MLA 9th Edition Formatting and Style Guide
MLA 9th Edition Formatting and Style Guide
MLA 9th Edition Formatting and Style Guide
Guide
MLA regulates:
• document format
• in-text citations
• works-cited list
MLA Update 2016
• In-text citations
• Formatting quotations
Always
Follow your instructor’s
guidelines
Format: General
Guidelines
OR
Sample Section
Headings
The authors state: “Tighter gun control in the United States erodes Second
Amendment rights” (Smith et al. 76).
A 2016 study suggests that stricter gun control in the United States will
significantly prevent accidental shootings (Strong and Ellis 23).
Other In-Text Citations 3
Lightenor has argued that computers are not useful tools for small children
(“Too Soon” 38), though he has acknowledged elsewhere that early exposure
to computer games does lead to better small motor skill development in a
child's second and third year (“Hand-Eye Development” 17).
Visual studies, because it is such a new discipline, may be “too easy” (Elkins,
“Visual Studies” 63).
Other In-Text Citations 4
Ezekiel saw “what seemed to be four living creatures,” each with the faces of a
man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle (New Jerusalem Bible, Ezek. 1:5-10).
Other In-Text Citations 5
Multiple Citations
In-text example:
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition between two worlds: “the world of
the everyday… and the world of romance.” Although the two lovers are part
of the world of romance, their language of love nevertheless becomes “fully
responsive to the tang of actuality” (Zender 138, 141).
Other In-Text Citations 6
Buffy’s promise that “there’s not going to be any incidents like at my old
school” is obviously not one on which she can follow through (“Hush”
00:03:16-17).
Works-cited entry:
Examples:
Properzia Rossi tells the statue that it will be a container for her feelings: “The
bright work grows / Beneath my hand, unfolding, as a rose” (lines 31-32).
Begin the entry with the author’s last name, followed by a comma and the
rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period.
Examples:
Linett, Maren Tova. Modernism, Feminism, and Jewishness. Cambridge UP, 2007.
Periodicals (journal, magazine, newspaper article), television episodes, and songs should
be in quotation marks:
Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The
Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp. 69-88.
Works-cited List: Title of
Container
Examples:
Bazin, Patrick. “Toward Metareading.” The Future of the Book, edited by Geoffrey
Nunberg, U of California P, 1996, pp. 153-68.
Hollmichel, Stefanie. “The Reading Brain: Differences between Digital and Print.” So
Many Books, 25 Apr. 2013,
somanybooksblog.com/2013/04/25/the-reading-brain-differences-between-digital-
and-print/.
“Under the Gun.” Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16 July 2013.
Hulu, hulu.com/watch/511318.
Works-cited List: Title of
Container
Title of container
Not a container A container
Examples:
Examples:
Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP,
2007.
Examples:
“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah
Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, Mutant Enemy, 1999.
Wellek, René. A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950. Vol. 5, Yale UP, 1986.
Works-cited List:
Publisher
Publisher – primarily responsible entity for producing the work or
making it available to the public.
The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public. If there is more
than one publisher, and they are all are relevant to your research, list them in
your citation, separated by a forward slash (/).
Examples:
Harris, Charles “Teenie.” Woman in a Paisley Shirt behind Counter in Record Store.
Teenie Harris Archive, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh,
teenie.cmoa.org/interactive/index.html#date08.
Jacobs, Alan. The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction. Oxford UP, 2011.
Kuzui, Fran Rubel, director. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Twentieth Century Fox, 1992.
Works-cited List:
Publication Date
The same source may have been published on more than one date, such as an
online version of an original source. When the source has more than one date,
use the date that is most relevant to your use of it.
Examples:
Belton, John. “Painting by the Numbers: The Digital Intermediate.” Film Quarterly, vol.
61, no. 3, Spring 2008, pp. 58-65.
“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah
Michelle Gellar, season 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999.
Works-cited List:
Location
Examples:
Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your
Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94.
Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative
Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic, 28 Dec.
2014, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist-an
d-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/. Bearden, Romare. The Train.
1975, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Works-cited List:
Optional Elements
Optional elements:
•City of publication:
Optional elements:
•URLs
•Date of access
“Under the Gun.” Pretty Little Liars, season 4, episode 6, ABC Family, 16
July 2013. Hulu, www.hulu.com/watch/511318. Accessed 23 July
2013.
Works-cited List:
Optional Elements
Annotated Bibliography
Annotations:
•Are succinct descriptions or evaluations of a source.
•Are at the end of an entry, with a one-inch indentation from where the
entry begins.
•Can be concise phrases or complete sentences, but not exceed a single
paragraph.
<http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Pluto>.
Where to Go to Get More Help
• Purdue OWL
Purdue University Writing Lab
Heavilon 226
• MLA Tutorials
Web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Phone: (765) 494-3723 • Citation generators
Email: owl@owl.english.purdue.edu like:
-Citation Machine
-Easy Bib
Resources
• MLA Handbook, 9th Edition
• MLA Style Center
• Purdue Online Writing Lab's MLA page
Where to Go to Get
More Help
Web: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Phone: (765) 494-3723
Email: owl@owl.english.purdue.edu
The End