MLA Guidelines for a List of Works Cited

Print Resources

1. A Book with One Author

A book with one author serves as a general model for most MLA citations. Include author, title, publisher, and date of publication.

Beavan, Colin. No Impact Man. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2009.

2. A Book with Multiple Authors

Kasarda, John D., and Greg Lindsay. Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2011.

3. Two or More Works by the Same Author

Multiple entries should be arranged alphabetically by title. The author’s name appears at the beginning of the first entry but is replaced by three hyphens and a period in all subsequent entries.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. Little, Brown, 2008.

---. What the Dog Saw, and Other Adventures. Little, Brown, 2009.

4. Author and Editor Both Named

Vidal, Gore. The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal. Edited by Jay Parini. Vintage, 2009.

Alternatively, to cite the editor’s contribution, start with the editor’s name.

Parini, Jay, editor. The Selected Essays of Gore Vidal. By Gore Vidal. Vintage, 2009.

5. Anthology

Oates, Joyce Carol, editor. Telling Stories: An Anthology for Writers. W. W. Norton, 1997.

6. Translation

Wiesel, Elie. Night. Translated by Marion Wiesel. Hill and Wang, 2006.

7. Entry in a Reference Work

Because most reference works are alphabetized, you should omit page numbers.

Lounsberry, Barbara. “Joan Didion.” Encyclopedia of the Essay. Edited by Tracy Chandler. Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.

For a well-known encyclopedia, use only the edition and year of publication. When an article is not attributed to an author, begin the entry with the article title.

“Gilgamesh.” The Columbia Encyclopedia. 5th ed. 1993.

8. Sacred Text

Unless a specific published edition is being cited, sacred texts should be omitted from the Works Cited list.

The New Testament. Translated by Richmond Lattimore. North Point-Farrar, 1997.

9. Article in a Journal

The title of the journal should be followed by the volume, issue, year of publication, and page range.

de Botton, Alain. “Treasure Hunt.” Lapham’s Quarterly vol. 4, no. 2, 2011, pp. 205–10.

10. Article in a Magazine

In a weekly:

Menand, Louis. “The Unpolitical Animal: How Political Science Understands Voters.” The New Yorker, 30 Aug. 2004, pp. 92–96.

In a monthly:

Baker, Kevin. “Barack Hoover Obama: The Best and the Brightest Blow It Again.” Harper’s, Jul. 2009, pp. 29–37.

11. Article in a Newspaper

If you are citing a local paper that does not contain the city name in its title, add the city name in brackets after the title.

Edge, John T. “Fast Food Even before Fast Food.” The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2009, late ed., p. D1+.

12. Review

In a weekly:

Davis, Jordan. “Happy Thoughts!” Review of The Golden Age of Paraphernalia, by Kevin Davies, The Nation 23 Feb. 2009, pp. 31–34.

In a monthly:

Simpson, Mona. “Imperfect Union.” Review of Mrs. Woolf and the Servants, by Alison Light, The Atlantic Jan.–Feb. 2009, pp. 93–101.

Electronic Resources

13. Article from a Database Accessed through a Subscription Service

Apply the normal rules for citing a journal article, but follow this with the name of the subscription service in italics, and the Digital Object Identifier, if available.

Morano, Michele. “Boy Eats World.” Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, vol. 13, no. 2, 2011, pp. 31–35. Project MUSE, doi: 10.1353/fge.2011.0029.

14. Article in an Online Magazine

Follow the author name and article title with the name of the magazine in italics, the date published, and the url of the article.

Yoffe, Emily. “Full Metal Racket: Metal Detecting Is the World’s Worst Hobby.” Slate, 18 Aug. 2003, www.slate.com/articles/life/human_guinea_pig/2003/08/full_metal_
racket.html.

15. Article in an Online Newspaper

Sisario, Ben. “Record Stores: Out of Sight, Not Obsolete.” The New York Times, 29 Sept. 2009, www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/arts/music/30private.html.

16. Online Review

Stevens, Dana. “Catcher in the MRI.” Review of 50/50, directed by Adam Levine. Slate. 30 Sept. 2011. www.slate.com/articles/arts/movies/2011/09/_50_50_reviewed_
joseph_gordon_levitt_and_seth_rogen_as_pals_vs_s.html.

17. Entry in an Online Reference Work

“Eschatology.” Merriam-Webster, 7 Apr. 2016, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eschatology.

18. Work from a Web Site

“Wallace Stevens.” Poetry Foundation, 2015, www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/wallace-stevens.

19. Entire Web Site

Web site with editor:

Dutton, Dennis, editor. Arts and Letters Daily. Chronicle of Higher Education, www.aldaily.com. Accessed 2 Oct. 2009.

Web site without editor:

Academy of American Poets. 2016, poets.org. Accessed 13 Mar. 2015.

For a personal Web site, use the following model:

Mendelson, Edward. Home page. Columbia U, 2013, english.columbia.edu/people/profile/394.

20. Entire Web Log (Blog)

Holbo, John, editor. The Valve. http://www.thevalve.org/go. Accessed 18 Mar. 2012.

21. Entry in a Wiki

“Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.” Wikipedia, 25 Nov. 2013, wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood.

Other

22. Film and Video

Follow the title with the director, notable performers, the distribution company, and the date of release. For films viewed on the Web, follow this with the url of the Web site used to view the film. If citing a particular individual’s work on the film, you may begin the entry with his or her name before the title.

The Hurt Locker. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, performances by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Guy Pearce, and Ralph Fiennes, Summit, 2009.

Video or film from the Web:

Nayar, Vineet. “Employees First, Customers Second.” YouTube, 9 Jun. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCdu67s_C5E.

23. Broadcast Interview

On the radio:

Gioia, Dana. Interview with Leonard Lopate. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC, 19 July 2004.

On the Web:

Gioia, Dana. Interview with Leonard Lopate. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC, 19 July 2004, www.wnyc.org/story/49925-dana-gioia.

24. Lecture or Speech

Viewed in person:

Kass, Leon. “Looking for an Honest Man: Reflections of an Unlicensed Humanist.” Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities. NEH. Warner Theatre, Washington, D.C. 22 May 2009. Lecture.

Viewed on the Web:

Batuman, Elif. Lowell Humanities Series. Boston College. Boston College Front Row. Trustees of Boston College, 13 Oct. 2010. Web. 2 Oct. 2011.

25. Podcast

Carlin, Dan. "King of Kings." Hardcore History Podcast, 28 Oct. 2015, http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings.

26. Work of Art or Photograph

In a museum:

Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks. 1942, oil on canvas, Art Institute, Chicago.

On the Web:

Thiebaud, Wayne. Three Machines. 1963, De Young Museum, San Francisco, http://shop.famsf.org/Product.do?code=T636P. Accessed 2 Oct. 2013.

In print:

Clark, Edward. Navy CPO Graham Jackson Plays “Goin’ Home.” 1945. The Great LIFE Photographers, Bulfinch, 2004, pp. 78–79.

27. Map or Chart

In print:

“U.S. Personal Savings Rate, 1929–1999.” Credit Card Nation: The Consequences of America’s Addiction to Credit. By Robert D. Manning. Basic Books, 2000, p. 100.

On the Web:

“1914 New Balkan States and Central Europe Map.” National Geographic, maps.nationalgeographic.com/maps/print-collection/balkan-states-map.html. Accessed 25 Oct. 2013.

28. Cartoon or Comic Strip

In print:

Vey, P. C. Cartoon. The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2008, p. 54.

On the Web:

Zyglis, Adam. “City of Light.” Buffalo News, 8 Nov. 2015, adamzyglis.buffalonews.com/
2015/11/08/city-of-light/. Cartoon.

29. Advertisement

In print:

Rosetta Stone. Harper’s, Aug. 2008, p. 21. Advertisement.

On the Web:

Seamless. The Washington Post, www.washingtonpost.com. Accessed 4 Apr. 2016. Advertisement.