Modern Language Association (MLA) Guide to Style

(A copy of the complete MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is kept at the Reference Desk)

BASIC FORMAT:
1. Use standard sized paper, 8½ X 11 inches.
2. All margins (top, bottom, and sides) should be one inch wide.
3. Type the paper double-spaced.
4. Do not justify the right margin.
5. Indent the first line of each paragraph five spaces.
6. There is no separate title page. On the first page, beginning in the upper left corner, at the margin and one inch from the top of the page, type the following information double spaced:

• Your name
• Your professor's name
• Course title and number
• Date

8. Underline titles of books, names of plays, magazine titles, titles of films, etc.
Example:
Shakespeare's _The Tempest_ is being presented at the College Theatre.

9. Use quotation marks for titles of works published within a larger work: titles of articles, a short story in a collection, poems, chapters of books, etc.
Example:
The issue of air quality was discussed in chapter three, "Today and Tomorrow."

CITING ANOTHER PERSON'S IDEAS OR WORK:
1. Place quotation marks around words and sentences directly quoted.
2. Give credit for ideas you have quoted or paraphrased from an original source by including the author's name and page number from the original source.
Examples:
Jones has been critical of the inhumane treatment of the animals by cosmetic companies when testing new products (3).
-or-
One critic has stated that "Cosmetic companies use animals inhumanely in their new product testing" (Jones 3).

BIBLIOGRAPHIES:
A bibliography includes all the works you have actually cited in your work -- and only those cited -- and is located at the end of your paper. In MLA style, the preferred name for your bibliography is Works Cited. Citations are arranged alphabetically, by author, or by title if there is no author. The first line of each citation begins at the left margin and all additional lines of the citation are indented five spaces. Double space each entry; double space between entries.

Books

Hyde, Margaret O., and Elizabeth Held Forsyth. Suicide:

The Hidden Epidemic. Rev. ed. New York: Watts, 1986.

Editor

Allen, Robert C. Ed. Channels of Discourse: Television

and Contemporary Criticism. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1987.

Unknown author

Encyclopedia of Photography. 1st ed.,

2 vols. New York: Crown, 1984.

Work in an anthology or collection

Lazard, Naomi. "In Answer to Your Query." The Norton Book

of Light Verse. Ed. Russell Baker. New York: Norton, 1986. 52-53.

Entry in an encyclopedia or dictionary

"Ginsberg, Ruth Bader." Who's Who in America. 48th ed. 1994.

Periodicals

Booth, Wayne C. "Kenneth Burke's Way of Knowing."

Critical Inquiry 1 (1974):1-22.

Magazine

Walsh, John. "U.S. - Japan Study Aim is Education

Reform." Science 16 Jan. 1987: 274-75.

Newspaper

Schreiner, Tim. "Future is A) Dim or B) Bright (Pick One)."

Wall Street Journal 2 June 1983, Eastern ed.: 37.

Anonymous

"Drinkproofing Automobiles." Time 6 Apr. 1987: 37.

CD-ROM databases

Material with publication information from a printed source

Angier, Natalie. "Chemists Learn Why Vegetables Are

Good for You." New York Times 13 Apr. 1993, late ed.: C1. New York Times Ondisc. CD-ROM. UMI-Proquest. Oct. 1993.

Material with no printed source

"U. S. Population by Age: Urban and Urbanized Areas."

1990 U. S. Census of Population and Housing. CD-ROM. US Bureau of the Census. 1990.

Online databases

Material with publication information from a printed source

Guidelines for Family Television Viewing. Urbana:

ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Educ., 1990. ERIC. Online. Dialog. 22 Nov. 1993.

Material from electronic journals, electronic newsletters

Lindsay, Robert K. "Electronic Journals of Proposed

Research." Ejournal 1.1 (1991): n. pag. Online. Internet. 10 Apr. 1991.

Electronic text

Hardy, Thomas. Far from the Madding Crowd. Ed. Ronald Blythe. Harmondsworth:

Penguin, 1978. Online. Oxford Text Archive. Internet. 24 Jan. 1994.

For additional help in citing electronic sources, see the library's "Guide for Citing Electronic Information."

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