11.3 MLA Citations (Or APA)

The Modern Language Association (MLA) system of documentation governs how writers format academic papers and cite the sources that they use. This system of formatting and citation is used most by academic disciplines in the arts and humanities.

Citations, according to MLA, consist of two elements:

1. in-text citations (also called parenthetical citations). These are the citations that you include within your essay, after you have referenced something from a source.
2. a Work Cited (or Works Cited, if multiple sources are cited) list. This is a list of all sources you cited within the essay.

MLA In-Text Citations

We use in-text citations, also called parenthetical citations, to give our readers brief yet specific information about where in the source material we found the idea or words that we are quoting or paraphrasing. To determine what the in-text citation should look like, we have to know what kind of source we are using.

• Is our source print or digital?
  • Print sources are any sources that are on paper or were originally printed on paper, even if you found a copy of it from an online research database like Academic Search Complete. These sources have page numbers. These page numbers need to appear in your in-text citations.
  • Web/digital sources, in many instances, do not have page numbers. Do not make them up! Page 1 of your computer screen is not the same as an actual page one in a print source.
• Do we have a named author or not?
• Is the source paginated (i.e., does it have page numbers in its original or current format)? Or is it a digital source without page numbers?

The basics of in-text citation

A complete in-text citation in MLA format includes three components:

1. a signal phrase
2. the source material (quoted or paraphrased), and
3. a parenthetical citation (also called in-text citation)

For sources with page numbers, such as books and articles that were originally published in print publications, even if you access them using a research database like Academic Search Complete, place the page number in the citation. In MLA, we do not use the word “page” or the abbreviations “p.”  or “pg.” before the page numbers.

Examples of in-text citations for a variety of source types

• One author (Bigsby 211)
• Two authors (Morton and Bigsby 58)
• Three or more authors (Miller et al. 305)
• Multiple works by the same author (Austen, Mansfiled 111)
• Author with the same last name (T. Norton 173)
• Organization as the author (Corporate author) (Tennessee Dept. of Health 35)
• Work with no author (“Analytics of English Majors” 31)

MLA Works Cited

• Every source that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize in an essay must be included in your Works Cited list
• Your Works Cited list should always be on its own new page, after the end of the text of the essay

The general order of content in an MLA-formatted Works Cited Entry

Online News/Magazine Article

1. Author(s).  Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author’s name.
2. “Title of the Article.”  Include the title of a shorter work in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
3. Title of the Newspaper or Publisher, Use italics for the title of a longer work like a newspaper or online publication and use headline-style capitalization
4. Publication date, Use the format: Date Abbreviated Month Year.
5. URL.

Example

Robinson, Angela. “History Shows Why It’s Time for a Black Woman to Sit on the Supreme Court .” The Washington Post, 1 Feb. 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/02/01/history-shows-why-its-time-black-woman-sit-supreme-court/.

Works Cited Page

Below is a model MLA Works Cited with correct spacing and formatting.

Note that an MLA Works Cited

• begins on its own new page
• at the top of the Works Cited page, the words Work (or Works) Cited should be centered, without bolding, italics, quotations marks, or all-caps
• Works Cited entries should be in the same font and double spacing as the rest of the paper
• Unlike the paragraphs within an essay, Works Cited entries do not begin with an indentation. Rather, they use hanging (also known as reverse) indentation, in which the first line of an entry is not indented, but all successive lines are indented, by .5”.
• Sources need to be listed in alphabetical order by the first letter in each entry.
  • If you have a source with no author, then that source will be alphabetized according to the first letter of its title
  • The entries will not be numbered or presented as a series of bulleted points.

APA Differences

Again, It will be important to at least recognize the differences between MLA and APA depending on your instructors and your major in college. The purpose of this section is to provide you with information and examples about APA-style in-text citations.

When using APA format, follow the author-date method of in-text citation. This means that the author’s last name and the year of publication for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones, 1998).

On the other hand, if you are directly quoting or borrowing from another work, you should include the page number at the end of the parenthetical citation. Use the abbreviation “p.” (for one page) or “pp.” (for multiple pages) before listing the page number(s). Use an en dash for page ranges. For example, you might write (Jones, 1998, p. 199) or (Jones, 1998, pp. 199–201).

Reference Page

• Every source that you quote, paraphrase, or summarize in an essay must be included in your Reference page.
• The Reference page should appear on its page. It should include the header (i.e. abbreviated title with the page number in the righthand corner).
• At the start of your list, at the top margin of the page, center the word “References.” Do not bold, italicize, or use quotation marks. Do not change the font, font size, or color.
• Reference page entries are in the same font and double spacing as the rest of the paper
• Like MLA Work Cited pages, Reference page entries use hanging (also known as reverse) indentation, in which the first line of an entry is not indented, but all successive lines are indented, by .5”.
• Sources need to be listed in alphabetical order by the first letter in each entry.
  • If you have a source with no author, then that source will be alphabetized according to the first letter of its title
  • The entries will not be numbered or presented as a series of bulleted points.

Example Entry:

Author’s last name, first initial. middle initial. (Year, Month Date Published). Title of the article. Title of the Academic Journal, Volume # (Issue #), page numbers, DOI.

Yancey, K. B. (2004). Made not only in words: Composition in a new key. College Composition and Communication, 56(2), 297-328. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4140651