MLA Citation Guide

Introduction: Have you ever heard about MLA style?

MLA is an acronym for the Modern Language Association. MLA is the organization responsible for creating the MLA style.

This MLA aims to facilitate scholarly inquiry in and across time periods, geographic sites, genres, languages, and disciplines (MLA 2020).

MLA style can be thought of as a tool that supports the inquiry and writing process of learners like you.

The MLA style establishes standards of written communication concern:

  • the organization of content;
  • writing style;
  • citing references; and
  • how to prepare a manuscript for publication in certain disciplines.

The MLA is a rooted in a long tradition of supporting scholarship. In a quote from 1951, the MLA organization urges us to pay attention to the footnotes and cautions us to not “forget the machinery of scholarship” (12).

In the spirit of remembering that important scholarship, we strive to be mindful of acknowledging the work of others.

Why this is so important?

To prevent plagiarism.

Plagiarism occurs when someone copies existing ideas (in paraphrased format or directly) without crediting it to the original source.

When you are communicating your ideas and plans in writing, you need to use appropriate language. It’s important to give credit to the original authors and sources of all information drawn upon (text, images, audio, and visual sources to avoid plagiarism. Citation is the best way to add credibility and to support your arguments.

Containers of core elements that document the trace of your ideas

The 8th edition of MLA style is premised on the concept of “containers”. For example, a book chapter (Container 1) can be contained within an edited collection with multiple authors (Container 2).

Documenting the Core Elements (information about sources) of the sources (containers) on your Works Cited list that inform your arguments provides the trace of the scholarship that you draw upon, thereby boosting its credibility.

The following are the MLA Core Elements that are used to describe each source and listed in the following specific order:

  • Author of source,
  • Title of source,
  • Title of container,
  • Other contributors,
  • Version,
  • Number,
  • Publisher,
  • Publication date,
  • Location

In the following section you will find some common sources and examples of how to create a works cited list at the end of your assignments. All students in grades 11 and 12 are expected to cite their sources correctly in their writing assignments.

MLA Works Cited list examples

Books and related documents

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Publisher, Publication Date.
Format: Last name, First name Middle name or initial. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
In-text citation (Author Last Name Page Numbers)

Book (one author and contributor)

Example

Garcia, Márquez G. and Edith Grossman. Love in the Time of Cholera. New York: Vintage International, 1988.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source García, Márquez G.
2. Title of source Love in the Time of Cholera.
3. Title of container
4. Other contributors and Edith Grossman
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher Vintage International
8. Publication date 1988.
9. Location New York:

Book (2 authors)

Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial, and Author First Name or Initial Last Name. Title. Publisher, Publication Date.
In-text citation (Author Last Name and Author Last Name or Initial Last Name Page Numbers)

Book (3 or more authors)

Format: Last name, First name Middle name or initial, et al. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
In-text citation (Author Last Name et al. Page Numbers)

Chapter of a book

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Publisher, Publication Date.
Format: Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, Other Contributor (editor), Version, Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages of chapter).

Example

Palmer, Bryan D. “Shelter from the Storm: The Cold War and the Making of Early 1960s Canada.” Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era, University of Toronto Press, 2009, pp. 49-73.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Palmer, Bryan D.
2. Title of source “Shelter from the Storm: The Cold War and the Making of Early 1960s Canada.”
3. Title of container Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher University of Toronto Press,
8. Publication date 2009,
9. Location pp. 49-73.

eBooks

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Publisher, Publication Date.
Format: Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, Other Contributor (editor), Version, Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages of chapter), Internet Site, Location (URL).

Example

Garcia, Márquez G. Love in the Time of Cholera. OverDrive ed. Vintage International, 2003. https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/1956894.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source García, Márquez G.
2. Title of source Love in the Time of Cholera.
3. Title of container OverDrive ed.
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher Vintage International
8. Publication date 2003,
9. Location https://toronto.overdrive.com/media/1956894.

Webpage

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Publisher, Publication Date, Location. Optional Element – Date of Access.
Format: Author. “Title of Web page, posting or article.” Title of Web Site, Publisher (if applicable), Publication Date, Location (URL). Date of Access.

Example

Cartwright, Mark. “Ancient Greek Theatre.” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Ancient History Encyclopedia. 14 Jul. 2016. https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Theatre/

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Cartwright, Mark.
2. Title of source “Ancient Greek Theatre”
3. Title of container Ancient History Encyclopedia,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher Ancient History Encyclopedia.
8. Publication date 14 Jul. 2016
9. Location https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Theatre/

Media

Streaming video

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
Format: Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial (if available). “Title.” Internet Site, Publisher (if applicable), Publication Date, (2nd container if applicable), Location (URL).

Example

“Cultures, Subcultures, and Countercultures: Crash Course Sociology #11.” YouTube. CrashCourse, 22 May 2017, https://youtu.be/RV50AV7-Iwc

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source
2. Title of source “Cultures, Subcultures, and Countercultures: Crash Course Sociology #11.”
3. Title of container YouTube.
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher CrashCourse
8. Publication date 22 May 2017
9. Location https://youtu.be/RV50AV7-Iwc

Streaming video with timestamps

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial (if available). “Title.” Internet Site, Publication Date, (2nd container if applicable), Location (URL).

Example

Dir. Williams, Margaret and Sarah Frankcom. “Hamlet.” Film Movement, 2015, Kanopy. https://torontopl.kanopy.com/video/hamlet-3

Container 1
MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Dir. Williams, Margaret and Sarah Frankcom.
2. Title of source “Hamlet.”
3. Title of container
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher Film Movement,
8. Publication date 2015,
9. Location
Container 2
MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source
2. Title of source
3. Title of container Kanopy,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date
9. Location https://torontopl.kanopy.com/video/hamlet-3

Let’s say you would like to cite Hamlet’s famous soliloquy “To be or not to be” in Act 3, Scene 1 in the aforementioned source that you streamed through Kanopy. If you were to cite this specific speech using timestamps, here’s how it would look in MLA 8 as an in-text citation:

Core elements: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial (if available). “Title.” Internet Site, Publication Date, (2nd container if applicable), Location (URL).
Format: Format: Author Last Name, First Name or Initial (if available). “Title.” (1st container), Internet Site, Publication Date, (2nd container if applicable), Location (URL).

Example

Dir. Williams, Margaret and Sarah Frankcom. “To be or not to be.” Hamlet, Film Movement, 2015, Kanopy. https://torontopl.kanopy.com/video/hamlet-3

In-text citation: (“To be or not to be” 2:05:30-2:08:19)

Images

Core elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
Format: Format: Creator’s Last Name, First Name or Initial. Title of Work. Internet Site, Publication Date, Location (URL). Date of Access.

Example

Lange, Dorothea. “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.” America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black–and-White Photographs from FSA-OWI, 1935-1945. Library of Congress, 1936. http://loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998021539/PP/.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Lange, Dorothea.
2. Title of source “Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children. Age thirty-two.”
3. Title of container America from the Great Depression to World War II: Black–and-White Photographs from FSA-OWI, 1935-1945.
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher Library of Congress,
8. Publication date 1936.
9. Location http://loc.gov/pictures/item/fsa1998021539/PP/.

Journal articles

Core elements: Core Elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Number, Publication Date, Location. Title of 2nd container, Location.
Format: Last name, First name Middle name or initial. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, Publication Date (day & month as well as year if available), Location (URL).

Magazines

Example: Magazine (Print)

Kleiner, Kurt. “How will we fix fake news? Technology gave rise to the current problems, but technology alone won’t solve them.” University of Toronto Magazine, Spring 2020, pp. 31-35.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Kleiner, Kurt.
2. Title of source “How will we fix fake news? Technology gave rise to the current problems, but technology alone won’t solve them.”
3. Title of container University of Toronto Magazine,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date Spring 2020,
9. Location pp. 31-35.

Example: Magazine (Online)

LaFrance, Adrienne. “The Prophecies of Q: American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.” The Atlantic, Arsh Razuiddin, illustrator, Jun. 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source LaFrance, Adrienne.
2. Title of source “The Prophecies of Q: American conspiracy theories are entering a dangerous new phase.”
3. Title of container The Atlantic,
4. Other contributors Arsh Razuiddin, illustrator,
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date Jun. 2020,
9. Location https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/06/qanon-nothing-can-stop-what-is-coming/610567/.

Newspapers

Example: Newspaper (Print)

Picard, André. “Life with coronavirus can’t be risk-free, but we can minimize harms.” The Globe and Mail, Ontario Edition, 16 May 2020, A3.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Picard, André.
2. Title of source “Life with coronavirus can’t be risk-free, but we can minimize harms.”
3. Title of container The Globe and Mail,
4. Other contributors
5. Version Ontario Edition,
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date 16 May 2020,
9. Location A3.

Example: Newspaper (Online)

Astor, Maggie. “7 Times in History When Students Turned to Activism.” The New York Times, The New York Times Company. 5 Mar. 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/us/student-protest-movements.html.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Astor, Maggie.
2. Title of source “7 Times in History When Students Turned to Activism.”
3. Title of container The New York Times,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher The New York Times Company.
8. Publication date 5 Mar. 2018,
9. Location https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/us/student-protest-movements.html.

Academic journal article

Example: Academic journal article (Online)

Latour, Bruno. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 30, no. 2, 2004, pp. 225-248. University of Chicago Press Journals, https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1086/421123.

Container 1
MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Latour, Bruno.
2. Title of source “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.”
3. Title of container Critical Inquiry,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number vol. 30, no. 2,
7. Publisher
8. Publication date 2004
9. Location pp. 225-248.
Container 2
MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source
2. Title of source
3. Title of container University of Chicago Press Journals,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number
7. Publisher
8. Publication date
9. Location https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.1086/421123.

Academic journal article (Print)

Latour, Bruno. “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 30, no. 2, 2004, pp. 225-248.

MLA Core Element Corresponding source information
1. Author of source Latour, Bruno.
2. Title of source “Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.”
3. Title of container Critical Inquiry,
4. Other contributors
5. Version
6. Number vol. 30, no. 2,
7. Publisher
8. Publication date 2004
9. Location pp. 225-248.

Other MLA style examples

If you want to see examples of other types of works cited list entries, please review these:

Act (statute / legislation)

Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, Consolidated Statues of Ontario, c. 11. Government of Ontario. Ontario. 2006. Government of Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/05a11

Blog post

Kandel, Michael. “Be Skeptical When You Read You First Draft.” Behind the Style, Modern Language Association of America, 1 Apr. 2020, https://style.mla.org/skepticism-and-first-drafts/.

Brochure / pamphlet

Canadian Museum of History. Lace up! Canada’s Passion for Skating. Canadian Museum of History, 2020, https://www.historymuseum.ca/event/lace-up-canadas-passion-for-skating/.

Dictionary (online)

“iambic, adj. and n.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, Jun. 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/90681.

Music recording (song from album)

Buffalo Springfield. “For what it’s worth.” iTunes app, Atlantic Recording Corp., 1969.

Podcast episode

Paikin, Steve and John Michael McGrath, hosts. “Ep. 61 - Why Ontario’s job numbers didn’t go up.” #onpoli, season 4, episode 61, TVO, 5 June 2020. https://www.tvo.org/video/ep-61-why-ontarios-job-numbers-didnt-go-up

Social media (Twitter)

@TheAgenda. “Density is a planning problem. Crowding is a money problem tvo.org/article/density-is-a-planning-problem-crowding-is-a-money-problem by @jm_mcgrath.” Twitter, 6 Jun. 2020, https://twitter.com/TheAgenda/status/12.

Television (single episode from a series)

“Challenges for Ontario’s Universities and Colleges.” The Agenda, Steven Paikin, host., season 14, TVO, 3 Jun. 2020.

How to cite sources in your assignments?

Even though you have put someone else’s ideas or information into your own words (i.e. paraphrased), you still need to show where the original idea or information came from. This is all part of the academic writing process. When citing in text within an assignment, use the author(s) last name followed by the year of publication.

Direct quotation

Reproduce word for word material directly quoted from another author’s work or from your own previously published work, material replicated from a test item, and verbatim instructions to participants.

Direct quotation type No. 1

No. 1: Four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse and if the quotation appears in the middle of a sentence
How to cite: Incorporate it into text as a quote using double quotation marks.
Example: Interpreting these results, Robbins et al. suggested that the “therapists in dropout cases may have inadvertently validated parental negativity about the adolescent without adequately responding to the adolescent’s needs or concerns” (541), contributing to an overall climate of negativity.

Direct quotation type No. 2

No. 2: Four typed lines or fewer of prose or three lines of verse and if the quotation appears at the end of a sentence.
How to cite: Use quotation marks to indicate the beginning and end of a quote, cite the source in parentheses immediately after the quotation marks, and end with a period or other punctuation outside the final parentheses.
Example: Confounding this issue is the overlapping nature of roles in palliative care, whereby “medical needs are met by those in the medical disciplines; nonmedical needs may be addressed by anyone on the team” (Csikai & Chaitin 112).

Direct quotation type No. 3

No. 3: More than four lines of prose or three lines of verse.
How to cite: Display the quote in a freestanding block of text and omit quotation marks. Start a block quotation on a new line and indent the block about half of an inch from the left margin (in the same position as a new paragraph).
Example: See following table.

Bryan Palmer explains the material basis of imagined communities and nationalism in his exploration of Canadian identity:

At their most basic, nations are rooted in a material space (a common territory or homeland), rest on the historically repetitious elaboration of common memories and mythologies, develop a relatively shared public mass culture and evolve a set of recognized legal-political-economic relations (Palmer 6).

Paraphrasing

You can use three general formats to reference citations in text:

Format No. 1

Palmer draws attention to the contradictory and ironic process of identity formation that are historically conditioned. He illustrates the manner in which nationalism suppresses the plurality of identity (7)

Format No. 2

He draws attention to the contradictory and ironic process of identity formation that are historically conditioned. He illustrates the manner in which nationalism suppresses the plurality of identity (Palmer 7).

When paraphrasing or referring to an idea contained in another work, you are encouraged to provide a page or paragraph number, especially when it would help a reader locate the relevant passage in a long or complex text.

Format No. 3

No. 3: Direct quotation of online material without pagination.
How to cite: Credit direct quotations of online material by giving the author and page number in parentheses. If the paragraph numbers are visible, use them in place of page numbers. Use the abbreviation para.
Example: Basu and Jones went so far as to suggest the need for a new “intellectual framework in which to consider the nature and form of regulation in cyberspace” (para. 4).

In-text citation of plays

  • An MLA in-text citation contains the author’s last name and a page number:

(Williams 45)

If the text of the play includes line numbers, replace the page number with the act, scene, and line numbers, separated by periods. Using Hamlet’s famous soliloquy “To be or not to be” in Act 3, Scene 1 as our model:

(Shakespeare 3.1.56–91)

Non-standard in-text citations

In-text citation type How to cite
Corporate author Use the name of the corporation instead of a personal name: (Health Canada 7). No page numbers: (Health Canada).
Groups (readily identified through abbreviation) as authors (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH])
Groups (no abbreviation) as authors (University of Toronto)

Works Cited

Modern Languages Association. “The MLA Style Sheet.” PMLA, vol. 66, no. 3, 1951, pp. 3-31. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2699076