Skip to Main Content

MLA Citation

How to cite sources in the 8th edition of MLA style

Basic Book Citation

Basic Format:

Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition, Publisher, Publication date.

Examples:

Pardlo, Gregory. Digest. Four Way Books, 2014.

Karsh, Ellen, and Arlen Sue Fox. The Only Grant-Writing Book You'll Ever Need. 4th ed., Basic Books, 2014.

Hatfield, Charles, et al., editors. The Superhero Reader. University Press of Mississippi, 2013.

Books with Additional Contributers

Basic Format

Author Last, First. Title of Book. Contributed by First Last, Edition, Publisher, Publication date.

Examples

Shakespeare, William. Coriolanus. Edited by Peter Holland, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2013. 

Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Peter Green, University of California Press, 2015.

Chapter or Part of a Book

Basic Format

Author Last, First. "Title of Chapter." Title of Book, contribution by First Last, Edition, Publisher, Publication date, Pages.

Examples

Crehan, Kate. "Culture." Critical Terms for the Study of Gender, edited by Catharine R. Stimpson and Gilbert Herdt, The University of Chicago Press, 2014, pp. 41-65.

Gottlieb, Sidney. "Persuasion and Cinematic Approaches to Jane Austen." Persuasion, by Jane Austen, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks, W. W. Norton & Company, 2013, pp. 301-311.

eBook

Basic Format

Last, First. Title of Book. Edition, Publisher, Publication date. DatabaseURL.

Last, First. "Title of Chapter." Title of Book, contribution by First Last, Edition, Publisher, Publication date, Pages. Database, URL.

Examples

Hart, James D., and Phillip W. Leininger. The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 6th ed., Oxford University Press, 2013. Oxford Digital Reference Shelf, http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195065480.001.0001/acref-9780195065480.

Hall, Gary. "There Are No Digital Humanities." Debates in the Digital Humanities, edited by Matthew K. Gold, University of Minnesota Press, 2012, http://dhdebates.gc.cuny.edu/debates/text/21.