MLA Documentation Including 2016 Updates

Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.

ContainersThe concept of containers is crucial to MLA style. When the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source. For example, a short story may be contained in an anthology. The short story is the source, and the anthology is the container.

Core ElementsEach entry in the list of works cited is composed of facts common to most works—the MLA core elements. They are assembled in a specific order.

Pay attention to whether it is a

period or a comma between info

in quotation marks

in italics

vol.

no.

website addresspage numbers

consistent double space--including works cited page

12 pt Times font

1" margins

indent

Using Citation Generators---DON'T---Not updated and you'll have to fix too much to get it correct.

Example 1. A student entered an ISBN for a book directly into a generator.

GENERATOR EXAMPLE Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation: And Other Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966. Print. STUDENT’S CORRECTED EXAMPLE Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1966.

Example 2. A student is citing the book The Dubliners, found online on Project Gutenberg, and is prompted to enter information manually.

GENERATOR EXAMPLE Joyce, James. The Dubliners. Project Gutenberg. 1 Apr. 2016. Web. .STUDENT’S CORRECTED EXAMPLE Joyce, James. "The Dubliners". Project Gutenberg, 1 Apr. 2016, www.gutenberg.org/files/2814/2814-h/2814-h.htm.

Example 3. A student read a short story in the book The Dubliners, found online on Project Gutenberg.

GENERATOR EXAMPLE Joyce, James. “A Painful Case.” The Dubliners. Project Gutenberg. 1 Apr. 2016. Web. . NORA CARR, PUBLISHED BY THE MODERN

LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (STYLE.MLA.ORG) STUDENT’S CORRECTED EXAMPLE Joyce, James. “A Painful Case.” The Dubliners. Project Gutenberg, 1 Apr. 2016, www.gutenberg.org/files/2814/2814-h/2814-h.htm.

Example 4. A student looked at the image located at www.moma.org/collection/works/79802 and manually entered information into the generator.

GENERATOR EXAMPLE Van Gogh, Vincent. The Starry Night. Digital image. MoMA. MoMA, n.d. Web.STUDENT’S CORRECTED EXAMPLE Gogh, Vincent van. The Starry Night. 1889. MOMA, Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/collection/works/79802.

Miscellaneous

In Parenthetical Citations

New guidelines for shortened titles. Shortened titles in parenthetical citations should include all the words of the noun phrase by which the title is alphabetized on the Works Cited page, except “a,” “an,” or “the.” If the title does not begin with a noun phrase, the word it begins with should be used alone (MLA 118).

The End of the Beginning ("End" 43) “Ten Great Uses for Baking Soda” (“Ten Great Uses” 2) “Now it begins” (“Now” 3)

The pamphlet’s attack on the tax hike was vicious (“Murderous Legislators” 24).

“Et al.” is now used for all groups of more than two authors. If a source has three authors or more, those names appear as First Author et al., even on first reference. This is true in-text, in parenthetical citations, and on the “Works Cited” list.

Access date is “optional,” and usually omitted. Unless your teacher requires it, you don’t have to list the day you looked up an online source.

Aron, Stephen. “The History of the American West Gets a Much-Needed Rewrite.” Smithsonian.com, 16 Aug.2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/ history/history-american-west-gets-much-needed-rewrite-180960149/.

Numbers now have labels. For journal and magazine articles, “vol.” precedes the volume number and “no.” precedes the issue number. When pages are listed, “p.” comes before single page numbers and “pp.” now comes before page ranges. The format of parenthetical in-text citations, however, does not change (MLA 39-40, 46, 54).

Shaw, George Bernard. “Pygmalion.” The Norton Introduction to Literature. Edited by Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter, Shorter 7th ed., W.W. Norton Company, 1998, pp. 1080-1154.

Carroll, Meg. “Identities in Dialogue: Patterns in the Chaos.” The Writing Center Journal, vol. 28, no. 1, 2008, pp. 43-62

Other Abbreviations on Works Cited: volume-->vol. number-->no. Months need abbreviated to 3 lettersUniversity-->U Press-->P