For additional guidelines not covered on this page please consult the OWL Purdue MLA Formatting and Style Guide.
MLA Handbook by Tip: Use the most recent version of the citation style unless your instructor requests otherwise.
General Formatting Guidelines:
If your instructor gives you specific formatting guidelines that are different than these, always follow your instructor's directions.
The Little Seagull Handbook by In MLA Style, in-text citation is done using parenthetical citations following the author-page method. This involves providing source information (author and page number) in parentheses whenever a sentence uses quotation or paraphrase.
Guidelines:
Example 1: Author's name as part of parenthetical citation
The House of Usher brought a sense of "iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart," over it's visitors (Poe 126).
Example 2: Author's name used in sentence (Narrative Citation)
Gothic writers often describe settings to evoke emotion, and these settings often represent decay and ruin. This is evident in Poe's description of the House of Usher, "I looked upon the scene before me—upon the mere house, and simple landscape features of the domain—upon the bleak walls—upon the vacant eye-like windows—upon a few rank sedges—and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees” (126).
Works Cited Entry
Poe, Edgar Allen. "The Fall of the House of Usher." The Portable Edgar Allen Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy, Penguin, 2006, pp.126-144.
An indirect quote is when you quote information that is cited in or quoted in another source--the source you are reading is not the original source of the content you wish to quote. As a general rule, you should try to avoid using indirect sources and find the original source if possible. Only use an indirect quote if you cannot locate the original source (for example, it is out of print) and the information you are quoting cannot be evidenced in some other way.
Example of an indirect quote:
Wolosky discusses the motivation of Dickinson's war poetry as seeking to justify the suffering of the war. In one of Dickinson's personal letters to her cousins, she writes, "I wish t'was plainer, the anguish in this world. I wish one could be sure the suffering had a loving side" (qtd. in Wolosky 111).
Works Cited Entry
Wolosky, Shira. "Public and Private in Dickinson's War Poetry." A Historical Guide to Emily Dickinson, edited by Vivian R. Pollak, 2004, Oxford University Press, pp. 103-131.
About the example:
Although we are quoting Dickinson's words we are not looking at the original source of those words. All we have in front of us is the secondary source, Wolosky's chapter about Dickinson, where she cites one of Dickinson's letters. The parenthetical citation and works cited entry included with the indirect quote therefore directs us to Wolosky's chapter since that is the source we are working with.
Changes to quotations are made by adding or omitting words from the original quotation.
Adding words
If you add words in a quotation you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text.
Example: adding words
Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).
Omitting words
If you omit words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word(s) by using ellipses, which are three periods preceded and followed by a space ( . . . )
Example: omitting words
In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).
*examples come from Purdue's OWL page MLA Formatting Quotations
Page Numbers
When you cite pages from a paginated work (a source that has assigned page numbers), always use the same style of numeral as the original source.
Example: 1, 2, 3, 4 ... or i, ii, iii, iv ....
If a work is only one page long, do not give the page number in your in-text citation.
If a quotation spans more than one page (i.e., starts at the bottom of one page and finishes at the top of the next page), include the page span in your in-text citation.
Example: (Harrison 6-7)
Paragraph Numbers
If your source uses explicit paragraph, section, chapter, or line numbers instead of page numbers, give the relevant numbers following the abbreviation "par." or "pars." You can also use labels like section (sec., secs.), chapters (ch., chs.), or lines (line, lines). Only use these labels if they are explicitly used by the original source - do not assign them yourself.
Example: par. 10
If your source does not assign paragraph numbers, do not number them yourself. Omit the page number element from the in-text and works cited page citation.
For additional information and examples on:
If you cannot identify an author, start the citation with the title of the source you are citing.
Note: In cases of no author in a page on a website, list the organization responsible for the site as the author (this is called a group author).
If the author is listed as "anonymous," use anonymous as the author. Do not list anonymous if the source simply has no author listed.
Example: Page on Website, No Individual Author - Use Group Author
Group Author Name. "Title of webpage." Website Title, Date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
American Heart Association. "What is a Heart Attack?" https://heart.org/en/health-topics/about-heart-attacks. Accessed 20 November 2024.
In this citation, there are a couple of things happening.
Example: Online Article With No Individual or Group Author
"Tile of Article." Title of Website, publication date, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
"How to Call a Person Who Has Blocked Your Number." WikiHow, 3 September 2024, wikihow.com/call-a-person-that-has-blocked-your-number. Accessed 20 November 2024.
Parenthetical citation: ("how to call")
If a source has no identifiable date, skip over the date element. Do not use a copyright date from the bottom of a website, as that applies to the whole website, not just the individual page.
If the source has no identifiable page numbers, skip over the page number element in the citation. Do not assign page or paragraph numbers to sources that do not have any.
It is common for the following source types to have no page numbers:
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article." Journal Title, vol., no., year, DOI/URL. Accessed Date.
Works Cited Page Example:
Ridley, Michael, and Danica Pawlick-Potts. "Algorithmic Literacy and the Role for Libraries." Information Technology and Libraries, vol. 40, no. 2, 2021, doi.org/10.6017/ital.v40i2.12963. Accessed 23 August 2021.
Parenthetical Citation: (Ridley and Pawlick-Potts #)
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. "Article Title: Article Subtitle." Journal Title, vol., no., year, pages, DOI/URL. Accessed Date.
Works Cited Page Example:
Black, Timothy, and Sky Keyes. "Voices From the Margins: Low-Income Fatherhood in the Era of Neoliberalism." Humanity & Society, vol. 45, no. 3, 2021, pp. 287-312, doi.org/10.1177/0160597620951946. Accessed 23 August 2021.
Parenthetical citation: (Black and Keyes #)
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. "Title of Article: Subtitle of Article." Journal Title, vol., no., date/year, pp. Database Name, DOI/URL. Accessed Date.
Works Cited Page Example:
Abramowitsch, Simon. "The Black Communications Movement." African American Review, vol. 51, no. 4, 2018, pp. 305-327. ProQuest Central, doi:10.1353/afa.2018.0055. Accessed 23 August 2021.
Parenthetical citation: (Abramowitsch #)
Notes:
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. Book Title: Book Subtitle. Format, Publisher, Year.
Works Cited Page Example:
Carroll, Lewis. Alice and Wonderland. E-Book, The Floating Press, 2019.
Parenthetical citation: (Carroll #)
Basic Format:
Editor, Author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number (if available), Name of Institution/Organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL. Date of Access (if applicable).
Works Cited Page Example:
Great Falls College MSU Weaver Library. Great Falls College Montana State University, library.gfcmsu.edu. Accessed 26 August 2021.
Parenthetical citation: (Great Falls College MSU Weaver Library)
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. "Website Page Title." Website Title, Version Number (if available), Date, URL. Date Accessed.
Works Cited Page Example:
Splawn, Meghan. "How to Make 3-Ingredient Slime Without Borax." The Kitchn, 9 June 2019, www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-3-ingredient-slime-without-borax-245904. Accessed 27 August 2021.
Parenthetical citation: (Splawn)
Basic Format - Book with One Author:
Last Name, First. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
Works Cited Page Example - Book with One Author:
Kolbert, Elizabeth. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. New York, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006.
Basic Format - Book with More Than One Author:
First Author Last Name, First, and Second Author First Last. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
Works Cited Page Example - Book with More than One Author:
Garson Jr., Arthur, and Carolyn L Engelhard. Health Care Half-Truths: Too Many Myths, Not Enough Reality. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Chapter or Essay from a Book - Basic Format
Last Name, First Name. "Title of Essay/Chapter." Title of Book/Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Pages of entry.
Chapter or Essay from a Book - Example
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Raven." The Norton Introduction to Literature 13th ed., edited by Kelly J. Mays, W. W. Norton & Company, 2020, pp. 621-623.
Parenthetical citations: (Kolbert #); (Garson Jr. and Engelhard #); (Poe #)
Notes:
Basic Format:
Corporate Author/Organization Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Works Cited Page Example - Same Author as Publisher:
CPT Changes 2008: An Insider's View. American Medical Association, 2008.
Parenthetical citation: ("CPT Changes 2008" #)
Works Cited Page Example - Different Author Than Publisher:
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. Random House, 1998.
Parenthetical citation: (American Allergy Association #)
Notes:
Basic Format:
Author Last, First. "Title of Video." YouTube, uploaded by Uploader Name, Date, URL.
Works Cited Page Example - Different Author and Uploader:
Dowling, Michael. "How Leaders Influence People to Believe." YouTube, uploaded by Big Think, 15 February 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kv2vz1MQNA.
Parenthetical citation: (Dowling)
Works Cited Page Example - Same Author as Uploader:
"Film Theory: Predicting Loki's Final TWIST! (Marvel Loki)". YouTube, uploaded by The Film Theorists, 13 July 2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mxd4mOkM0qI.
Parenthetical citation: ("Film Theory")
Notes:
The below description has been copied word-for-word from the MLA blog post "How do I cite generative AI in MLA Style?"
When using generative AI, you should:
We do not recommend treating the AI tool as an author. This recommendation follows the policies developed by various publishers, including the MLA’s journal PMLA.
Describe what was generated by the AI tool. This may involve including information about the prompt in the Title of Source element if you have not done so in the text.
Use the Title of Container element to name the AI tool (e.g., ChatGPT).
Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible. For example, the examples in this post were developed using ChatGPT 3.5, which assigns a specific date to the version, so the Version element shows this version date.
Name the company that made the tool.
Give the date the content was generated.
Give the general URL for the tool
While the green light in The Great Gatsby might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.
“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.
When asked to describe the symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby, ChatGPT provided a summary about optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness. However, when further prompted to cite the source on which that summary was based, it noted that it lacked “the ability to conduct research or cite sources independently” but that it could “provide a list of scholarly sources related to the symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby” (“In 200 words”).
“In 200 words, describe the symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby” follow-up prompt to list sources. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 9 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.
While we’ve provided fairly detailed descriptions of the prompts above, a more general one (e.g., Symbolism of the green light in The Great Gatsby prompt) could be used, since you are describing something that mimics a conversation, which could have various prompts along the way.