MLA 9 Citation & Style

Breaking Down the Basic Elements You Need to Include in a Citation

The elements of a citation are color coded solely for the purposes of learning and identifying the order each element is placed within the citation. When you create a Works Cited list, black is used for the entire document.  NOTE:  If any element is missing for your source, skip it and move to the next position.

• 1st position:  Author Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial.
• 2nd position: Title of Longer Work  -- title of book or ebook - in italics
  • OR...
    •  "Title of Shorter Work." -- title of article or web page --  in quotes " "
• 3rd position: Name of Newspaper, Magazine, Journal, or Website -- in italics
• 4th position: Contributors -- editor, director, etc.
• 5th position: Edition OR Version -- 3rd ed. OR volume number of a journal -- vol. 78
• 6th position: Numbers after the volume --- vol. 78, no. 4
• 7th position: Publisher Name
• 8th position: Publication Date and page numbers
• 9th position: Library Database Name (in italics) with URL or DOI from library database or web source

Example Sources

Print Book Citation - One Author

Dunton-Downer, Leslie. Essential Shakespeare Handbook. Dorling-Kinserley, 2013

Print Book Citation - Two Authors

Dunton-Downer, Leslie and Alan Riding. Essential Shakespeare Handbook. Dorling-Kinserley, 2013

eBook Citation

Lyne, Raphel. Shakespeare’s Late Work. OUP Oxford, 2007. EBSCOhost

          search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.westerntc.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s6269778&

          db=nlebk&AN=192173&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Library Database Scholarly Journal Article with a URL

Pierce, Patricia. “Shakespeare and the Forgotten Heroes.” History Today, vol. 56, no. 7, July 2006, pp. 3–4. EBSCOhost,

          search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.westerntc.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&

          custid=s6269778&db=aph&AN=21432939&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Library Database Scholarly Journal Article with a doi: number

Swarbrick, Steven and Karen Raber. “Shakespeare’s Cognitive Ethology: Bias as Plasticity.” Criticism, vol. 62, no. 3, Summer

          2020, p. 367–386. EBSCOhost, doi:10.13110/criticism.62.3.0367.

Library Database Scholarly Newspaper Article

Andreae, Christopher. “Shakespeare Workshops ‘Much Ado about Something.’” Christian Science Monitor, vol. 93, no. 117,

          11 May 2001, p. 19. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.westerntc.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&

          AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s6269778&db=aph&AN=4427248&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Library Database Scholarly Magazine Article

Jones, Radhika. “212. Blank Verse Under a Big Sky.” TIME Magazine, vol. 188, no. 2/3, July 2016, pp. 96–97. EBSCOhost,

          search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.westerntc.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&

           custid=s6269778&db=aph&AN=116563558&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Website Article

"William Shakespeare." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. https://poets.org/poet/william-shakespeare

Key Things to Remember - Formatting a Works Cited List

• Begin your Works Cited list on a separate page from the rest of your document
• Center - Works Cited - at the top of the page
• Citations must be double-spaced
• Citations must be listed in alphabetical order
• Citations must be formatted with a hanging indent (1/2")
• End all citations with a period

Citing Uncommon Sources

Formatting Your Works Cited List (also in an Annotated Bibliography) 

• Double-space the citation 
• Add a hanging indent to the second and following lines.

Pierce,  Patricia. “Shakespeare and the Forgotten Heroes.” History Today, vol. 56, no. 7, July 2006, pp.3-4.   EBSCOhost,   search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.westerntc.edu:2048/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=cookie,ip,cpid&custid=s6269778&db=aph&AN=21432939&site=ehost-live&scope=site.