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Modern Language Association (MLA) Citation Style: Citing Articles

This is a guide on how to use the Modern Language Association citation style. It provides examples of basic formats for sources using MLA Style.

Print Articles

Articles :

Format:

Author. "Article title." Journal title, Volume #.Issue # (Date): Page

       numbers.
Publication format.

 

Example: 

Jones, Jane.  "Writing with style." Style Writing Journal 12.6 (2005): 

        14-33. Print.
 

Online Articles

Online full-text journal article (also available in print):

Format:

Author. "Title." Journal title, Volume #.Issue # (Date): Page
 

      number(s). Title of Database. Publication medium. Date of access.
 

Example:

Jones, James. "How Writing Influences Our Lives." Local
 

      Newspaper. (12 May 2001): 1D. Newspapers Online. Web.
 

      22 October 2009.
 

Online full-text journal article from a database:

Format:

Author. "Title." Journal title, Volume#.Issue# (Date): Page
 

      number(s). Title of database. Publication medium.
 

      Date of access.
 

Example:

Johnson, Robert. "What Writing Style Does for Me." Style
 

      Writing Journal  14.6 (2001): 92-101. Academics
 

      Expanded. Web. 12 December 2001.

"Refereed" or "Peer-Reviewed Journals Information

"Peer review" is the process through which experts in a field of study examine and assess the quality of articles before they are published.  Peer review insures that the research described in a journal's articles is sound and of high quality.

Sometimes the term "refereed" is used instead of peer reviewed.

You can identify Peer reviewed journals in the following source:

Indirect Sources

Only cite indirect sources when you are unable to obtain the original. When you are quoting or paraphrasing information by someone who was quoted in another source (indirect), and you have not read the original, you should cite the original source within the text as "quoted in", and then cite the indirect source in the reference list.  You should attempt to find and read the original work, if possible. 
 

Citing original work within text:

...as noted by Michael Wolff (qtd. in Fleishman 64)

 

Citing indirect source in in Works Cited list:

Fleishman, Avrom. George Eliot's Intellectual Life. Cambridge.
 

      Cambridge University Press, 2010. Print.

Encyclopedias/Reference resources

Encyclopedia Articles:

      Print Encyclopedia:

       Hill, Charles G. "Gide, Andre." Encyclopedia of World Literature 

                 
in the 20th Century. Ed. Steven  R. Serafin. Vol. 2. 


                 Farmington Hills, MI: St. James Press, 1999. Print. 
 

      Online Encyclopedia:

            Format:

            Author. "Title of article." Title of Work. Edition. Publisher
 

                     or sponsor of site (if not available, use N.p.). Date of
 

                     publication. Publication format. Date of access.
 

            Example:

            Vietto, Angela. "Burnett, Frances Hodgson." Continuum
 

                     Encyclopedia of American Literature. Credo Reference.
 

                     2005. PDF file. January 20, 2012.