Publisher, Year of Publication.

For example:

Book with a single author:

Pukui, Mary. Folktales of Hawai‘i. Bishop Museum, 1995. 
 

Book with two authors:

Gillespie, Paula, and Neal Lerner. The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Peer Tutoring. Second edition, Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
 

Online book: 

Sullivan, Jack. Hitchcock’s Music. Yale University Press, 2007, ebrary, ProQuest, site.ebrary.com/lib/wcc/detail.action?docID=10210240&p00=hitchcock%27s+music.

The basic formatting for citing a Web page is:

Author name(s). "The Title of the Web Page". Title of Website, Publisher, publication date, URL. Access date (include this only if there is no publication date, or if requested by your teacher).
 

For example:

Web page, author named:

Iyer, Raghavan. "Brahmin Soul Food." Zester Daily, Zester Media, 18 Oct. 2011, zesterdaily.com/world/indian-foods-for-brahmin-death.

​Viser, Matt. “Coffee on the Campaign Trail.” Boston Globe, 26 Feb. 2016, www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/food-dining/2016/02/26/coffee-campaigntrail/Xg76hiU92efJqMJOm70FSJ/story.html. ​

(If the name of the website is the same as the name of the publisher you do not need to include the publisher.)
 

Web page, author named, no publication date:

Krauss, Beatrice H. Anatomy of the Pineapple, p. 6. University of Hawaii, digicoll.manoa.hawaii.edu/pineapple/index.php?c=1. Accessed 28 Dec. 2016.

Web page, no author named:

"Bob Marley." Biography, A&E Television Networks, 26 Oct. 2016, www.biography.com/people/bob-marley-9399524.