Welcome to MLA Style
MLA style was created by the Modern Language Association as a set of publication rules, including research papers, in the humanities and liberal arts.
There are two distinct parts to MLA style:
You are required to cite sources that you have quoted, paraphrased, or taken information or ideas from both with in-text citations, and with an entry on the Works Cited page.
Access the NCC Library's MLA Handout here:
MLA Style utilizes the Author-page format for in-text citations, for example:
Example Author-page format for print sources:
Research has shown that credit card usage has trended upwards during the spring and summer months among American males (Smith 101).
Smith conducted research that showed higher trends of credit card usage among American males during the spring and summer months (101).
Example in-text citation for electronic sources:
Follow the same format for citing electronic sources in-text, use the author if known:
The Las Vegas mass shooter was a chess prodigy in high school. (Palast)
If no author is known, use the title/partial URL of the website for the citation. Do not put the full URL of the website in the text:
The Las Vegas mass shooter was a chess prodigy in high school (nbcnews.com)
**Listed above are a few basic examples of common in-text MLA Citations, below are links to some MLA citation guides that will provide further assistance:
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)-Using MLA format
Below are a few examples of entries for a Works Cited page in MLA style:
Example book (one author):
Author Last Name, Author First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date.
McCarthy, Cormac. Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West. Vintage, 1992.
Example article from a print journal:
Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article". Title of Journal, Volume, Issue, Year, Pages.
Jones, Pat. "Political Scandals". Journal of American Politics, vol. 15, no. 1, 2019, pp. 75-95.
Example article from an online database:
Boyle, Michael J. “The War on Terror.” International Affairs, vol. 84, no. 2, 2008, pp. 191–209. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/25144761.
**Formatting note: if your citation has more than one line, all subsequent lines need a hanging indent**.
For additional assistance and examples on an MLA Works Cited page,the library recommends: