MLA Formatting Help

Basic MLA Format for Sources in Print

Books

Book with one author

Rouillard, Richard. Poe: The Father of Detective Fiction. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.

Book with more than one author

Rouillard, Richard, and Norina Rouillard. The Rouillard Guide to Raising Daughters. Los Angeles: Allen, 2004.

If there are more than three authors, you may list only the first author followed by the phrase et al. (the abbreviation for the Latin phrase "and others") in place of the other authors' names, or you may list all the authors in the order in which their names appear on the title page.

Book with a corporate author

American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.

Book or article with no author named

Encyclopedia of Indiana. New York: Somerset, 1993.

"What is the Future of Books?" New York Times 14 Sept. 1999: A17.

For parenthetical citations of sources with no author named, use a shortened version of the title instead of an author's name. Use quotation marks and underlining as appropriate. For example, parenthetical citations of the two sources above would appear as follows: (Encyclopedia 235) and ("Books" A17).

Anthology or collection

Rouillard, Jacqueline R., ed. George Lucas: The Great American Film Maker. New York: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.

Essay in a collection

Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Ed. Ben Rafoth. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2000. 24-34.

Article from a reference book

"California." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1999 ed.

An article in a periodical (such as a newspaper or magazine)

Magazine or newspaper article

Rouillard, Katherine M. "Do Cartoons on TV Educate?" Newsweek 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.

The Bible (specific editions)

Good News Bible. Sarah Jones, gen. ed. New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1976.

Basic Forms for Electronic Sources

A web site

Rouillard, Richard. A Student Guide to Easy A’s. 17 Dec. 1998. University of Southern California. 12 Nov. 2000 .

Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2003. Purdue University. 10 Feb. 2003 .

Article on a web site

Poe, Allen. "My Pet Raven." Ravens. 26 Oct. 1998. Turner Network Television. 28 Oct. 1998 .

Online journal article

Wheelies, John. "Basic tricks of Bike Riding." Biking for Fun 6.6 (2000): 33 pages. 5 Dec. 2003 .

An Online Image or Series of Images

Artist if available. "Description or title of image." Date of image. Online image. Title of larger site. Date of download. .

Rouillard, Jacqueline. "Lord of the Rings Movie Concept Art." No date. Online image. Tolkien Picture Gallery. 21 March 2003. .

E-mail (or other personal communications)

E-mail to you

Taylor, Andrea. "Re: Modern Female Writers." E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2000.

Email communication between two parties, not including the author

Neyhart, David. "Re: Online Tutoring." E-mail to Joe Barbato. 1 Dec. 2000.

Article in a reference database on CD-ROM

"Edgar Allen Poe." Encarta. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft, 1999.

Interview that you conducted

Rouillard, Richard. Personal Interview. 1 Dec. 2005.  

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