Skip to Main Content

Citation Helper - MLA, APA, Chicago, & NoodleTools

This guide includes information about citing your sources, including MLA, APA and Chicago / Turabian citation styles.

MLA 8th Edition: Guiding Principles

In the 7th edition of the Handbook, a separate set of citation instructions were given for each format type.  The problem with this approach is that there is no way to anticipate all format types a student may encounter.

To solve this problem, this new edition of the MLA Handbook provides a "universal set of guidelines" for citing sources across all format types.

These guidelines state that, if given, these major elements should be included in the citation:MLA practice template showing punctuation between the elements

1. Author.
2. Title of Source.
3. Title of Container,
4. Other Contributors,
5. Version,
6. Number,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date,
9. Location.

 

Sometimes, elements 3-9 will repeat again, if say, your journal was inside a database (which MLA 8th ed. calls a 'container').

 

Putting it all together:

Goldman, Anne. "Questions of Transport: Reading Primo
     Levi Reading Dante." The Georgia Review, vol.64, no.

     1, 2010, pp.69-88. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable
     /41403188.

Works Cited entries: Format Examples

The discipline of English, as well as many other disciplines in the humanities, use MLA citation format.  Below are some examples for formatting the Works Cited page.  Look in the drop-down menu for examples of in-text citations.

 

Book,
Single Author

example citation

eBook,
Joint Authors

sample mla citation of book with joint authors

*NOTE: Authors should be listed in the order they are listed on the title page.

Book,
Three or More Authors

example citation

Book,
with Translator or other contributors

sample mla citation of translated book.

*Here are other common descriptions: Adapted by, Directed by, Edited by, Illustrated by, Introduction by, Narrated by, Performance by.

A Work (e.g., essay, short story) in an Anthology or Compilation.

sample mla citation of essay in anthology

Book,
Later Edition

sample mla citation of book, later edition

Entry in a Print Encyclopedia

sample mla citation entry from print encyclopedia

Article in an Online Database

sample MLA citation of academic journal article
*NOTE: When including a URL, omit the http:// and https://

Article with a DOI

sample MLA citation of academic journal article
Segment of a Video in an Online Database example citation

A Page on a Website

sample mla citation of blog post
Image (on the web only) example citaation

Social Media Post (real name in parentheses, if known)

sample mla citation of tweet