Welcome to the MLA Writing Style Page

MLA stands for Modern Language Association. This association has a set of guidelines for writing papers. The guidelines include a style for making in-text citations and a bibliography.

To make an in-text citation:

    After you have written something word for word you must put the phrase in quotations and then cite it.

    To cite in MLA style, the author's last name and the page number belong in parentheses after the sentence. A period goes outside the parentheses.

Basic in-text citation:

In the woods we see the " honey bees flying in dizzy circles" (Dannenberry 23).

    If you work the name of the author in your sentence, you don't have to put it in the parentheses.

According to Dannenberry, we see the "honey bees flying in dizzy circles" (23).

    If you are quoting a question, the question mark goes in the quotations and another period goes out side the parentheses.

Allison's feelings were shown in her response; " Where in the world do you expect me to put this?" (Samtski 475).

To make a Works Cited page:

    In MLA, the author of the sources comes first in the entry. Entries are put in alphabetical order. 

    If there is no author, put the entry in alphabetical order according to its title excluding A, An and The.

    Indent lines after the first one.

Basic bibliographic references

One author:

Author's Name. The Title is in italics or underlined, Name the city where the book was published: Name of publisher, Year.

Aniston, Bartok J. The Purpose of the Fuzzy Slipper Industry in Southern Ohio. Kalamazoo: Kungston Press,

         2002.

Two authors:

Only the first author's first and last name is switched. The names should appear as they do on the book's title page.

Zeston, Jennifer, and Dameon Bradley. Bush Bucks in the Desert,

           Scranton: Fickler Company, 1999.

Work in an Anthology:

After the author's name, "Add the name of the story or section from the anthology in quotation marks." If applicable add Trans. and the translators name. Title of the Anthology. Put the editors name in Ed. Name.  At the end add the page numbers.

Sylvia, Justin, "On the green grass." Trans. Mark Staton. A Brief History of Spanish Short Stories. Ed. Edward

             Mander. 23-34.

Periodical:

Author's name. "Title of the article." Name of journal. volume. issue (year): page numbers.

Small, Julia. "Spiriting the Night." Indigenous People Weekly 34.5 (2002): 23-29.

Online sources:

Personal or professional web site.

Creator of the site. "Title of Page." Title of Site. Last time updated. Date of access. <URL>.

Perdue, David A. "Dickens' Characters." Charles Dickens Page. 2003. 20 Feb 2003.

             <http://www.fidnet.com/~dap1955/dickens/characters.html>.