MLA CITATION

What is MLA?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association, which is an organization that focuses on language
and literature.

What is MLA Citing?

The Modern Language Association Handbook is in its 8th edition and standardizes the way scholars
document their sources and format their papers. When everyone documents their sources and papers in
the same way, it is simple to recognize and understand the types of sources that were used for a project.

CITING BASICS

When adding information into your project from another source, you are required to add an MLA
citation. There are two types of MLA format citations: in-text citations and full citations.

Full Citation Basics:

All sources used for a project are found on the MLA format Works Cited page, which is generally the last
item in a project.

FORMAT

Author's Last name, First name. "Title of Source." Title of Container, other contributors, version,
numbers, publisher, publication date, location.

Authors:

The author's name is generally the first item in a citation (unless the source does not have an author).
The author's name is followed by a period.

If the source has one author, place the last name first, add a comma, and then the first name.

Example:

Lee, Harper.
If your source has two authors, place them in the same order they're shown on the source. The first
author is in reverse order, add a comma and the word "and", then place the second author in standard
form. Follow their names with a period.

Example:

Monsen, Avery, and Jory John.

For three or more authors, only include the first listed author's name. Place the first author's name in
reverse order (Last name, First name) place a comma afterwards, and then add the Latin phrase "et al."

Example:

Borokhovic, Kenneth A., et al.

No author listed? If there isn't an author, start the citation with the title and skip the author section
completely.

Example:

@TheOnion. "Experts Warn Number of Retirees Will Completely Overwhelm Scenic Railway Industry by
2030." Twitter, 9 Oct. 2017, 9:50 a.m., twitter.com/TheOnion/status/917386689500340225.