MLA: Models for Bibliography Entries

Bibliographical Entries for 'Works Cited' at the End of a Research Paper:
For Books
Notes:
- Book titles are italicized, so are titles of journals, magazines, newspapers, plays, films, websites.
- The latest (2009) MLA requires the use of 'Print' for hard-copy sources and 'Web' for online sources.
Sage, 1977. Print.
[Names after the first one are given in the normal first-name-last-name order.]
---. Lighting out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture. New York:
Oxford UP, 1997. Print.
[Instead of giving the name again, use ‘---‘ for more sources by the same author. ‘UP’ here stands for ‘University Press’—standard MLA abbreviation.]
Smith, Henry Nash. Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1962. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1854. EServer.org: Accessible Writing. Ed. Richard Lenat. 2002. U of Washington, Seattle. Web. 21 May 2010.
[‘Ed.' stands for ‘editor’--standard MLA abbreviation. An editor's name is in the normal first-name-last-name order since an editor's name is never cited; it's the author's name that is cited, whose article in that edited book that you have used.]
For “Articles”
Notes:
- Article titles are enclosed in double quotation marks, including titles of articles from edited books, all kinds of periodicals, and web-pages.
- The 2009 MLA requires the use of 'Print' for hard-copy article sources and ''Web' for online article sources.
- Follow the models below for the different types.
From a Journal
Tolson, Nancy. “Making Books Available.” African American Review 32 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR.
Web. 28 April 2011.
[The # that follows the journal title is the journal's issue #. The ending date is the date of a researcher's access to the Web.]
From a Newspaper
Markoff, John. “Campuses Are Hurt by Computer Giants’ Woes.” New York Times 13 Jan. 1993: B6. Print.
[Notice the order of publication date: date month year; use 3 initial letters for the month that has more than 5 letters.]
---. “Voluntary Rules Proposed to Help Insure Privacy for Internet Users.” New York Times 5 June 1996.
Web. 10 June 2009.
[Compare this entry with the previous one for newspaper articles posted online: again, the word 'Web' and access date info are needed.]
From an Edited Book
Ross, Don. “Game Theory.” 11 Sept. 2001. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta.
Fall 2002. Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford U. Web. 18 May 2015.
[Again, ‘Ed.' stands for ‘editor.’ An editor's name is in the normal first-name-last-name order since you cite the author of an article from an edited book, not the editor.]
Whitman, Walt. “Songs of the Open Road.” Complete Poetry and Selected Prose 1891-92. Ed. James E.
Miller, Jr. Boston: Houghton, 1959. 108-115. Print.
[Page #s are required for articles from edited books printed or on the Web. Authors of individual articles are cited, not editors.]
From a Book Review
Adams, Phoebe. Rev. of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The Atlantic Monthly (Aug. 1960). Web.
15 March 2010.
['Rev.' stands for 'Review'—standard MLA abbreviation. Book and journal titles are treated as books: italicized.]
Web Sources
Electronic Text Center. Ed. David Seaman. 2002. Alderman Lib., U of Virginia. Web. 15 March 2009.
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 2002. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Web. 28 March 2006.
English. Dept. home page. El Camino College. Web. 23 May 2009.
“Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format.” OWL: Online Writing Lab. Eds. Jennifer Liethen Kunka, Joe
Barbato, and Erin Karper. Dec. 2000-Jan. 2008. Purdue U. Web. 25 May 2016.
More Notes:
- In Works Cited, given at the end of a research paper, you provide complete bibliography info of all the sources the research paper has literally cited and used. The bibliography entries need to match the cited sources inside the research paper in author info and in number. For example, if you have cited 7 different sources in your research paper, there should be 7 matching sources--no more, no less!
- Bibliography entries are sequenced in an alphabetical order by last names or, if no author, by the first content word of a title.
- Lines after the first one are indented by 5 letter spaces.
- The models here are based on MLA 2009 edition. Please follow MLA and other authority sources in case of discrepancies.