Writing Center
Youngstown State University

Guidelines for MLA Parenthetical Citations

You must provide parenthetical references for all quotes, paraphrases, and summaries in your paper. A parenthetical reference will take the reader to the Works Cited page at the end of the paper where you supply complete bibliographic information. According to MLA guidelines, you must provide both the name(s) of the author(s) as well as the page number(s) on which the information is located. If you introduce the borrowed material with the name(s) of the author(s), then you need only put the page number in parentheses at the end of the borrowed material. Here is an example:

Mary Davies describes the animals at East Mountain Reservation as "unlike
any known to previous civilizations, strange and exotic to the human explorers"
(176).

However, if you do not include the name(s) of the author(s) to introduce the material, then you must provide them with the page number in the parenthetical reference at the end of the borrowed material. Follow this model:

The animals at East Mountain Reservation are "unlike any known
to previous civilizations, strange and exotic to the human explorers"
(Davies 176).

Hints

• The first time you refer to a source, it's generally considered a good idea to introduce the borrowed material with the full name(s) of the author(s). You may also include credentials to stress the source's authority.
• When paraphrasing and summarizing, make certain readers can tell where your ideas stop and the borrowed material begins. You can avoid problems by introducing paraphrases or summaries with the name(s) of the author(s).
• Do NOT use "p." or "pp." to indicate page numbers.
• Do NOT use any punctuation to separate the name from the page number inside a parenthetical reference.
• Note that the period follows the parenthetical reference.
• Quotes of more than four typed lines are handled differently than shorter quotes. Instead of quotation marks, long quotes are set off from the text, and the entire quote, which is still double-spaced, is indented 10 spaces from the left hand margin. In this case, the parenthetical reference goes outside of the final period.

Guidelines for MLA Works Cited Entries

• You must provide complete bibliographic information in correct MLA form for all sources from which you borrow material. You don't need to supply citations for sources that you consulted but from which you did not borrow material.
• Start your Works Cited list on a new page, and number it as though it were a page in your paper.
• Arrange entries alphabetically by the authors' last names. If no author is provided for any source, use the title to alphabetize.
• After the first line of an entry, indent five spaces so that the first word of the entry stands out. This is called hanging indentation.
• Double space within and between entries. Be careful that you do not use more than two spaces between entries.
• Follow standard spacing after punctuation. That is, after a comma or colon, leave only one space, but after a period, leave two spaces.

Samples of MLA Works Cited Entries

BOOKS

Although all book entries do not contain all the following elements, the information in MLA entries will appear in this order (omit unnecessary items):

1. Author
2. Chapter or part of the book
3. Title of the book
4. Editor, translator, or compiler
5. Edition
6. Number of volumes
7. Name of the series
8. Place, publisher, and date
9. Volume number of this book
10. Page numbers

Book with one author

Wood, Nancy V. Perspectives on Argument. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 

Prentice Hall, 1995.

Book with two or more authors

 Hawley, James, and Charles Tilghman. Getting Down to Specifics.  New York: 

      HarperCollins, 1992. 

Section from an anthology (a work by many authors or different works by the same author)

 Torres, Miguel. "Crossing the Border." Connections: A Multicultural

      Reader for Writers. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Mountain View, CA: 

      Mayfield Publishing, 1993. 70-73.

Edition

Spatt, Brenda. Writing From Sources. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1991.

Periodicals

In MLA documentation, it's important to distinguish between magazines and journals since their works-cited entries follow slightly different forms. Although some journals start with a page one in every issue, many journals use continuous pagination. That is, a particular page number occurs only once in a given volume. In works-cited entries, the volume and sometimes issue numbers will direct readers to an article. For magazine articles, however, volume and issue numbers are omitted, and a specific date or month is used to identify an article. If you are unsure if your source is a magazine or journal, see Finding Scholarly Journals for more information. Present bibliographic information for periodical articles in this order, eliminating unnecessary elements:

1. Authors (If an article is unsigned, begin with the title.)
2. Title of article
3. Name of periodical
4. Volume and issue (journals only)
5. Date (magazines and newspapers)
6. Page numbers

Journal with continuous pagination

Lester, David W., and Cherise Thompson. "Speed of Mental Process in  

     Ambidextrous Mammals." American Journal of Neurological Study 

117 (1993): 145-57.

Journal with each issue paginated separately

Levanto, Herman. "What We Have in Comma." English Journal of Punctuation 
 
     and Mechanics 10.5 (1989): 87-93.

Monthly or bi-monthly magazine

Coleman, Heather. "A Wonderful Sight." Children's Digest Jan./Feb. 1996: 

28-29.

Weekly or bi-weekly magazine

Shapiro, Laura. "Is Fat That Bad?" Newsweek 21 April 1997: 58-64.

Newspaper

Kubrik, Marianne. "Crime on the Rise in East Side Public Housing."  

     Our Town Herald 15 May 1997: D5+.

E-mail your comments and suggestions to the YSU Grant Team (cardcat@bgnet.bgsu.edu).