How to Write an Essay With MLA Citations

Note each source's publication information while preparing to write your essay with MLA citations.

Writers publishing in the humanities typically use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style guide to format their essays, and many high school and college teachers require their students to do the same. If an essay requires MLA citations, the whole essay probably needs to conform to MLA style as well. Use 1-inch margins and double spacing unless the instructor says otherwise. For MLA citation style, include in-text citations at each point a source is referenced in the essay and a complete bibliographic list of citations in a Works Cited list at the end of the essay.

Things You'll Need

• Note cards or bibliographic database
• Computer with word processing software
• Sources

Instructions

1. Compile each source's publication material on note cards or in a bibliographic database program. Include as much information as possible, including all authors, editors, translators, titles, the edition or issue information, page numbers, publisher, publishing city, publication year and type of media. If you use articles from a journal or chapters from a book, note all publication information about the individual article or chapter and the larger publication or textbook.

2. Start a new page after the last page of the essay and type "Works Cited" on the first line. Center the title and check that the word processing program is set to double-spacing.

3. Drop down one line and align the cursor at the left margin. Enter the publication information for each citation, one at a time, in your Works Cited list, starting with the last name of each source's author followed by a comma and then the first name and initial, if included. If a work has more than one author, start with the first author listed on the book's title page or at the top of the article. If citing a work within a work, such as a poem within an anthology, cite the author of the specific work.

4. Type the title of the work. Italicize major works such as books and films, and place minor works such as chapters, stories, articles or songs in quotation marks. If you are citing a work within a work, put the smaller work first, followed by the larger work and the editor information, if different from the author. For example, a citation of a chapter in a book would look like this so far, with the book title in italics:

   Crowder, Andrew. "Roofing Your Barn." The Complete Guide to New Hampshire Home Repair. Ed. Janey Roberts.

5. List each source's publishing information, including edition and volume numbers, if appropriate, the publisher's name and city, the year of publication, page numbers cited, if appropriate, and the type of media. Indicate the type of media with the words "Print," "Web," "Film" or similar short descriptions. Below are four complete examples of the most common types of MLA citations. The first is a traditional book, the second is a chapter in a book, the third is an article from a magazine and the fourth is a website:

   Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Knopf, 1991. Print.

   Crowder, Andrew. "Roofing Your Barn." The Complete Guide to New Hampshire Home Repair. Ed. Janey Roberts. 3rd ed. New Haven: Henderson, 1972. 44-70. Print.

   Moore, Joshua F. "What Your Dollar Is Worth in Maine." Down
   East Apr. 2010: 42-45. Print.

   Schupp, James R. "Planting and Early Care of Fruit Trees." University of Maine Cooperative Extension. 14 Aug. 2008. Web. 08 Apr. 2010. <http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/2411.htm>.

6. Leave the first line of each citation left-justified and indent every subsequent line by one tab length. Alphabetize the citations on the Works Cited list by first authors' last names.

7. Insert in-text citations at every point in the essay where you quote, paraphrase or otherwise draw from one of the sources in the Works Cited list. To do this, find each relevant sentence and insert a pair of parentheses before the period. The first word from your citation, which is almost always the first author's last name, goes first inside the parenthesis. Insert one space and then list the page number the reference came from. For example, an in-text citation for Moore could look like this:

   First time home buyers may soon outpace the retired population as the largest group purchasing homes in Maine (Moore 42).

Tips & Warnings

• Use an online service like EasyBib.com, which formats MLA citations for free, for assistance with tricky citations.

• If a source is missing publication information such as a publishing date, author or other pertinent information, consult the latest "MLA Handbook" published by the Modern Language Association for guidance or do your best to conform with MLA style given the limitation.

• Always cite every source used, even if you do not directly mention the source in the essay. If uncertain whether or not to include a citation, include it.

References

• 1. "MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers," 7th ed.; Modern Language Association of America; 2009

Resources

• EasyBib: Free Automatic Bibliography and Citation Maker