If you understand academic writing, you know more than one way to reference your work. You may be aware about various referencing style like MLA, APA etc. It is always important to give credit to the author for their ideas, content, studies, etc. The Modern Language Association (MLA) is one of the many referencing styles out there that is used mostly in the humanities.
MLA citation and referencing style
You cite the author’s name and the page number (an author-page system) in the text, and all the references are provided under the Works Cited list at the end of your paper.
Let’s look at how in-text citations and references are supposed to be entered in the MLA referencing styles. We will also look at a few MLA referencing style examples.
In-text citations in MLA format
- Here are a few things to keep in mind for in-text citations under the MLA referencing style.
- When quoting another author’s work, make sure to use their last name or surname and page number in parentheses like this (Kaul 567).
- An important point to note is no comma between the author’s surname and the page number.
- If there is more than one author, separate each with the word ‘and’ within parentheses (Kaul and Hardley 567). If there are more than two authors, separate using a comma. And if there are more than three authors, use the first author’s surname, followed by ‘et al.’ and the page number.
- If there are more than two works cited, then separate the surnames of each author using a semicolon (Kaul 567; Hardley 546).
- If you use the author’s name in the text itself, mention just the page number in parentheses. For example, Kaul posits that…is applicable (567).
- If there is no author, then use the book’s title or article. You can abbreviate it.
MLA style of citation and referencing
Works Cited list
- On a fresh page, list out all your references under the heading ‘Works Cited’.
- Make sure that you include all used to cite your paper.
- List all the authors’ surnames in alphabetical order. If the work has no author, then list the title. Be careful of spelling and other abbreviations. Authors’ names must be entered exactly how they appear in the source.
- Similar to how you work with the other referencing styles, under the MLA style also, remember to indent second and third lines. To be specific, you need to work with a hanging indent.
- The title must be capitalised, and the other important words. You needn’t capitalise articles, prepositions, or the ‘to-infinitive. You must also make sure to enter the title in italics and the chapters in double quotations without italicising them.
- It would help if you shortened the publisher’s name. You can do away with articles business abbreviations like Inc. or Co.
- You needn’t use ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’ to denote page numbers. But, you must use only the word ‘and’ and not an ampersand ‘&’ to indicate multiple authors.
More on MLA referencing style HERE.