MLA Quick Reference and Citation Guide MLA QUICK REFERENCE AND CITATION GUIDE Overview ....................................................................................................... 2 In-text citations: General notes ...................................................................... 2 Placement of in-text references .............................................................................. 2 Providing page numbers ......................................................................................... 3 Citing multiple sources............................................................................................ 3 Secondary citations ................................................................................................ 3 Citing works by the same author............................................................................. 3 Citing works by authors with the same surname..................................................... 4 Citing quotations ..................................................................................................... 4 Footnotes................................................................................................................ 4 In-text citations: Examples ............................................................................. 5 Reference list: General notes ......................................................................... 7 Format .................................................................................................................... 7 Capitalisation .......................................................................................................... 7 Order of entries ....................................................................................................... 7 Subdivisions............................................................................................................ 8 Authors’ names ....................................................................................................... 8 Place of publication................................................................................................. 8 Publisher’s name .................................................................................................... 8 Other kinds of source lists ...................................................................................... 9 Reference list: Examples ................................................................................ 9 Periodicals .............................................................................................................. 9 Books.................................................................................................................... 10 Encyclopaedias and dictionaries........................................................................... 14 Websites ............................................................................................................... 14 Technical and research reports ............................................................................ 15 Working papers..................................................................................................... 15 Meetings and symposia ........................................................................................ 15 Theses and dissertations ...................................................................................... 15 Audiovisual media................................................................................................. 16 Blog posts and internet message boards.............................................................. 17 Legal and public documents ................................................................................. 17 Miscellaneous ....................................................................................................... 18
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Secondary citations ................................................................................................ 3 Citing works by the same author ............................................................................. 3 Citing works by authors with the same surname..................................................... 4
Reference list: General notes ......................................................................... 7
Format .................................................................................................................... 7 Capitalisation .......................................................................................................... 7
Order of entries ....................................................................................................... 7
Subdivisions............................................................................................................ 8 Authors’ names ....................................................................................................... 8 Place of publication ................................................................................................. 8 Publisher’s name .................................................................................................... 8
Other kinds of source lists ...................................................................................... 9
Books .................................................................................................................... 10 Encyclopaedias and dictionaries........................................................................... 14
Websites ............................................................................................................... 14 Technical and research reports ............................................................................ 15 Working papers ..................................................................................................... 15 Meetings and symposia ........................................................................................ 15
Theses and dissertations ...................................................................................... 15 Audiovisual media ................................................................................................. 16 Blog posts and internet message boards .............................................................. 17
Legal and public documents ................................................................................. 17 Miscellaneous ....................................................................................................... 18
When citing works by different authors with the same surname, their first initials must
be used to distinguish between them, even if the years of publication are different. For
example:
(R. Carr; E. H. Carr)
Citing quotations
In shorter quotations, the author’s name should precede the quotation, and the page
number should be listed at the end. For example:
Orsini argues that ‘it is important to learn how to reference correctly’ (78).
Quotations that extend for more than four lines when they are run into the text should
be formatted as block quotations. The citation can be formatted in a manner similar to
the above, with the closing punctuation for the block quotation appearing before the
page number. For example:
Pérez Collado explained the following:
The group that went, we went as a man. We went, not as soldiers, because
we did not consider ourselves to be soldiers, but as a group. And I tell you,
there were ten of us, as we considered that there were ten of us, nine men
and a woman! (p. 57)
Footnotes
Two kinds of footnotes may be used in MLA:
Content notes provide comment, explanation or information that the text cannot accommodate. They should only be used if they provide essential justification or clarification of what you have written, for example, to give full publication facts for an original source for which you have cited a secondary source or to explain why you worked from secondary material.
Bibliographic notes are used for references containing several sources or for evaluative comments on sources.
Australian House of Representatives (Australia, House of Representatives )
Notes: a If you are citing a commonly studied prose work that is available in several editions, add the chapter number or any other identifying
information you can. In citing commonly studied verse plays and poems, omit page numbers and cite by division (act, scene, canto, book, part)
and line) separated by full stops. If you are citing only line numbers, use the word ‘line’ or ‘lines’ for the first citation only. For unpaginated
sources, use the chapter number or similar designation. b The full title (if brief) or a shortened version is used unless the title appears in your text. c It is better to use a long name in the text, but if you give the name in a parenthetical citation, shorten terms that are commonly abbreviated. d If
an author has multiple publications in the list of works cited, include the title (if brief) or a shortened version in the parenthetical citation.