Source Map: Books in MLA style

Source Map: Books

Books

Take information from the book’s title page and copyright page (on the reverse side of the title page), not from the book’s cover or a library catalog.

image Author. List the last name first. End with a period. For variations, see models 2–6.

image Title. Italicize the title and any subtitle; capitalize all major words. End with a period.

image Publisher. Identify the publisher’s name as given on the book’s title page. If more than one publisher appears on the title page, separate the names with a slash, leaving a space before and after the slash. If no publisher is listed on the title page, check the copyright page. Abbreviate University and Press as U and P (Oxford UP). Omit terms such as Company and Incorporated. Follow the publisher’s name with a comma.

image Year of publication. If more than one copyright date is given, use the most recent one. End with a period.

A citation for the book pictured below would look like this:

Patel, Raj. The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. Picador, 2009.

image
© Copyright and title pages from The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel. Copyright © 2009 by Picador. Reprinted by permission of Picador.