https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ MLA Review https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

MLA AT A GLANCE MLA is a format, you may not deviate from the format or you risk plagiarism Think of it as fill in the blank. Capitalization, punctuation, spacing, and spelling are all important. Double, triple, quadruple check. MLA has 3 main components: works cited, parenthetical citations, and page formatting.

Works Cited All sources used must be listed on the works cited page. Use hanging indents. If the first required item (usually the author) is missing from your source, start with the next required item (usually the title). This happens a lot with websites. If there are more than three authors or editors, list only the first one followed by et al. (meaning and others). Put a colon ( : ) between the title and subtitle. Always follow a colon or a period with two spaces. Sources are always cited alphabetically.

WORK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR Structure Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title. Publisher, Copyright Date. Example Smith, John. Space: The Greatest Expanse in the Universe. Harper Collins, 2003.

WORK BY TWO OR THREE AUTHORS (USE COMMAS TO SEPARATE NAMES) Structure First Author’s Last Name, First Author’s First Name, and Second Author’s Full Name. Title. Publisher, Copyright Date. Example Smith, John H., and Mary L. Lamb. Space: The Greatest Expanse in the Universe. Harper Collins, 2003.

WORK BY A SINGLE EDITOR Structure Editor’s Last Name, Editor’s First Name, ed. Title. Publisher, Copyright Date. Example Smith, John, ed. Space: The Greatest Expanse in the Universe. Harper Collins, 2003.

GENERAL ENCYCLOPEDIAS (WORLD BOOK, BRITANNICA, ETC.) Structure "Article Title." Name of Encyclopedia. Edition, Year. Example "Space." World Book Encyclopedia. 3rd ed., 2000.

MAGAZINES Structure Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. "Article Title." Magazine Title. Day Month Year, page (s) . Example Smith, John. "Writing Research Papers: How to Write the Best Paper of Your Class." Writer’s Magazine. 15 Jan. 2002, pp.123-24.

NEWSPAPERS Structure Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. "Newspaper Article Title." Newspaper Title. Day Month Year, page(s). Example Smith, John. "Local School Helps Students Write Better Papers." LA Times. 15 Oct. 2001, p. D12.

Websites Structure Author’s and/or Editor’s Last Name, Author’s and or Editor’s First Name. Name of Site. Version Number(s). Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI, or permalink. Date of access. Example Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003, www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/. Accessed 10 May 2006.

An Image From a Website Artist's Last Name, Artist’s First Name. Title of Piece, Date of creation, Institution and city where the work is housed. Name of the Website, date of access. Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo National del Prado. 22 May 2006.

VIDEOTAPES & DVDs of MOVIES Structure Title. Director, Producer, and/or Writers. Distributor, Release Year. Example Space. Directed by John Smith, A&E, Beth Beck, 1999.

Textbook (with an author) Textbook (with an author) *if there is more than one author use all author’s names, or et al after the first author listed. Structure Author’s Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title, edition number. City of Publication: Publishing House, Year Published. Example Doe, John. Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes, 2nd edition. Castle Rock: Penguin Press, 2009.

Textbook (with an editor) Textbook (with an editor) *if there is more than one editor use all editor’s names, or et al after the first editor listed. Structure Editor’s Last Name, Editor’s First name, ed. Title, edition number. City of Publication: Publishing House, Year Published. Example Doe, John, ed. Prentice Hall Literature: Timeless Voices, Timeless Themes, 2nd edition. Castle Rock; Penguin Press, 2009.

Parenthetical Citations When the passage you want to quote is less than three lines long, use inline style.   Long quotes can start to look like filler. Only use a block quote if you have a very good reason to include the whole passage. Save space, and make it much easier on the reader by paraphrasing or summarizing

Citing an Inline Quotation

Citing a Block Quote (more than three lines)

Parenthetical Citations Tips The parenthetical citation appears outside the quoted material. The period that ends the sentence comes after the close parenthesis. (This is different from block quotes) For block quotes place the parenthetical citation (the author’s name and the page number) after the period. Put brackets [ ] around any changes you make to a direct quote. There is no comma between the author’s name and the page number. If the quotation runs across more than one page: (Wordsworth-Fuller 20-21) or (Wordsworth-Fuller 420- 21).

Paraphrasing and Summarizing Tips Use paraphrasing and summarizing for variety, or to make a passing reference without taking up much space. If you use an author’s idea, rephrased in your own words, you must still cite the idea.

Citing a Paraphrase or Summary

MLA Formatting White paper, black ink. 1-inch margins all around 2.0 line height (double-spaced) no extra spacing after paragraphs 12-point typeface (usually Times New Roman) Heading (upper left hard corner) (double spaced) Your name My name Class and hour Date Your last name and page number in upper right hand corner starting on page 2 Title centered, no bold, no underline, no italics, same font and font size.