Citation is your indication that certain material in your work came from another source. It also provides readers with the information necessary to find that source again. Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people's work without plagiarizing.
The following situations almost always require citation:
Adapted from: Plagiarism.org
A copy of the MLA Handbook is available at the Library's Reference Desk. Click here for a video overview of what's new in the 9th edition.
NOTE: The MLA Handbook was updated to its 9th edition in 2021. Refer to the MLA Style Center for useful tools, guidelines and discussion of specific MLA topics.
This guide from Josh Vossler of Citrus College walks you through the basics of MLA Style (9th edition).
The MLA Style Center website provides useful resources including notices on recent updates and sample papers.
Quick links:
These examples are adapted from Excelsior Online Writing Lab and Monmouth University's Resources for Writers; they comply with MLA 9 formatting.
A book with two authors:
Authors’ names (only the first is reversed). Title. Publisher, Year.
Cole, George F. and Christopher E. Smith. Criminal Justice in America. Wadsworth, 1996.
An article in a scholarly journal:
Author. “Article Title.” Journal Title, Volume number, Issue number, Month or season (if available) Year, Page numbers.
Goldsmith, Meredith. “White Skin, White Mask: Passing, Posing, and Performing in The Great Gatsby.” MFS Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 49, no. 3, Fall 2003, pp. 443-68.
A newspaper or magazine article published on the web:
Author. “Article Title.” Newspaper or Magazine Title, Date of Publication (if available), URL (without http:// or https://).
Nordland, Rod. "Iran Plays Host to Delegations after Iraq Elections." New York Times, 1 Apr. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?_r=0.
A publication in an online database:
Author. “Article Title.” Journal Title, Volume number, Issue number, Month or season (if available) Year, Page numbers. Name of Database, URL (without http:// or https://). Note: In terms of volume and issue, one or both may be available.
Chan, Evans. “Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema.” Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000, pp. 17-18. Project Muse, muse.jhu.edu/article/37463.
NOTE: MLA requires full URLs for online material. For online articles within a database, you should look for a stable link to an article (permalink). However, if your article includes a DOI (digital object identifier), that information should be provided instead of the URL. Look for the DOI in the article's detailed record.
NOTE: You may not always see the DOI information for a resource in its reference information, but you can look it up using the Crossref information base!
Sources: Crossref, Scribbr, The DOI Foundation
Here are some great resources to help with proper citation styles:
For detailed information on how to use NoodleTools, please see the library's NoodleTools Research & Citation Manager research guide.
Zotero also offers a citation generator called ZoteroBib - see box on this page for details!
ZoteroBib is a citation generator that can create citations for websites, newspapers, and DOI numbers. If ZoteroBib can't find your source automatically, you can enter the information manually to create the citation.
As with any automatically generated citation, you should always double-check that the formatting is correct.
