Transcript MLA Style

MLA Style
Creating a Bibliography
and Sources Cited Page
Updated April 2013
REMEMBER…

To avoid plagiarism, cite your
sources!

A conscious effort to give credit to
the source from which you are
borrowing your ideas.
What is MLA Style?

The Modern Language Association
(MLA).

Other forms: APA, Chicago, etc.
Elements of MLA Style

Citing a source in MLA Style is a
two-part process:
1. Bibliography/Sources Cited
2. In-text (Parenthetical) Citations
EXAMPLE: (Source page
#)
(Smith 235)
Bibliography vs. Sources Cited

What is the difference?
– BIBLIOGRAPHY = sources that you are
considering using in your paper.
– SOURCES CITED = sources you
actually cite in your paper
Documenting a Source

General format to follow for a book:
Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of
**DOUBLE SPACE
Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.
Medium of Publication.
**The arrows above indicate what we
call HANGING INDENTATION
Documenting a Source

For an actual book, it might look
something like this:
Wise, Steven M. Rattling the Cage:
**DOUBLE SPACE
Toward Legal Rights for Animals.
Cambridge: Perseus, 2000. Print.
Documenting a Print Source

When documenting a print source, you
generally include the following
information:
– Author name
– Title of the print source (book, article,
magazine, newspaper, etc.)
– Place of publication
– Publisher
– Date of publication
– Editors (if needed)
Documenting a Print Source

Where will I find the information needed
for my bibliography/works cited entry?
– The cover
– The spine
– The title page
– The inverse of the title page
– The URL address
– The home page
– Etc.
Documenting a Source

Helpful Hint:
– If you are having difficulty finding
the year of publication, use the
most recent copyright date.
Documenting Web Sources

Web-based resources include (but are not
limited to):
–
–
–
–
–
World Wide Web Sites
Articles from Scholarly Journals
Archives or Scholarly Projects
Online newspapers/magazines
Articles from Data Bases (i.e. EBSCOhost or
ERIC)
– Newsgroups, Forums, Blogs, and Wikis
Documenting Web Sources

Key differences between entries for print
sources and web sources:
Dunn, Julie. “More Buy Homes They Can’t Afford.”
The Denver Business Journal. 14 Dec. 2001.
19 Dec. 2001 <http://www.denver.bcentral.com/
denver/stories/2001/12/17/story3.html>.
Date the source was
accessed by the
researcher
URL is no
longer
needed!
Date the source was
posted, published, or
recently updated
Documenting Web Sources

Since the URL is no longer needed, a web
source might look like this:
Dunn, Julie. “More Buy Homes They Can’t Afford.”
The Denver Business Journal. 14 Dec. 2001. Web.
19 Dec. 2001.
Medium of Publication
goes here. This replaces
the need for that long URL
in the previous example
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Book:
Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying.
New York: Penguin, 1993. Print.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Selection from an Anthology:
Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Raven.” A Portrait of
American Literature. 5th ed. Eds.
Steven Bowman, et al. Upper Saddle
River: Prentice, 1996. 504-24. Print.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Newspaper:
“Obama Addresses Tensions with Iran.” The
Punxsutawney Spirit 21 Jan. 2012: 15.
Print.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Magazine:
Wilson, Naomi, and Martin Dubner.
“Chasing
Our Tails.” Newsweek 11
Nov. 2002:
42-47. Print.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Article from Online Database
(EBSCO, SIRS, etc.):
**Treat the source as you would in print form, but include the
name of the database (in italics), Web, and the date of
access.
Junco, Reynol. “The Relationship Between
Frequency of Facebook Use and Student
Engagement.” Computers & Education 58.1
(2012): 162-71. EBSCO Host. Web. 2 May
2012.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Web Sources:
Cowan, Brittany. “The Jazz Age’s Influence
on Modern Culture.” American
Literature and Influence. LitBiz, 21
Mar.
2009. Web. 18 Apr. 2012.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Sources by the same author:
(According to the Purdue OWL)
Palmer, William J. Dickens and New
Historicism. New York: St. Martin's,
1997. Print.
- - - . The Films of the Eighties: A Social
History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois
UP, 1993. Print.
Common Bibliographic
Forms

Sources with no known author:
(According to the Purdue OWL)
Alphabetize these works by their TITLE and
then use a shortened version of that title
when creating your parenthetical, in-text
citations.
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important
Abbreviations:
–n.p. = no publisher
–n.d. = no date
–n. pag. = no page
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important
Abbreviations:
– Ed./Eds.= “Edited by;” used when citing
a selected work prepared by an editor
in a larger work and that information
appears after the title of the source
– ed.= can mean “edition” or it can mean
“editor” when used for citing entire
anthologies or collections and the editor
is the first part of the citation entry
(listed last name, first name, then ed.
– eds. = for more than one editor when
citing an entire anthology or collection
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important
Abbreviations:
– et al. = In Latin, this means “and
others.” Use this abbreviation if there
are more than three authors/editors.
List only the first author--last name, first
name—followed by et al. (Note: there
is NO PERIOD after et)
– If you have three or fewer
authors/editors, list the first name (last
name, first name), then the other two
names (NOT inverted last name, first
name)
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important
Abbreviations:
–Abbreviate months that
are longer than 4 letters
Examples:
Nov., Dec.,
May, June
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important
Abbreviations:
–Use postal abbreviations
of states & other
geographic names
Examples:
PA, VA, NC,
Eng., etc.
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Important Abbreviations:
– Abbreviate publisher names as much
as possible
– Try to use acronyms or short versions
of names
Examples:
Scribner’s & Sons = Scribner’s
McGraw-Hill = McGraw
Microsoft, Inc. = Microsoft
Oxford University Press = Oxford UP

MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Citing Indirect Sources:
– When you are citing something that
was quoted in the source you are
using, this is called citing an indirect
source. (For example, if you are citing
something from an article and they
quote someone’s response in an
interview and you want to cite that…)
– Use (qtd. in _________) and fill in the
rest of the citation like normal
MLA Style Tips & Tricks!
 Alphabetize
your entries!
–Ignore A, An, and The
 Don’t
forget (.) at the end
of EVERY ENTRY!
Special Situation

Documenting the Bible:
– Do not underscore or italicize the word Bible
of the books of the Bible in the text of your
composition.
– The King James Version gets special
treatment (see next slide)
– If not the King James Version, give the
name of the specific edition you are using,
any editor(s) associated with it, followed by
the publication information.
Documenting the Bible

EXAMPLES:
The Bible.
**This denotes the King James Version and
no other information is needed.
**Other Versions/Editions require more
information:
The New Jerusalem Bible. Ed. Susan Jones.
New York: Doubleday, 1985. Print.
Documenting the Bible

OTHER EXAMPLES:
The Geneva Bible. 1560. Facism. Rpt. Madison:
U. of Wisconsin P, 1961. Print.
The New Open Bible. Large print ed. Nashville:
Thomas Nelson, 1990. Print.