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Cite My Sources

Information on how to credit sources using APA, MLA, and Chicago styles

MLA Style Manual

In-text Citations

For more guidelines and examples, check out the MLA Style Center In-Text Citations Overview.

Basic Format:

(Last Name Page #)

Or, introduce direct quotes with the author and title within the sentence or paragraph, then include the page number(s) at the end of the quote in parentheses.

I'm citing...

You only need the author's last name and the page number.

(Burke 3)

If there is no author...

Use a shortened title of the work

("Impact of Global Warming")

Connect both authors' last names with and, and include the page number.

(Best and Marcus 9)

Use the first author's last name and et al., and include the page number.

(Franck et al. 327)

Works Cited

Basic Format:
Author Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. Title of Longer Work or "Title of Shorter Work." Publisher, Year. URL or DOI.

I'm citing a...

  1. Author(s). Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. "Title of the Article." Note: Include the title of a shorter work like an article in a journal in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Journal, Note: Use italics for the title of a longer work like a journal and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. vol. #,
  5. no. #, Note: If there is no additional number after the volume, only include the volume number.
  6. Publication date,
  7. pp. xxx-xxx.
If accessed online or in a library database...
  • Database, Note: Use italics for names of databases.
  • URL or permalink.

Example:

Coyne, Sarah M., et al. “Does Time Spent Using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight Year Longitudinal Study.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 104, Mar. 2020, p. 106160. ScienceDirect, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.106160.
  1. Author(s). Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. "Title of the Article." Note: Include the title of a shorter work in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Newspaper or Publisher, Note: Use italics for the title of a longer work like a newspaper or online publication and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. Publication date, Note: Use the formate Date Abbreviated Month Year.
  5. URL.

Example:

Flavelle, Christopher, et al. "Overlapping Disasters Expose Harsh Climate Reality: The U.S. Is Not Ready." The New York Times, 2 Sep. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/climate/new-york-rain-floods-climate-change.html
Print Book
  1. Author(s). Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. Title of the Book. Note: Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Edition Note: If there are multiple editions, use the format 1st/2nd/3rd ed.,
  4. Publisher,
  5. Publication date.

Example:

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1st ed., J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1960.

Ebook
  1. Author(s). Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. Title of the Book, Note: Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Editors Note: If there is one editor, use the format edited by Last Name, First Name. If there are multiple editors, use and before the last author's name.
  4. Publisher,
  5. Publication date.
  6. Database, Note: Use italics for names of databases.
  7. URL or permalink.

Example:

Hughes, Langston. Letters from Langston: From the Harlem Renaissance to the Red Scare and Beyond, edited by Evelyn Louise Crawford and Mary Louise Patterson. University of California Press, 2016. EBSCOhost eBook Academic Collection, https://library.norwich.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1105577&scope=site.
  1. Author(s) of the Chapter. Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. "Title of the Chapter." Note: Include the title of a shorter work like a chapter in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Book, Note: Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. Editors,
  5. Publisher,
  6. Publication date,
  7. pp. xxx-xxx.
  8. Database, Note: Use italics for names of databases.
  9. URL or permalink.

Example:

Su, Fang-Ying. "Debating the Universality of Human Rights from an Intercultural Perspective."Identity, Belonging and Human Rights: A Multi-Disciplinary Perspective, edited by Nasia Hadjigeorgiou, Brill, 2019, pp. 127-137. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/norwich/reader.action?docID=6481761&ppg=141.
  1. Author. Note: If there is no individual author, begin the citation with "Title of the Page."
  2. "Title of Page, Section, or Document."
  3. Publisher,
  4. URL.

Example:

"Formatting Your Research Project." Modern Language Association of America, https://style.mla.org/formatting-papers.
  1. Author(s). Note: Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, use and before the last author's name.
  2. Title of the artwork. Note: Use headline-style capitalization. If no title is available, use a brief description.
  3. Publication date,
  4. Source. For images viewed in person, include the museum's name and location. For images viewed online, include the title of the website in italics, followed by the URL. For images viewed in a print publication, place the source before the publication date and list the publication title in italics.
If viewed in a book, include the book's citation as the source.

Example:

Bearden, Romare. The Train. 1975. MOMA, www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

Check out more examples of citing online sources from the MLA Style Center.

 

Creative Commons License CC by NC 4.0 This page was adapted from a guide created by Tess Withorn at CSUDH Library and licensed under a Creative Commons Atribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Figures and Tables

In MLA Style, photographs, artwork, maps, graphs, charts, and other visual media with the exception of tables should be labeled Figure (usually abbreviated to "Fig."), are numbered (based on the order in which they appear in your paper), and have a caption. Labels and captions are typically below the figure, aligned with the left margin. 

Captions can be shortened, but typically include bibliographic information about the image that you are using (like the title and artist). If you do not include the full citation as part of the caption, or if the work is cited elsewhere in your paper, an entry for the figure should be included in your Works Cited. 

Example:

A black and white photo of two cats sitting next to each other on a sidewalk.

Fig. 1. Eric Lee-Johnson. “[Two Cats].” Scenes of Life by Eric Lee-Johnson [E.001503], black and white negative, circa 1956. Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa; Collection: Photography, JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/community.27114598. Accessed 3 June 2025.

Alternatively, you could use the following label and description and include an entry in your Works Cited: 

Fig. 1. Eric Lee-Johnson's "[Two Cats]."


Tables are presented slightly differently from figures in MLA. Tables are labelled as Table, are numbered in the order they appear in your paper, followed by a short but descriptive title. Notes (indicated by a superscript letter, labelled in order starting with a) that clarify information or provide context, as well as source information, can be included below the table.

Example:

Table 1 

Activities middle school students do on social media sitesa

  Post pictures Read other's posts Delete videos Comment on others' posts Post videos Delete pictures
n 494 397 333 333 234 209
% 83.31 66.95 56.16 56.16 39.46 35.24
  Reshare other's posts Reshare other's videos Reshare other's pictures Post status updates Delete my posts Delete my comments
n 150 129 129 110 69 39
% 25.30 21.75 21.75 18.55 11.64 3.58

Source: Martin, Florence, et al. “Middle School Students’ Social Media Use.” Journal of Educational Technology & Society, vol. 21, no. 1, 2018, pp. 213–24. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26273881. Accessed 3 June 2025.

a. This table includes the frequency and percentages of responses to multiple choice questions. 

 

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