Document Formatting (MLA Rules)
Home Up Grade 9

 

Special thanks to Mrs. M. Poetsche for doing the initial work on this document.

It must be noted that the transfer of this information to the Internet requires some reminders about formatting:

  • only the first line is on the left-hand margin
  • subsequent lines are indented 5-spaces (1 tab) from the left margin
  • most word processors allow you to format paragraphs in a document — select the hanging indent option

A) Documenting Sources 

B) Citing Books: General Guidelines

C) Citing Material Retrieved From An Electronic Source (ex. the Internet)

D) Parenthetical Notation General Guidelines

A) Documenting Sources (The following is a summary of MLA Rules)

You must document everything you borrow--direct quotations, paraphrases, and ideas. In MLA documentation style, sources are acknowledged by brief parenthetical citations in the text of the paper.

eg. Your essay might read: Brutus is similar to Hamlet in that both are "highly intellectual by nature and reflective by habit" (Bradley 73).

This tells your reader that you have obtained this information from page 73 in a work by Bradley. Complete details of Bradley's work should appear in the works-cited list at the end of your paper.

Works Cited

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy. Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1904.


You may cite an author in different ways:

eg. Only Brown holds this point of view (121-36). OR Others hold different opinions (e.g., Puce and Mahogany 209-22).

Document quotations from a literary work with parenthetical references in your essay:

eg. Unaware of his own loquaciousness, Polonius states that "brevity is the soul of wit" (Hamlet 2.2.90). Hereafter, give only the act, scene, line.

Notes With Parenthetical Documentation (Write on a separate page at the end of the paper, before the works-cited page. Entitle this page Notes. Do not underline. Double space.) You may use notes with parenthetical documentation to provide information which does not belong in the text or to acknowledge several sources or to provide evaluative comments on sources.

eg. Your paper might read as follows:

Hardy's presentation of Bathsheba is detached and usually ironic.1

Notes

1. For a contrasting, and less discerning, point of view, see Rosaline Miles who writes that Hardy surrenders "to the emotional experiences of his characters" (32).

B) Citing Books: General Guidelines (according to the MLA Handbook)

An entry in a list of works cited has three main divisions: author, title, and publication information. Follow each with a period and two spaces. Note: one space after a colon.

When you cite books, arrange information in the following order:

Author’s name-reverse order. Last name, [COMMA] first name. [PERIOD]

Title of the part of the book (in "quotation marks"). [PERIOD]

Title of the book (italicized or underlined). [PERIOD]

Name of the editor, translator, or compiler. [PERIOD]

Edition used. [PERIOD]

Number(s) of volume(s) used, [PERIOD]

Name of the series. [PERIOD]

Place of publication: [COLON] name of the publisher, [COMMA] date of publication. [PERIOD]

Page numbers (if needed). [PERIOD]

A Book by One Author

Sheids, Carol. The Stone Diaries. Toronto: Vintage, 1993

An Anthology

Dzyubenko, Galina, ed. Land of the Soviets in Verse and Prose. 2 vols. Moscow: Progress, 1982.

A Work in an Anthology

Gorky, Maxim. "Yegor Bulychov and Others." Trans. Margaret Wettlin. Classic Soviet Plays. Comp. Alia Mikhailova. Moscow: Progress, 1979. 27-95.

A Republished Book

Durrell, Lawrence. Clea. 1960. London: Faber, 1975.

An Article in a Reference Book

"Austen, Jane." Enpyclopaedia Britannica: Macropaedia. 1974 ed.

An Introduction, a Preface, a Foreword, or an Afterward

Elledge, Scott. Preface. Tess of the d'Urbervilles. By Thomas Hardy. New York: Norton, 1965. vii-x.

An Edition (prepared for publication by someone other than the author)

Pope. Alexander. The Poems of Alexander Pope. Ed. John Butt. New Haven: Yale UP, 1963.

A Book Published before 1900 (omit publisher and use a comma after the place)

Atkinson, Emma Wilisher. Memoirs of the Queens of Prussia. London, 1858.

Book Review

Ingoldby, Grace. Rev. of Small World, by David Lodge. New Statesman 23 March 1984: 27.

Newspaper: Article with Author Named

Ibbitson, John, and Dan Nolan. "Tories Cut Spending by $1.9B." Citizen 22 July 1995: Al

Newspaper. Anonymous Author

"Talks on Chechnya Gaining Momentum." Citizen 22 July 1995: A7.

An Article in a Periodical. Author’s name. Title of the article. Name of the periodical, series number or name, volume number, date of publication, page numbers.

Arnold, Margaret J. "Graeci Christiani: Milton's Samson and the Renaissance Editors of Greek Tragedy." Milton Studies 18 (1983): 235-51.

For a journal that does not number pages continuously throughout an annual volume but begins each issue on page 1, add a period and the issue number, without any intervening space, directly after the volume number.

Bonnycastle, Stephen. "Robertson Davies and the Ethics of Monologue." Journal of Canadian Studies 12.1 (1977): 20-42. [12 is the volume; I the issue]

Citing Online Databases and Material Accessed through a Computer Network. For details, see the 4th ed. of the MLA Handbook.

Cite author, title, title of the database underlined, publication medium [Online], name of computer service, date of access. If you cannot find some of the information, cite what is available in the correct order. Eg. (Note punctuation)

Perr, Laurie. "Gardens in Small Places." New York Times 19 Mar. 1993, late ed.: C4. New York Times Online. Online. Nexis. 10 Feb. 1994

Steele, Ken. "Special Discounts on the New Variorum Shakespeare." Shakspe 2.124 (4 May 1991): n. Page. Online. BITNET. 1 June 1991.

 

C) Citing Material Retrieved From An Electronic Source (ex. the Internet)

For material with publication information for a printed source or printed analogue specified.

Elements to include:

1. Name of author(s) (if given)

2. Publication information for the printed source or analogue

(including title and date of print publication)

3. Title of the database (Italicized or underlined)

4. Publication medium (Online)

5. Name of the computer service

6. Date of access

 

EXAMPLE:

Jones, Freddy. "Equipping Your Van for Detection." Teen Detective Monthly 14 Apr. 1995: 22. Academic Search. Online. Ebsco Host. 27 Nov. 1996.

 

For material with NO printed source or printed analogue specified.

Elements to include:

1. Name of author(s) (if given)

2. Title of the material accessed (in quotation marks)

3. Date of the material (if given)

4. Title of the database (Italicized or underlined)

5. Publication medium (Online)

6. Name of the computer service

7. Date of access

 

EXAMPLE:

 

Blake, Daphne. "Profiting from the Beauty Business." National Business Employment Weekly. Dow Jones Futures and Index Quotes. Online. Dow Jones News Retrieval. 21 Sep. 1994.

 

D) Parenthetical Notation General Guidelines

 

Refernces in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited. Give only the information needed to identify a source, and do not add a parenthetical reference unnecessarily.

Examples:

Author’s Name in Text

Tannen has argued this point (178-85).

 

Author’s Name in Reference

This point has already been argued (Tannen 178-85).

If your list contains more than one author with the same last name, you must add the first initial – (A. Patters 183-85) (L. Patterson 230) – or, if the initial is shared too, the full first name.

When making parenthetical references to one of two or more works by the same author in you works cited, put a comma after the author’s last name and add the title of the work (in brief) or a shortened version and the relevant page reference – (Frye, Double Vision 85)