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 City of publication and publisher. If more than one city is given, use the first one listed. For foreign cities, add an abbreviation of the country or province (Cork, Ire.). Follow it with a colon and a shortened version of the publisher’s name (Oxford UP for Oxford University Press). Follow it with a comma.

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

image Medium of publication. End with the medium (Print) followed by 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. New York: Picador, 2009. Print.

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