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CMP 100 - Dr. Morris: Citing Books and Journals in MLA format

MLA -- Places to look for HELP

For MLA online, use the Online Writing Lab (OWL) program from Purdue University.

Click here to go directly to the MLA page.

Use the frame on the left to find how to cite different formats in your bibliography, and how to cite sources within your analysis.  

CAUTION:  the new Purdue OWL is full of Google Ads.  Be careful to use only the actual Purdue MLA pages.

 

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Microsoft Templates

Open WORD -- Open a new document --  In the template area search MLA

 

And here is a great video from Microsoft support on how to use that template.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/video-creating-an-mla-paper-with-citations-and-a-bibliography-fe43e41c-9e44-48fb-a118-09ea97234437

Citing Electronic Journal Articles in MLA format

The source for this information is the website for the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.  The easiest way to get there is to Google: Purdue Owl MLA.

MLA for Journal Articles from the Library's databases:

Junge, Wolfgang, and Nathan Nelson. “Nature's Rotary Electromotors.”Science 29 Apr. 2005: 642-44. Science Online. Web. 5 Mar. 2009.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal 50.1 (2007): 173-96. ProQuest. Web. 27 May 2009.

Note: If you are copying the citation from a Library Database, such as EBSCO, watch for common mistakes in the CITE function in databases. You will need to:

  1. add the Hanging Idention of 1/2 inch for each citation
  2. check the capitalization.  In MLA you do NOT capitalize  articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle.
  3. check your italics.  In MLA both the title of the journal and the name of the database are  put in italics.

 

Citing books in MLA

The source for this information is the website for the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.  The easiest way to get there is to Google: Purdue Owl MLA.

 

MLA for books:

 

[Lastname], [Firstname]. [Title of Book]. [Place of Publication]: [Publisher], [Year of Publication]. [Medium of Publication].

 

Example: F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tales of the Jazz Age.

 

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. Tales of the Jazz Age: stories. New York: Vintage Books, 2010. Print.

 

Note:  the title is in italics, and the Medium for a printed book is Print (not Book)

Citing periodicals in MLA

Cite by listing the article's author, putting the title of the article in quotations marks, and italicizing the periodical title. Follow with the date of publication. Remember to abbreviate the month. The basic format is as follows:

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.