MLA Citations- 8th edition
The Modern Language Association (MLA) specifies a standard format for essays and research papers written in an academic setting. This format is used by humanity, literature, and language classes.
Paper formatting
Paper formatted:
The first page of your paper should:
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MLA Paper Template MS Word (click to download)
First Page Example Below:
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In text Citations
An in-text citation is a brief reference in your text that indicates the source you consulted.
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Works Cited page
According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper.
All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.
Basic rules:
All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.
Basic rules:
- Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name, page number header as the rest of your paper.
- Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page.( Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be aligned with the left margin.)
- Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
- Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent..
- If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online database name in italics.
- For online sources, you should include a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scholarly databases use a DOI (digital object identifier). Use a DOI in your citation if you can; otherwise use a URL. Delete “http://” from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a citation and should be followed by a period.
- All works cited entries end with a period.
- Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
- Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)
Citations:
MLA 8th Edition makes creating citations manually less complicated. Use the chart below and follow the instructions to create citations for any resource.
MLA 8th Edition makes creating citations manually less complicated. Use the chart below and follow the instructions to create citations for any resource.
Basic Citation Template:
Each entry in the list of works cited is made up of core elements given in a specific order.
The core elements should be listed in the order in which they appear here.
Each element is followed by the punctuation mark shown here.
Most information from this page is referenced from
Purdue Writing Lab. “MLA Style Introduction // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University., 2020,
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_introduction.html.
For more detailed information please refer to MLA 8th Edition manual or OWL Purdue's MLA webpage.
Purdue Writing Lab. “MLA Style Introduction // Purdue Writing Lab.” Purdue Writing Lab, The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University., 2020,
https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_style_introduction.html.
For more detailed information please refer to MLA 8th Edition manual or OWL Purdue's MLA webpage.