Here are some basic guidelines for MLA style citations. For more technical or specific questions, the MLA Handbook has a solution for practically any situation you might encounter.
For in-text citations, MLA uses parenthetical citations. The key point is the initial identifying information about the source from the full bibliographic citation, such as the title if no author name is apparent, and something that will identify where in the source the citation is coming from, such as a paragraph number if there is no page number. Most often this involves the author name and page number as follows (Author's last name page number).
Example: Reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (Baron 194).
If you cite the author earlier in the sentence, you only need to provide the page number.
Example: According to Baron, reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (194).
For Works Cited, the list is in alphabetical order based on author name. Please consult the full MLA guide for any other source type you might need to cite.
For any source, MLA citations follow the same format with whatever element is necessary for that work:
Format: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location. Title of Container, Other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location.
You may think we copied something twice, but we didn't! For example, if it's a stand-alone book, it is not within a container, but the rest of the first section would be filled in. However, if it was an e-book, the second section would be filled in with information about where the e-book is found. This can be confusing, but look at the examples below and see if you can see how it maps out with the practice template.
Online journal articles example: Goldman, Anne. "Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante." The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.
Books example: Gikandi, Simon. Ngugi wa Thiong'o. Cambridge UP, 2000. ALCS Humanities E-book, hdl.handle.net/2027/heb/07588.0001.001.
Edited volume example: Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Masque of the Red Death." The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. Hathitrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079574368;view=1up;seq=266.
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Here are some basic guidelines for Chicago style citations. Turabian style is a condensed version of Chicago specifically created for students. For citations they are nearly identical but the Turabian manual is more approachable. The Chicago Manual of Style has guidance for nearly any situation or source type you are trying to cite.
For in-text references, there are two ways you can cite materials. The first one, notes-bibliography, or notes, style, is mostly used in humanities, and author-date style, is often used in social sciences and natural and physical sciences.
e.g. By 1911, according to one expert, an Amazon was "any woman rebel-which, to a lot of people, meant any girl who left home and went to college."1
For this style the first time you cite a work you will put a full bibliographic citation for the source in the note, though the formatting is slightly different from that in the bibliography. Afterwards you will only have to put an abbreviated version of the citation:
First note citation: Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman. (New York: Vintage Books, 2015), 17.
Subsequent citations: Lepore, Wonder Woman, 28-29.
Bibliographic citation: Lepore, Jill. The Secret History of Wonder Woman. New York: Vintage Books, 2015.
By 1911, according to one expert, an Amazon was "any woman rebel-which, to a lot of people, meant any girl who left home and went to college" (Lepore 2015, 17).
For the Bibliography it will be in alphabetical order based on author name for either citation style.
Journal article
Format: Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article." Title of Journal Volume number, Issue Number (Date of Publication): Page Range. URL/DOI if found online.
Note format: Firstname Lastname, "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article," Title of Journal Volume number, Issue Number (Date of Publication): Page Number, URL/DOI if found online.
Example: Van Deusen, Natalie. "'Doubleday Affaren': The Story of Sigrid Undset's Caterina Av Siena." Scandinavian Studies 87, no. 3 (2015): 383-400. 10.5406/scanstud.87.3.0383.
Books
Format: Lastname, Firstname.Title of Book: Subtitle of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher's Name, Date of Publication.
Note format: Firstname Lastname, Title of Book: Subtitle of Book (Place of Publication: Publisher's Name, Date of Publication), page number(s).
Example: Brooks, Gwendolyn. Maud Martha. Chicago: Third World Press, 1993.
Newspaper Article
Format: Lastname, Firstname. "Article title." Newspaper name, date published. URL.
Note format: Firstname Lastname, "Article title," Newspaper name, date published, URL.
Example: Bernton, Hal. "Nagasaki survivor says Hanford neglects bombing's human costs." Seattle Times, March 11, 2018.
Website note: often there will not be an author, in which case you will just use the title in the note, and list it under the title of the website in the bibliography.
Format: Lastname, Firstname OR Website. "Name of Page." Name of section (if relevant). Last modified Month date, year. URL.
Note format: Firstname Lastname, "Name of Page," Name of section (if relevant), Website, Last modified Month date, year, URL.
Example: Google. "Privacy Policy." Privacy & Terms. Last modified March 25, 2016. http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacypolicy.html.
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