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Citation Guides

Works Cited: Audio Recordings

 

Audiobook

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Narrated by Sissy Spacek, audiobook ed., unabridged ed., HarperAudio, 8 July 2014.

 

Music - Album

Schwartz, Stephen. The Prince of Egypt: A New Musical. Ghostlight Records LLC, 2020.

 

Music - Song

Beyoncé. "Pretty Hurts." Beyoncé, Parkwood Entertainment, 2013, www.beyonce.com/album/beyonce/?media_view=songs.

Lopez, Jennifer. "Vivir mi vida." Sony Music Latin, 2017. Spotify app.

 

Podcast

"Episode Name." Podcast Name, hosted by First name Last name, podcast ed., Producer or Studio, Date of release. Means of listening.

"Yiyun Li Reads 'On the Street Where You Live.'" The Writer's Voice: New Fiction from The New Yorker, hosted by Deborah Treisman, podcast ed., The New Yorker and WNYC Studios, 3 Jan. 2017. iTunes app.

Works Cited: Blog

Author of specific entry Last name, First Name. "Entry Title." Blog Name, Publication Date, DOI or URL. Publisher or Website name. 

Hayes, Terrence. "The Wicked Candor of Wanda Coleman." The Paris Review, 12 June 2020, www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/06/12/the-wicked-candor-of-wanda-coleman/. The Daily.

Works Cited: Book

 

One Author - Original, Translated, and Edited forms

Author Last name, First name Middle initial [if given]. Title. Translator First name Last name [if applicable], Editor First name Last name [if applicable], Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Pantheon, 1998.

Shen Fu. Six Records of a Life Adrift. Translated by Graham Sanders, Hackett Publishing, 2011.

 

Two Authors

First Author Last name, First name, and Second Author First name Last name. Title. Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HarperCollins Publishers, 1999.

 

More than Two Authors

First Author Last name, First name, et al. Title. Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Charon, Rita, et al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, 2017.

 

Unknown Author (Anonymous)

Format like a typical book, but leave the author off and begin with the title.

Title. Translator First name Last name [if applicable], Editor First name Last name [if applicable], Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Beowulf. Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.

Lazarillo de Tormes. Medina del Campo, 1554.

 

Illustrated

Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. Illustrated by John Tenniel, Bantam Books, 2006.

 

Published in a Numbered or Named Edition

Author Last name, First name. Title. Editor First name Last name [if applicable], Named edition [if applicable], Numbered edition [if applicable], Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Milkis, Sidney M., and Michael Nelson. The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-1993. 2nd ed., CQ Press, 1994.

Wollstonecraft, Mary. A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Edited by Deidre Shauna Lynch, Norton Critical Edition, 3rd ed., W. W. Norton, 2009.

 

Comic Books or Graphic Novels.

Author Last name, First name. Title. Series name [if applicable, volume or issue number [if applicable], Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Clowes, Daniel. David Boring. Eightball, no. 19, Fantagraphics, 1998.

NOTE: If part of a mega-brand like Superman, the X-Men, or Spiderman, lead with the brand as part of the title, with the author of that specific title coming after the title. Include the illustrator, Inker, and Colorist.

Brand: Title. By Author First name Last name, illustrated by First name Last name, inked by First name Last name, colored by First name Last name, Publisher, Year of publishing.

Superman: Birthright. By Marc Waid, illustrated by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Gerry Alanguilan, colored by Dave McCaig, DC Comics, 2005.

 

Published in an E-Book Version

As a general E-Book (such as Kindle):

Author Last name, First name. Title. E-book ed., Publisher, Year of Publishing.

O'Connor, Patricia. Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English. E-book ed., Riverhead Books, 2009.

On a website:

Author Last name, First name. Title. Publisher, Year of Publishing. Website/Database name, DOI/URL/Accessed on.

Gikandi, Simon. NGugi wa Thiong'o. Cambridge UP, 2000. ACLS Humanities E-Book, hdl.handle.net/2027/heb.07588.0001.001.

Published in an app:

Author Last name, First name. Title. Version [if applicable]. App name, app version, Publisher, Year of Publishing. App.

The Bible. King James Version. Bible Gateway, version 42, Bible Gateway / Zondervan, 2016. App.

Works Cited: Dissertations and Theses

 

Basic Citation

Author Last name, First name. Title. Publishing Year. University abbreviated, type of dissertation/thesis.
Njus, Jesse. Performing the Passion: A Study on the Nature of Medieval Acting. 2010. Northwestern U, PhD dissertation.
 

 Dissertation or Thesis Accessed via a Database

Author Last name, First name. Title. Publishing Year. University abbreviated, type of dissertation/thesis. Database, DOI/URL/Accessed on.
Njus, Jesse. Performing the Passion: A Study on the Nature of Medieval Acting. 2010. Northwestern U, PhD dissertation. ProQuest, search-proquest.com/docview/305212264.

Works Cited: Government or Legal Document

 

Government

Government Entity, Committee name [if applicable], Document title. Publisher, Year of Publishing.

Great Britain, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. Out Countryside, the Future: A Fair Deal for Rural England. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 2000.

New York State, Committee on State Prisons. Investigations of the New York State Prisons. 1883. Arno Press, 1974.

United Nations. Consequences of Rapid Population Growth in Developing Countries. Taylor and Francis, 1991.

U.S. Department of Labor. Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-2015. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014.

Works Cited: Journal/Magazine Article

 

Basic Entry (For Print Versions)

Author Last name, First name. "Article title." Journal, vol. #, no. #, Year of publication, page numbers.

NOTE:  If given, include the season in the year of publication, such as "Spring 2016."

Boggs, Colleen Glenney. "Public Reading and the Civil War Draft Lottery." American Periodicals, vol. 26, no. 2, 2016, pp. 149-66.

 

From a Database or Online

Author Last name, First name. "Article." Journal, vol. #, no. #, Publication Date, page numbers. Database name, DOI/URL/Accessed on.

Fisher, Margaret. "The Music of Ezra Pound." Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 80, nos. 3-4, Apr. 2006, pp. 139-60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40859548.

NOTE: If you download a PDF version of the article, specify it by adding [PDF download.] to the very end of the entry.

Fisher, Margaret. "The Music of Ezra Pound." Yale University Library Gazette, vol. 80, nos. 3-4, Apr. 2006, pp. 139-60. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40859548. PDF download.

 

By an Organization (Corporate Author)

Full title of authoring organization/committee. "Article." Journal, vol. #, no. #, Publication Date, page numbers.

MLA Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Languages. "Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World." Profession, 2007, pp. 234-45.

Works Cited: News Publication

 

Reported by a News Service

Author Last name, First name [if provided]. "Headline." Newspaper name, Date of Publication, DOI/URL/Accessed on.

NOTE: If in print, use page numbers in place of the DOI/URL/Accessed on.

"Evacuation Order Lifted at Nice Airport." The Boston Globe, 15 July 2016, www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/07/15/evacuation-progress-nice-airport/KO4BytWK4wFUOxjEkSpKTN/story.html.

 

Opinion or Editorial

Opinions and Editorials are formatted in the same way as a regular article, but if the URL does not make clear that it is an "opinion" piece, tack "Op-ed." to the end of the citation.

Editorial Board. "How to Tell Truth from Fiction in the Age of Fake News." Chicago Tribune, 21 Nov. 2016, www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-fake-news-facebook-edit-1120-md-20161118-story.html.

Gergen, David. "A Question of Values." US News and World Report, 11 Feb. 2002, p. 72. Op-ed.

Works Cited: Live Performance

 

Concert

Beyoncé. The Formation World Tour. 14 May 2016, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles.

Lynn, Loretta. Concert. South by Southwest, 17 Mar. 2016, Stubb's, Austin.

Sing Me the Universal: A Walt Whitman Bicentennial. Conducted by Mark Shapiro, performed by Cecilia Chorus of New York, 2 Mar. 2019, Church of Saint Frances Xavier, New York City.

 

Dance

Brown, Trisha. Foray Forêt. Performance by Trisha Brown Dance Company, 28 Sept. 2019, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

 

Play

Shaw, George Bernard. Heartbreak House. Directed by Robin Lefevre, Roundabout Theatre Company, 11 Oct. 2006, American Airlines Theater, New York City.

Works Cited: Personal Communications

This includes Interviews, Emails, Letters (personal or published), Text messages, etc.

NOTE: For any communications that you were personally a part of, you can list your name as normal, or simply say "author," which indicates yourself as the author of your paper. Several of the examples below demonstrate how to do this.

 

E-mail and Text Messages

NOTE: E-mail should be hyphenated wherever it appears, unless formatted otherwise within a quote.

Sender Last name, First name. E-mail [or] Text message to the Receiver First name Last name. Date sent.
Elahi, Nareen. E-mail to Standards Committee. 15 Jan. 2019.
Lemuelson, Erik. Text message to the author. 3 May 2018.
Pierson, Collette. E-mail to the author. 1 June 2019.
Zamora, Estelle. E-mail to Penny Kinkaid. 3 May 2018.
 

Interview - Published

A published interview should be treated like an article within whatever publication format it is in, but the name of the person being interviewed is in place of an "author." If the person conducting the interview is listed, their name should come after the interview title (if not, leave it out), and then the citation continues as normal. For example:
Person being interviewed Last name, First name. "Title of Interview." Interview by Interviewer First name Last name. Publication name, edited by [if known], City, Year of publication, page numbers.

Saro-Wiwa, Ken. "English is the Hero." Interview by Diri I. Teilanyo. No Condition is Permanent: Nigerian Writing and the Struggle for Democracy, edited by Holger Ehling and Claus-Peter Holste-von Mutius, Rodopi, 2001, pp. 13-19.

 

Interview - Unpublished

Person being interviewed Last name, First name. Means of interview. Interviewer First name Last name [if known], Date of interview.

Salter, Margaret. Interview. Conducted by Susan Lang, 22 Oct. 2002.

Wexler, Jojo. Telephone interview with author. 3 Nov. 2019.

 

Letter - Published in a book

Author Last name, First name. "Title of Letter as given." Date of sending. Title of Book, edited by First name Last name, Publisher, Date of publishing, page number(s).

Woolf, Virginia. "To T.S. Eliot." 28 July 1920. The Letters of Virginia Woolf, edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann, vol. 2, Harvest Books / Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976, pp. 437-38.

 

Letter - Published in a news publication

Author Last name, First name. "Title of Letter as given." News Publication name, Date of publishing, page number [or] DOI/URL/Accessed on.

Malone, Ruth. "Bonds that Bind." East Bay Express, 24 Apr. 2013,www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/letters-for-the-week-of-april-24-30-2012/Content?oid=3530171.

 

Letter - Unpublished/Personal

Author Last name, First name. Letter to [addressee First name Last name]. Date of sending. Type of script used.

Apfelbaum, D. S. Letter to Vincent Marist. 11 Mar. 1946. Manuscript.

Murrow, Irena. Letter to the author. 5 Apr. 2016. Typescript.

 

Newsletters

Author Last name, First name (if given). "Article title." Newsletter name, Publisher, Date of sending. Means of receipt.

"Member Success Stories." The MLA Commons Newsletter, Modern Language Association of America, 7 Sept. 2016. E-mail.

 

Personal Communication

This might include a personal conversation with your professor, or a brief conversation with a presenter after their talk, or an informal chat with an author at a book signing, etc. 

Person you talked with Last name, First name. Personal communication with author. 11 Feb. 2017.
Santiago, Robert. Personal communication with author. 11 Feb. 2017.

 

Works Cited: Physical Object (Artwork)

This includes Sculptures, Paintings, Photographs, Historical Relics in a Museum, etc.

 

Art Exhibition

Artist name. Exhibition name. Opening date-Closing date, Location of display, City.

NOTE: Do not start with the artist name if the exhibition features a collection of artists.

Cave, Nick. Until. 15 Oct. 2016-4 Sept. 2017, Mass MOCA, North Adams.

Unbound: Narrative Art of the Plains. 12 Mar.-4 Dec. 2016, National Museum of the American Indian, New York City.

 

When Viewed Firsthand

Artist Last name, First name. Piece Title. Creation date, Location of display, City. Medium.

NOTE: If the item is untitled, whether the artist is known or not, use a brief description of the item with only the first word capitalized, but do not italicize it.

Rodin, Auguste. Christ and Mary Magdalene. 1908, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Marble sculpture.

Jar with feathered serpent design. National Museum of the American Indian, New York City.

 

When Viewed Online

Artist Last name, First name. Piece Title. Creation date, Location of display or digital archive, DOI/URL/"Accessed on"

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

 

When Viewed in a Book

Artist Last name, First name. Piece Title. Creation date, Location of display or digital archive (if listed). Book Title. Book Author First name Last name, Publisher, Publish date, page number.

Velázquez, Diego. An Old Woman Cooking Eggs. Circa 1618, Scottish National Gallery. The Vanishing Velázquez: A Nineteenth-Century Bookseller's Obsession with a Lost Masterpiece, by Laura Cumming, Scribner, 2016, p. 27.

Works Cited: Presentation (Live)

This includes Lectures, Talks, Conference Presentations, and Speeches.

 

Viewed Firsthand

Presenter Last name, First name. "Presentation Title (if any)." Context of presentation (Forum, Class name, etc.), Date of presentation, Location, City.

Atwood, Margaret. "Silencing the Scream." Boundaries of the Imagination Forum. MLA Annual Convention, 29 Dec. 1993, Royal York Hotel, Toronto.

Ford, Jane. Lecture. Introduction to the History of Art, 4 Apr. 2016, Bates College.

 

Video Recording of Live Presentation

Allende, Isabel. "Tales of Passion." TED, Mar. 2007, www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion?language=en.

NOTE: If making use of an accompanying transcript, be sure to use the corresponding URL/DOI, and end the citation with Transcript.

Allende, Isabel. "Tales of Passion." TED, Mar. 2007, www.ted.com/talks/isabel_allende_tells_tales_of_passion/transcript?language=en. Transcript.

 

Transcript of Live Presentation Published without Accompanying Audio/Video

Scholes, Robert. "Presidential Address 2004: The Humanities in a Posthumanist World." PMLA, vol. 120, no. 3, May 2005, pp. 724-33.

Works Cited: Review

Review author Last name, First name. Review of Title being reviewed, by Author First name Last name, Date of review publishing, DOI/URL/Accessed on.

Rohrbaugh, Lisa. Review of Zero Zone, by Scott O'Connor. Library Journal, 1 July 2020, www.libraryjournal.com/?reviewDetail=zero-zone.

NOTE: For a titled review, format it like any other article from a journal or magazine.

In-Text Citation: Scripture

"Verse text" (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1.5).

NOTE: The period between the chapter and verse numbers is not a typo! MLA formatting of verses in scriptural works does not use the common method of putting a colon between chapter and verse numbers.

NOTE: For subsequent references to the same edition, you can leave out the name of the overall work, and only list the divisions and numbers. (Ex: use (Ezek. 4.7) instead of (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 4.7). If writing a paper that compares or makes use of multiple editions or translations of the same Scripture, be sure to specify each time.

Works Cited: Scripture

 

With a General Editor

The New Jerusalem Bible. Henry Wansbrough, general editor, Doubleday, 1985.

 

With a Translator Specified

The Qu'ran. Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, Oxford UP, 2015.

 

In a Named Version

The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

The Bible. Douay-Rheims American ed., 1899. Bible Gateway, www.biblegateway.com. Accessed 13 Jan. 2017.

NOTE: If writing a paper that compares or makes use of multiple editions or translations of the same book of Scripture, use the named version of the book as the first part of the entry. (Ex: use The Catholic Study Bible. instead of simply The Bible.)

 

Published in an App

The Bible. King James Version. Tecarta Bible, app version 7.10, Tecarta, 6 Sept. 2016.

Works Cited: Video Recordings

 

With One Publishing House

Opening Night. Directed by John Cassavetes, Faces Distribution, 1997.

 

With More than one Publishing House

Sairat. Directed by Nagraj Manjule, Zee Studios / Aatpat Production, 2016.

 

When the Original Release Date is different than the Edition release Date

Blade Runner. 1982. Directed by Ridley Scott, director's cut, Warner Bros., 1992.

 

Viewed through an App

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Universal Studios, 1982. Netflix app.

 

Television Episode Viewed on a Website

"I, Borg." Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 5, episode 23, Paramount Pictures, 1992. Netflix, www.netflix.com.

 

Viewed on Physical Media

"Hush." 1999. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fourth Season, created by Joss Whedon, episode 10, Mutant Enemy / Twentieth Century Fox, 2003, disc 3. DVD.

 

Without Episode Names

Jeopardy! ABC, 7 Nov. 2019.

Saturday Night Live. Hosted by Sandra Oh, season 44, espisode 16, NBC, 30 Mar. 2019.

Works Cited: Websites and Social Media

 

From a Comment Section

Max the Pen. Comment on "Why They're Wrong." The Economist, 29 Sept. 2016, 6:06 p.m., www.economist.com/node/21707926/comments.

 

From a Discussion List

Grooms, Russell W. Comment on "FW: Chicago Style Citation Question" thread. Infolit, 6 Sept. 2016, 20:02:16, lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/infolit/2016-09/msg00005.html.

 

Social Media - Various

Poster Last name, First name [handle, if different from name]. "Title of Post" or "First 10-15 words of untitled post without capitalization." Social media platform, Date/time of posting as available, URL.

Chaucer Doth Tweet [@LeVostreGC]. "A daye wythoutanachronism ys lyke Emily Dickinson wythout her lightsaber." Twitter, 7 Apr. 2018, twitter.com/LeVostreGC/status/982829987286827009.

Lilly [@uvisaa]. "[I]f u like dark academia there's a good chance you've seen my tumblr #darkacademia." TikTok, 2020, www.tiktok.com/@uvisaa/video/6815708894900391173.

MacLeod, Michael. Cover of Space Cat and the Kittens, by Ruthven Todd. Pinterest, 2020, www.pinterest.com/pin/565412928193207246/.