MLA

Modern Language Association

What is MLA?
 MLA is the way that disciplines within the Language Arts
reference their citations.
 The Language Arts include:
 Art
 Drama
 English
 History
 Music
 Philosophy
 Religious Studies
Why use MLA?
 MLA allows you to reference your citations when
you quote, paraphrase, or use information that you
found within a source such as a book, magazine,
webpage, etc.
What happens if you don’t reference
your sources?
 You could be accused of PLAGIARISM
 Plagiarism happens when you advertently – or even
inadvertently! – use someone else’s ideas and don’t say
where you got them from.
 Plagiarism is not just “cutting & pasting” whole
paragraphs or essays from a book or the web; it also
happens when you put someone else’s ideas into your
own words, but don’t give the author of those ideas credit
for them.
 If in doubt, make a reference!
What information do you need?
 There’s a lot of information you need to include in a reference:
 Author’s full name, including middle initial, if given
 Date of latest publication
 Title of the article, book, and/or journal in which the source is
printed
 Publishing company
 Place of publication (include state or country if not readily
recognizable)
 Page numbers, if your source is printed in a compilation or journal.
 Medium – such as print, website, etc.
What order do you put the information
in?
 Ordering the information in a reference is the
trickiest part of writing your bibliography.
 The order of the information and how you format
it is really important. You want to provide the
information in a clear manner that is standardized
internationally so that anyone, anywhere can read
your reference and find your source.
Books -- print:
 Steinbeck,
John. Of Mice and Men. Penguin
Books USA, Inc.: New York,1993. Print.

 Author’s last name, first name. Title of book in

italics OR underlined. Place of publication:
publisher, latest publication date. Medium.
 Indent all lines except the first line. This is called
a “hanging indent.”
Books – online:
 Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855.
The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 12 Mar. 2012.

 Author’s last name, first name. Title of book in

italics. Place of publication, date of original
publication. Name of website in italics. Medium.
Date you accessed the website.
Short Story or Poem in a textbook:
 O’Brien, Tim. “On the Rainy River.” Imprints
12. Ed. Joe Banel, et al. Gage Learning
Corporation: Toronto, 2002, 70-85. Print.

 Author’s last name, first name. Title of the short

story or poem in quotation marks. Editor’s name (if
more than three editors, use the phrase “et al.”
Publishing company: place of publication, date.
Page numbers of the short story or poem. Medium.
Shakespearean Play:
 Shakespeare, William, and Ken Roy. Romeo And
Juliet. 2nd ed. Toronto: Harcourt Canada, 1999.
Print.
 Author’s last name, first name. Editor’s full name.
Edition number. Place of publication: publishing
company, latest publication date. Medium.
 Don’t forget to use the hanging indent on all lines
of your reference except the first line.
Article or entry in an encyclopedia or
dictionary:
 “Literature.” The Cambridge Encyclopedia. 2004
ed. Print.

 Titleof the entry in quotation marks. Title of the

encyclopedia or dictionary in italics. Date of
publication. Medium.
Article in a scholarly journal:
 Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object:
Goethe and the Book of Everything.” PMLA
121.1 (2006): 124- 38. Print.
 Author’s last name, first name. Title of article in
quotation marks. Title of journal in italics
followed by volume of journal. Number of journal
then date in parentheses: page numbers of article.
Medium.
A film or movie:
 It’sa Wonderful Life. Dir. Frank Capra. Perf.
James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore,
and Thomas Mitchell. RKO, 1946. Film.
 Title of film in italics. Name of the director.
Names of the main performers. Distributor of the
film, date it was released. Medium.
Others…
 There are many different works that you will
consult when conducting your research. Each type
of work requires a specific type of reference.
 For other less common works, see a style guide,
such as…
Style Guides:
 MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
7th ed. New York: Modern Language
Association of America, 2009. Print.
 www.mla.org

 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01
/