MLA Style Sheet | English @ SCSU
The following is a style sheet for your English classes at SCSU, based on the
MLA (Modern Language Association) guidelines for how to cite sources in a
Works Cited page and parenthetically in a paper.
A full explanation of the MLA guidelines for In-Text Documentation and
Works Cited can be found online at the Purdue Online Writing Lab
(https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/1/) and in the MLA
Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 8
th
edition (2016). Remember
that other majors and disciplines at SCSU may require different style
guidelines (APA, Chicago, etc.).
Works Cited
Below are examples of some of the most common bibliographic
citations used in Works Cited pages. Use this for papers and for any
other assignment for which you need to cite a work (an annotated
bibliography, a paper proposal, etc.) following MLA guidelines.
Remember that these are examples. You need to be able to locate
the author, title, editor(s), publication information, page numbers,
and any other relevant information on your own. Be sure also to
follow the correct format exactly, including punctuation, order of
information, italics, etc.
How to cite …
• A book
When citing an entire book by one or more authors, include
author(s), book title, publisher, date:
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from
Technology and Less from Each Other. Basic Books, 2011.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic:
The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary
Imagination. 2nd ed., Yale UP, 2000.
• A critical edition or translation
When citing an entire book by an author that has also been edited or
translated by someone else, add the editor or translator after the
title:
Donne, John. The Complete English Poems. Edited by A. J. Smith,
Penguin, 1996.
Sloterdijk, Peter. You Must Change Your Life. Translated by Wieland
Hoban, Polity Press, 2013.
• An essay or chapter in an edited volume
When citing an essay or chapter contained within a book that has
essays or chapters by other writers as well, include the author of the
essay or chapter itself, the title of the essay or chapter in quotations,
the book title, editor(s), publication information, and the page range
of the essay or chapter:
Arnold, Miah. “You Owe Me.” The Best American Essays 2012,
edited by David Brooks, Houghton Mifflin, 2012, pp. 1-5.
Hauerwas, Stanley. “Why Gays (as a Group) Are Morally Superior to
Christians (as a Group).” The Hauerwas Reader, edited by John
Berkman and Michael Cartwright, Duke UP, 2001, pp. 519-21.
• A literary work (poem, short story, play, etc.) in an anthology or
textbook
When citing an individual literary work in an anthology or textbook
containing multiple works, follow the same format as a work in an
edited volume above, including the number of the edition after the
title, if necessary.
Borges, Jorge Luis. “The Immortal.” Collected Fictions, translated by
Andrew Hurley, Penguin, 1998, pp. 185-93.
Marlowe, Christopher. Hero and Leander. The Norton Anthology of
English Literature, 9th ed., edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al.,
Norton, 2012, pp. 510-30.
• A literary work online
When citing a short work (poem, short story, etc.) found on a web
page, include author, title of the work, title and date of book from
which it was derived (if provided), title of website, a URL or
Permalink, and the date you accessed it:
Wyatt, Sir Thomas. “They Flee From Me.” Luminarium,
http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/theyflee.htm. Accessed 10 Nov.
2013.
Lee, Li Young. “Arise, Go Down.” The City in Which I Love You,
1990, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-
poets/poems/detail/43327. Accessed 13 Dec. 2013.
• A scholarly article in an academic journal (in print or PDF)
When citing a scholarly article in an academic journal that you have
in print or a PDF copy of the printed page, include author of article,
article title, title of journal, volume and issue number, year, and page
range of the article:
Randel, Fred V. “The Political Geography of Horror in Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein.” ELH, vol. 70, no. 2, 2003, pp. 465-91.
Nydam, Arlen. “Philip Sidney’s Extended Family and the Catholic
Petition of 1585.” Sidney Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, Spring 2010, pp.
53-79.
• A scholarly article in an academic journal (in an online database)
When citing a scholarly article in an academic journal that you are
viewing as a web page in a library database (i.e., not in PDF), use the
same format as above but include a URL and the date you accessed
it. If no page numbers to a print edition are listed, omit them or
provide paragraph (par.) numbers:
Heyen, William. “Sunlight.” American Poetry Review, vo. 36, no. 2,
2007, pp. 55-56. ebscohost.com.www.consuls.org/login.
aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24224660&site=ehost-live.
Accessed 24 Sept. 2008.
• A non-scholarly article in an online newspaper or magazine
When citing a popular newspaper or magazine article online (not
found in a library database), include author, title of the article, name
of the online publication, the date of the article, a URL or Permalink,
and the date you accessed it:
Korb, Scott. “Anywhere, Nowhere, Elsewhere, Everywhere.” Slate, 10
Jan. 2014, www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/01/richard
_powers_novel_orfeo_reviewed.single.html. Accessed 15 Jan.
2014.
Cavett, Dick. “Booze, Revisited.” New York Times, 10 Jan. 2014,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/opinion/booze-
revisited.html. Accessed 13 Jan. 2014.
• Other cases not covered above
If you have a source not covered in the examples above – e.g., a print
newspaper article, an online book, a blog, a YouTube clip, etc. –
consult the MLA Guidelines at:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Things to remember …
• Always compile your Works Cited in alphabetical order, author’s last
name first
• Book titles take italics; articles, essays, short stories, and short poems
take quotation marks (“ “)
• If the citation is longer than one line, indent each line after the first
• Page numbers are required for any essay, journal article, or work
within a larger work
• If there are more than two editors, use “et al.” (Latin for “and others”)
after the first editor’s name
• Don’t mistake authors with editors – the author is the person who
wrote the work you’re using, the editor is the one who put it where it is
In-Text Citation
Following MLA guidelines, cite your sources in the body of your
paper parenthetically. Cite all quotations and any important
information, ideas, or words not your own.
Parenthetical citations typically occur at the ends of sentences or
after quotations. With the exception of block quotations, the
parenthetical citation always comes after quotation marks but
before the period or semi-colon.
Basic format
To cite a source in your paper, include the author’s last name and page
number in the parentheses; do not use “p.” or “page”:
E.g., (Ruhl 25)
As one critic has argued, “Measure for Measure raises the issue of
embodied experience in the opening scenes” (Knapp 262).
If you have already named the author in the preceding clause or
sentence(s), simply cite the page number:
As Jeffrey Knapp has argued, “Measure for Measure raises the issue
of embodied experience in the opening scenes” (262).
Source quoted in another source
To cite an author quoted in another article, essay, or book, include the
author’s name in your prose and credit the work in which you found it,
using “quoted in”:
Empson claimed that “A word may become a sort of solid entity”
(quoted in Frenkel 190).
Literary works
To cite poetry, give line numbers, using “line” for the first citation and
the number for every subsequent citation. Use stanza numbers for
larger works:
E.g., (line 13), (17-19), (16.78-9), etc.
Donne begins Satire 1 pleading, “Away thou changling motley
humorist” (line 1). By the middle of the poem, however, he calls his
companion “a contrite penitent / Charitably warn’d of thy sins” (49-
50).
To cite plays in dramatic verse, give act, scene, and line numbers:
E.g., (3.3.54-7)
To cite works of literary prose – such as novels or short stories – use the
basic format above, citing author and page number. When needed,
include chapters for novels: e.g., (105; ch. 12).
Special Cases
• If there is more than one work by the same author in your Works
Cited, include an abbreviated title in the parenthetical citation: e.g.,
(Donne, Pseudo-Martyr 50).
• If the author is unknown, include only the abbreviated title and page
number in the parenthetical citation.
• If you are citing a block quotation – a longer indented quotation, to be
used when you quote more than four lines of poetry – the parenthetical
citation comes after the final punctuation.
Working with Quotations
Remember that the correct use of quotations in your papers is
important.
Punctuation and capitalization must be exact. In American prose,
commas and periods at the end of a quotation go inside the
quotation marks, outside if the quotation is followed by a
parenthetical citation.
When quoting verse, mark line breaks using a back-slash ( / ).
Everyone has heard the saying, “He came, he saw, he conquered.”
“That thou hast her, it is not all my grief, / And yet it may be said I
loved her dearly” (lines 1-2).
Integrate all quotations properly, with a signal clause and proper
punctuation; there should be no “dangling” quotations. To introduce a
quotation, you need a signal clause containing either a speaking verb
with a comma ( , ) or no speaking verb and a colon ( : ).
You may also use the quotation to continue your own sentence
grammatically, using a “that” clause or a subordinate clause.
Regardless, the quotation must make semantic and grammatical sense
in the sentence as a whole, meaning it needs to form a complete
thought together with the surrounding clause.
Correct
Shakespeare’s gender confusion in Sonnet 120 can be seen in the next
quatrain, where the poet complains, “Yet fear her, O thou minion of
her pleasure!” (9).
Shakespeare’s gender confusion in Sonnet 120 is clear in the final
quatrain: “Yet fear her, O thou minion of her pleasure!” (9).
The poet speaks of a boy “Who hast by waning grown” (3) but turns
eventually to remark that “Nature, sovereign mistress over wrack” (5)
has defeated him.
According to the speaker, “Lilies that fester, smell far worse than
weeds” (14).
Incorrect
Shakespeare is confused about his gender, “Yet fear her, O thou
minion of her pleasure!” (9).
After this, the poet says, “though delayed, answered must be” (11).
The next quote begins; “And her quietus is to render thee.” (12)
According to the speaker, “minion of her pleasure!” (9).
