Getting Started with MLA Style
 PDF Version
What is MLA Style?
Modern Language Association (MLA) style is one of several styles for academic writing. Used primarily in the arts - English, history, philosophy, classical studies - MLA Style provides rules for formatting
- your essay as a whole: margins, indenting, etc.
Word 2000 document formatted for MLA style
- references included in the body
of your essay
- the list of works cited at the end
of your essay
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (LB2369 .G53 2003), available in the reference collections at Koerner, Education
and Okanagan
libraries, gives examples for citing materials of virtually every type. The sources below cover the most commonly-cited materials.
Use  to
- keep track of your references/citations from the UBC Library catalogue and online article indexes and databases
- format your citations and bibliographies automatically, in MLA or any of hundreds of formats
- create your own reference lists on the Web and access them from anywhere.
UBC students, staff and faculty have access to this web-based service at no cost.
In addition, Diana Hacker's excellent site offers examples for more than 50 types of works cited and in-text citations.
What kinds of sources do I document?
- direct quotations from a book, article, film, letter, email, lecture, etc.
- single words, short phrases, sentences and longer passages quoted from books, articles etc.
- ideas you draw from a source but present entirely in your own words
- paraphrases and summaries of books, journal articles, pamphlets
- single words, short phrases, sentences and longer passages quoted from books or articles used
- statistics
How do I introduce sources in my essay?
In order to make your paper coherent and accurate, use the following tags and conventions to introduce other sources into your work:
- Boyd argues, describes, explains, claims, asserts, refers to, cites
- Santos contends, compares, speculates, hypothesizes, concludes, recommends
Sample Formats:
PRINT
MATERIALS - BOOKS |
List
of Works Cited |
Parenthetical
References (In-text) |
one
author |
Wilson,
Frank R. The Hand: How Its Use Shapes the Brain,
Language, and Human Culture. New York: Pantheon,
1998.
|
(Wilson
32) |
more
than one author |
Marquart,
James W., Sheldon Ekland Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen. The
Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment
in Texas, 1923-1990. Austin: U of Texas P, 1994.
|
(Marquart,
Ekland, and Sorensen 52-57) |
more
than three authors |
Gillis,
Sander, et al. Grammar of the English Language.
New York: Random House, 1987.
|
(Gillis
et al. 27-29) |
corporate
author |
Public
Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing
Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 1992.
|
(Public
Agenda Foundation 69) |
no
author |
A
Guide to Our Federal Lands. Washington: Natl.
Geographic Soc., 1984.
|
(Guide
241-247) |
anthology |
Feldman, Paula R., ed. British Women Poets of the Romantic Era.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
|
(Feldman
180-92) |
works
in an anthology |
Allende,
Isabel. "Toad's Mouth." Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. A
Hammock beneath the Mangoes: Stories from Latin America.
Ed. Thomas Colchie. New York: Plume, 1992. 83-88.
* 83-88 refers
to the place in the anthology where the story will
be found.
|
(Allende
83) |
PRINT
MATERIALS - ARTICLES |
List
of Works Cited |
Parenthetical
References (In-text) |
continuous
pagination |
Most,
Andrea. "'We Know We Belong to the Land': The Theatricality
of Assimilation in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Oklahoma!." PMLA 113
(1998): 17-29.
|
(Most
17) |
each
issue paged separately |
Barthelme,
Frederick. "Architecture." Kansas Quarterly 13.3-4
(1981): 77-80.
|
(Barthelme
77-78) |
book
review |
Updike,
John. "Fine Points." Rev. of The New Fowler's Modern
English Usage, ed. R. W. Burchfield. New Yorker 23-30
Dec. 1996: 142-49.
|
(Updike
142-43) |
anonymous
article |
"The
Decade of the Spy." Newsweek 7 Mar. 1994: 26-27.
|
("Decade," 26-27) |
newspaper
article |
Alaton,
Salem. "So, Did They Live Happily Ever After?" Globe
and Mail [Toronto] 27 Dec. 1997: D1+
|
(Alaton
D2) |
On
the Web |
List
of Works Cited |
Parenthetical
References (In-text) |
The examples
below are for articles, book chapters, conference papers
and other types of materials accessed through library
subscription services such as Academic Search Premier,
CBCA Reference, PsycINFO, etc. UBC Library subscribes
to these databases and provides access to them for
UBC students, faculty and staff, either in the library
or via remote access.
Begin your
entry as for the print version of an article, book
chapter, etc.
Next, if the online source gives only the starting page
of an article, include it in this format: number dash
space period, eg., 125- . (see second example
below.)
Complete the
citation by adding
- the name
of the database,
- the name
of the library through which you connected, (whether
you were in the library or at home or elsewhere)
- the date
of access,
- (optional)
the url of the database provider's homepage
The url of a
database provider's homepage can be difficult and time-consuming
to determine. Urls for individual articles are often session-based,
i.e. valid only at the time of your search. For that reason,
UBC Library recommends that you elect to omit urls
for works accessed through library subscription services:
|
online
article,
from an article index database, url of UBC Library Information
page included. |
Childs,
William A. P. "The Classic as Realism in Greek Art." Art
Journal, 47:1 1988. 10- . Academic Search Premier.
U of British Columbia Library, 27 March 2004 <http://toby.library.ubc.ca/resources/infopage.cfm?id=196>. |
(Childs
11-13) |
online
article,
from an article index database, url omitted. |
Brown
P. "The Risk of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy ('Mad
Cow Disease') to Human Health." JAMA 278:12
(1997) 1008-11 Medline. U of British Columbia
Library, 14 August 2004.
|
(Brown) |
You may wish
to follow the spirit of MLA Style by providing information
that will enable your reader to locate each item on
your list of works cited. In that case, include the
url of the UBC Library Information Page for the database
in which the item was found. Information Pages for
each database are available from Indexes
and Databases on the UBC Library homepage at www.library.ubc.ca.
|
| departmental
webpage |
Romance
Languages and Literatures Home Page. 1 January
2004. Dept. of Romance Langs. and Lits., U of Chicago.
8 July 2004 <http://humantities.uchicago.edu/romance/>.
Note: 1 January 2004 is the date on the webpage; 8
July 2004 is the date it was accessed.
|
(Romance)
|
| course
webpage |
McNeilly,
Kevin. English 555A, section 921. Culture Jazz: Performance,
Text, Audience. 28 July 04. English Department, UBC.
27 August 2004 <http://www.english.ubc.ca/~kmcneill/555A.htm>.
Note: 28
July 2004 is the date on the webpage; 27 August
2004 is the date it was accessed.
|
(McNeilly)
|
electronic
book |
Bingham,
Hiram. Mendel's Principles of Heredity: A Defence.
London: Cambridge U P, 1912. Ed. Robert Robbins. May,
2002. Electronic Scholarly Publishing. 19 August, 2004 <http://www.esp.org/books/bateson/mendel/facsimile/title3.html>.
Note: May
2002 is the date on the webpage. 19 August
2004 is the date it was accessed.
|
(Bingham
27) |
online
article,
from a journal on its own website
(note url)
|
Rapaport,
David C. "The Four Waves of Rebel Terror and September
11." Anthropoetics 8.1 (2002) : 39 pars. 17
August 2004
<http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap0801/terror.htm>
Note: 17 August 2004 is the date the article
was accessed. |
(Rapaport
27) |
Parenthetical
References - additional information
For all web
resources, unless the pages and paragraphs are numbered,
use only the author's last name in the parenthetical
reference, for example, (Brown). If no author is indicated,
use the title, for example, (Romance).
For all web
resources, if the source includes fixed page numbers
or section numbering (such as the numbering of paragraphs),
cite the relevant numbers, for example (Austen 1: par.
12) for volume 1, paragraph 12 of a source.
|
Check here for
more information.
|
