The YSU Writing Center
Guidelines for MLA Parenthetical Citations
You must provide parenthetical references for all quotes, paraphrases, and summaries in your paper. A parenthetical reference will take the reader to the Works Cited page at the end of the paper where you supply complete bibliographic information. According to MLA guidelines, you must provide both the author’s name as well as the page number(s) on which the information is located. If you introduce the borrowed material with the author’s name, then you need only put the page number in parentheses at the end of the borrowed material. Here is an example:
According to Fisher, Bell, and Baum, personal space “moves with us, expanding and contracting according to the situation in which we find ourselves” (149).
However, if you do not include the author’s name to introduce the material, then you provide the author’s name and the page number in the parenthetical reference at the end of the borrowed material. Follow this model:
Personal space “moves with us, expanding and contracting according to the situation in which we find ourselves” (Fisher, Bell, and Baum 149).
Hints
1. The first time you refer to a source, it is generally considered a good idea to introduce borrowed material with the full name of the author(s). You may also include credentials to stress the source’s authority.
2. When paraphrasing and summarizing, make certain readers can tell where your ideas end and the borrowed material begins. You can avoid problems by introducing paraphrases or summaries with the author’s name and citing page numbers at the end.
3. Do not use p. or pp. to indicate page numbers.
4. Do not use any punctuation to separate the author’s name from the page number inside a parenthetical reference.
5. Note that the period follows the parenthetical reference.
6. Quotes of more than four typed lines are handled differently than shorter quotes. Instead of using quotation marks, long quotes are set off from the text; the entire quote, which is still double-spaced, is indented one inch (ten spaces if you use a typewriter) from the left hand margin. In this case, the parenthetical reference goes outside the final period.
Guidelines for MLA Works Cited Entries
1. You must provide complete bibliographic citations in correct MLA form for all sources from which you borrow material. You need not supply citations to sources that you consulted during your research but from which you do not borrow information.
2. Start your Works Cited list on a new page and number it as though it were a page in your paper.
3. Arrange entries alphabetically by the author's last name. If no author is provided, alphabetize by the title of the source.
4. After the first line of an entry, indent five spaces so that the first word of the entry stands out. This is called hanging indentation.
5. Double space within and between entries. Be careful that you do not use more than two spaces between entries.
General Guidelines for Citing Books
Although all book entries do not contain all the following elements, the order of information in MLA entries appears in this order (omit any unnecessary items):
1. Author(s)
2. Chapter or part of a book
3. Title of the book
4. Editor, translator, or compiler
5. Edition
6. Number of volumes
7. Name of the series
8. Place, publisher, and date
9. Volume number of this book
10. Page numbers
A. Book with one author
Welty, Eudora. One Writer’s Beginnings. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984.
B. Book with two authors
Leghorn, Lisa, and Katherine Parker. Woman’s Worth. Boston: Routledge, 1981.
C. Section from an anthology (a work by many authors or different works by the same author)
Galarza, Ernest. “The Roots of Migration.” Aztlan: An Anthology of Mexican American Literature. Ed. Luis Valdez and Stan Steiner. New York: Knopf, 1972. 127-32.
D. Edition
Mandell, Maurice I. Advertising. 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice, 1984.
Journals and magazines differ in the way their pages are numbered. Journals, which are usually published for professional organizations, often have continuous pagination. Thus, a page number occurs only once in a given year. The volume, year, and page number(s) will direct readers to the article. Magazines, on the other hand, omit the volume number and are identified by month or a specific date. An exact date is required to locate a particular article. For magazine or journal articles, present bibliographic information in this order, eliminating unnecessary elements:
1. Author(s)
2. Title of the article
3. Name of periodical
4. Volume and issue (journal articles) or date (magazine articles)
5. Pages
A. Journal with continuous pagination
Cochran, D. D., W. Daniel Hale, and Christine P. Hissam. “Personal Space Requirements in Indoor Versus Outdoor Locations.” Journal of Psychology 117 (1984): 132-33.
B. Journal with each issue paged separately
Hashimoto, Irvin. “Pain and Suffering: Apostrophes and Academic Life.” Journal of Basic Writing 7.2 (1988): 91-98.
C. Monthly or bimonthly magazine
Roosevelt, Anna. “Lost Civilization of the Lower Amazon.” Natural History Feb. 1989: 74-83.
D. Weekly or biweekly magazine
Toufexis, Anastasia. “Dining with Invisible Danger.” Time 27 Mar. 1989: 28.
E. Newspaper
Dullea, Georgia. “Literary Folk Look for Solid Comfort.” New York Times 16 Apr. 1986: C14.
If an article is unsigned, then begin your citation with the title of the article and alphabetize accordingly.
(Information is adapted from Lester’s Writing Research Papers. Sample citations are from Troyka’s Simon and Schuster's Handbook for Writers.)
There are two important considerations when citing Internet sources: 1.) You need to direct readers as closely as possible to the information being cited; 2.) You need to provide addresses that work. In general, information for Internet sources should appear in the following order*:
Author’s name
Title of document
Title of project, database, periodical, or site
Name of editor of project or database
Date of electronic publication or last update
Name of institution or organization associated with site
Date when you accessed site
Network address or URL
The History Channel Online. 1998. History Channel. 19 June 1998 <http://historychannel.com/>.
“This Day in History: August 20.” The History Channel Online. 1998. History Channel. 19 June 1998 <http://historychannel.com/thisday/today/980820.html>.
Romance Languages and Literatures Home Page. 1 Jan. 1997. Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures, U. of Chicago. 8 July 1998 <http://humanities.uchicago.edu/romance/>.
In general, information for entries for online periodical citations appears in the following order*:
1. Author’s name (if given)
2. Title of the work (if given), in quotation marks
3. Name of the periodical (underlined or italicized)
4. Volume number, issue number, or other identifying number
5. Date of publication
6. Number range or total number of pages, paragraphs, or other sections, if provided
7. Date of access and network address
Sohmer, Steve. “12 June 1599: Opening Day at Shakespeare’s Globe.” Early
Modern Literary Studies 3.1 (1997): 46 pars. 26 June 1998
<http://www.humanities.ualberta.ca/emls/03-1/sohmjulia.html>.
Reid, T.R. “Druids Return to Stonehenge.” Washington Post 22 June 1998. 22 June 1998 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/Wplate/1998-06/22/045I-062298-idx.html>.
*Guidelines and examples of Internet citations taken from MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed.
Guidelines for Legal Sources
The citation of legal documents and law cases may be complicated. If your paper requires such references, consult the most recent edition of The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation (Cambridge Harvard Law Rev. Assn.).
In general, do not underline or enclose in quotation marks the titles of laws, acts, and similar documents in either the text or the list of works cited (Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the United States, Taft Hartley Act). Such titles are usually abbreviated and the works are cited by sections. The years are added if relevant. No entry in the works cited list is needed for the familiar historical documents and the United States Code (USC), since references to them can be documented with brief parenthetical citations in the text: “(US Const., art. 1, sec. 1),” “(17 USC 304, 1976).” The 17 refers to the title 17.
Use the abbreviations Pub. L. for Public Law and Stat. for Statutes at Large. Names of law cases are similarly abbreviated (“Brown v. Board of Ed.,” for the case of Oliver Brown versus the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas), but the first important word of each party’s name is always spelled out. Names of cases, unlike those of laws, are underlined in the text.
A. An Act
Aviation and Transportation Security Act. Pub. L. 107-71. 19 Nov. 2001. Stat. 115.597.
B. Patents
Guha, Aloke. Method and System for Efficiently Storing Web Pages for Quick Downloading at A Remote Device. Storage Technology Corp., assignee. Patent 6,272,534. 7 Aug. 2001.
C. Law Case
New York Times Co. v. Tasini. No. 00-201. Supreme Ct. of the US. 25 June 2001.
*Guidelines and examples of the above legal sources are taken from the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed.
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