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Referencing style - MLA: Books and book chapters

A guide to using the MLA referencing system for in-text citations and reference lists.

Books and Book Chapters

Material type In-Text Example Works Cited Example
Book: Single Author (Mathy 150) or Mathy has discussed (150)... Mathy, Jean-Philippe. French Resistance: The French-American Culture Wars. Minneasota UP, 2000.
Book: 2 Authors (Beuving and de Vries 123-125) Beuving, Joost, and Gert C. de Vries. Doing Qualitative Research: The Craft of Naturalistic Inquiry. Amsterdam University Press, 2015.
Book: 3 or More Authors (Quirk et al. 130) Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985.
Book: No Author, with edition other than the 1st (The New Zealand Official Year Book 50) The New Zealand Official Year Book. 12th ed., Government Printer, 1987.
Book: Editor only (Shell 29-31)

Shell, Marc, editor. American Babel: Literatures of the United States from Abnaki to Zuni. Harvard UP, 2002.

(See the MLA Handbook, section 5.39.)
Book: Editor & Author (Bronte 40) Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Edited by Margaret Smith, Oxford UP, 1998.
Book: 2 Editors (Bullinger and Warnecke 30)

Bullinger, H.J., and H. J. Warnecke, editors. Toward the factory of the future. Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1985.

(See the MLA Handbook, section 5.39.)
Book: Chapter or Article in Edited Book (Browne 44)

Browne, Tom J. "The Role of Geographical Information Systems in Hydrology." Sediment and Water Quality in River Catchments, edited by Ian Foster, et al., John Wiley & Sons, 1995, pp. 33-48.
Book: Translator & Author (Allende 20)

Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune. Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden, Harper, 2000.

(See the MLA Handbook, section 5.39.)
Book: Organisation as Author (A Practical Guide and Workbook 11)

A Practical Guide and Workbook for Completing a MOSHH Assessment in Your Workplace: Chemical Safety. Occupational Safety & Health Service, Department of Labour, 1997.

(When a work is published by an organisation and it is also the author, begin with reference entry with the title, and list the organisation as the publisher.)
Republished Book with original publication date (London 23)

London, Jack. Call of the Wild. 1903. Dover, 1990.
E-book (Kerzner 15)

Kerzner, Harold. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. 10th ed., Wiley, 2009. Ebook Library, uwa.eblib.com.au.ezproxy.library.uwa.edu.au/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=427764.

(If the E-Book has a DOI, record the DOI rather than the URL. Eg: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1g69z35)
Anthology or Collection (Hill and Helmers 123) Hill, Charles A., and Marguerite Helmers, editors. Defining Visual Rhetorics. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.
All Volumes in a Multivolume publication (O'Shaughnessy 2: 23)

O'Shaughnessy, Brian. The Will: A Dual Aspect Theory. Cambridge University Press, 1980. 2 vols.

(See the MLA Handbook, section 5.117.)
Work in an Anthology or Collection (Harris 50) Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One, edited by Ben Rapoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.
Poem (Burns 26) Burns, Robert. "Red, Red Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, Dover, 1995, p. 26.
Short Story (Kincaid 306) Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.
Citing a source Reprinted within another source (Johnson 180)

Johnson, Barbara. “My Monster / My Self.” The Barbara Johnson Reader: The Surprise of Otherness, edited by Melissa Feuerstein et al., Duke UP, 2014, pp. 179-90. Originally published in Diacritics, vol. 12, no. 2, 1982, pp. 2-10.

(See the MLA Handbook, section 5.114.)
Brochure / Pamphlet (Modern Language Association 1) Modern Language Association Announces New and Improved MLA Language Map. Modern Language Association, 2006.

 

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