Why does academic work call for very careful citation practices when writing for the general public may not? The answer is that readers of your academic work expect source citations for several reasons:

The guidelines for MLA style help you with this last purpose, giving you instructions on exactly what information to include in your citation and how to format that information.

Types of sources

Look at the Directory to MLA-style works-cited entries for guidelines on citing various types of sources, including print books, articles in print periodicals (journals, magazines, and newspapers), digital written-word sources, and other sources (films, artwork) that consist mainly of material other than written words. A digital version of a source may include updates or corrections that the print version of the same work lacks, so MLA guidelines ask you to indicate the medium and to cite print and digital sources differently. If you can’t find a model exactly like the source you’ve selected, see Quick Help.

Web and database sources

MLA asks you to distinguish between Web sources and database sources. Individual researchers almost always gain access to articles in databases through the computer system of a school or public library that pays to subscribe. The easiest way to tell whether a source comes from a database, then, is that its information is not generally available to anyone with an Internet connection. Many databases are digital collections of articles that originally appeared in edited print periodicals, ensuring that an authority has vouched for the accuracy of the information. Such sources may have more credibility than free material available on the Web.

Sources for content beyond the written word

Figuring out which model to follow for media sources online can pose questions. Is a video interview posted on YouTube most like a work from a Web site? an online video? an interview? Talk with your instructor about any complicated sources, and remember that your ultimate goal is to make the source as accessible as possible to your readers.

Parts of citations

MLA citations appear in two parts—a brief in-text citation in parentheses in the body of your written text, and a full citation in the list of works cited, to which the in-text citation directs readers. A basic in-text citation includes the author’s name and the page number (for a print source), but many variations on this format are discussed in MLA in-text citations.

In the text of his research project, David Craig quotes material from a print book and from an online report. He cites both parenthetically, pointing readers to entries on his list of works cited, as shown in the figure below.

Explanatory notes

MLA citation style asks you to include explanatory notes for information that doesn’t readily fit into your text but is needed for clarification or further explanation. In addition, MLA permits bibliographic notes to give information about or evaluate a source, or to list multiple sources that relate to a single point. Use superscript numbers in the text to refer readers to the notes, which may appear as endnotes (under the heading Notes on a separate page immediately before the list of works cited) or as footnotes at the bottom of each page where a superscript number appears.