How Do I Use MLA Citation?

Professors continuously drill into the heads of their students the importance of properly citing resource materials in written assignments. However, with a multitude of citation styles, maintaining uniformity and consistency can be a challenge. Instructors or institutions will frequently dictate a particular style, such as MLA, but even when you know what style to use, it can be difficult to understand how to apply the style. MLA citation was developed by the Modern Language Association and its current incarnation is found in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. MLA is usually found in English studies, research in humanities, literary and media critiques and other related disciplines.

Application of MLA Styles

MLA citation, like most citation styles, attempts to establish a uniform method of giving proper credit for the work of other authors and academes. It does so through a combination of guidelines, which cover the formatting of bibliographic information. Though MLA does not dictate referencing style, it does recommend the use of Harvard parenthetical referencing while not ruling out the possible use of footnotes or endnotes for citations or inclusion of side comments and information. Two significant notes regarding MLA are that it requires the name of the author to appear exactly as it appears in the byline of the publication or source except the last name always goes first and the ampersand (&) is never used between author names when there are multiple authors.

Book Citations

Like all citation styles, MLA calls for the author’s name, when available, to be listed first in any citation, otherwise start with the book or article title. In stark contrast to APA style, MLA then calls for the title of the book or, in the case of anthologies and encyclopedia resources, the title of the article next. If the name of an article is second, then the title of the book or encyclopedia goes next, along with the volume number. Remember, with MLA the title of the book should always be underlined and the name of an individual article put in quotation marks. The editor’s name, when available, is noted next with “Ed.” before the name. The entry for books is then completed with the location of publishing, the publishing company and date without the date being in parentheses. If the entry is for an anthology or encyclopedia, the same information is at the end, but with the referenced pages noted last.

Periodicals

The citations of newspaper, journal and magazine articles, for the most part, follow the same pattern as for book and encyclopedia citations except for two matters. First, no editor information, publication location or publisher information is included. Second, when noting the date, the absolute date of publication is listed (day, month, season, etc.). If the article is reprinted from another source, the original source information is listed in the standard manner first, followed by the information on the reprinting periodical or anthology, preceded by the abbreviation “Rpt.”

Internet Sources

Since we just talked about periodicals, we will start this section with citing periodical articles found on the Internet. Citing journal, newspaper or magazine articles from the Internet is initially identical to printed articles. However, at the end of the citation the date the article was access is added along with (in standard brackets) the URL where the article was found. In the case of articles found in an Internet database, the citation is ended with the name of the database, the database host name, the name of the access portal host (if not the same as the database host), the date of access, and finally the URL leading to the access page are cited.

This leads us to the citing of websites and web pages. In MLA, this can get a little confusing. When citing an entire website, the pattern of citation is website name (underlined), publication date (more on this in a moment), the hosting domain (if different from the website name), the access date and finally the website URL. Now for confusing issue number one. When citing a specific web page, the pattern is author name (if known), web page title (in quotation marks), the website name (underlined), the editor (if known), publication date (again, more in a moment on this), the hosting domain, date of access and finally the URL to the specific web page cited. Confusing issue number two is in regards to the publication date of websites and web pages. For magazine, journal, and even blog articles, the exact date is usually posted with the article, but not necessarily so for websites or web pages. Frequently, researchers will find the only date reference will be something like “copyright 1992-2008.” The confusion enters in that some web pages are dynamically assembled either by batch page programs using a generic copyright notification to prepare new or edited web pages, or by “server side includes” which take generic text from a shared source and paste it into the web page, creating a generic copyright for all pages on a give website. The web page content might have been written in 1994, but the generic copyright as above inserted by the assembling program or “server side include” masks this fact. The safest way to handle this situation is to cite the last year mentioned in the copyright notification.

Final Words

Citations for written reports, essays and dissertations are an important concern. Writers and other intellectual creators deserve proper credit for their work and ideas and when this credit is not given properly, it can make you look dishonest or careless. Keeping yourself properly organized and fully documenting your research work is the only way to ensure that this matter is properly addressed. Some students use index cards or mind mapping programs to assist them in keeping track of research information and citation materials, must as the professional writers who work for us do routinely. The difference is, students do not always have the luxury of time available. For our writers this is not an issue … it is their job, and they take great pride in doing it well. Contact us today to tap into the experience and talent each of our writers possesses.