Citation Builder Tips
Click labels on the left side of the form. Tips will appear in this space, to help you determine what to type for each blank.
Note: The BibBuilder is a helpful guide, but it does not attempt to implement every possible quirk and feature of MLA Style; neither does it attempt to correct anything that might have been mistyped in the box. ("Garbage in, garbage out.")
For help formatting your Works Cited page, see MLA Style Papers: Step-by-step Instructions for Formatting Research Papers.
Author Type
[
Single
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Multiple
|
Group
|
None
]
Single Author
- Safire, William.
- Clinton, Hilary Rodham
- Brown, Louis Baker, Jr.
- Eynsford-Hill, Frederick, III
Write the author's family name first, followed by given names.
- Omit professional titles such as "Dr." or "Rev." or "Ph.D."
- Include personal titles such as "Jr." or "III", setting them off with a comma and placing them after the given names.
Multiple Authors
- Smith, John, and K. D. Lee, Jr.
- Biggs, Cecil A., Jane W. Smith-Woods, and Lorraine R. Brown
Write the first author's name in reversed order
(surname first, followed by given names). Write the other names in normal order.
- Omit professional titles such as "Dr." or "Rev." or "Ph.D."
W - Include personal titles such as "Jr." or "III", setting them off with a comma and placing them after the given names.
Group (Corporate) Author
- American Medical Association
- United States. Senate.
A group whose individual members are not listed on the title page is treated as a corporate author.
Give the name of the group. See MLA Handbook, 7th ed., 5.5.5.
When the author is a government agency, give the name of the place being governed, followed by a period; then give the name of the agency.
- Canada. Revenue Canada.
- New York. Committee on State Prisons.
For a more detailed treatment of government publications, see MLA Handbook,
7th ed., 5.5.20.
No Author
If the author is a corporation or organization (such as Microsoft or the Sierra Club), see the "Group" option.
If the source does not name an author, but does provide the name of an editor or translator, put that person's name in the author slot, with a label identifying the person's role.
- Smith, John, trans.
- Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar, eds.
If there is no listed author, leave the "Author" slot blank. In your Works Cited list, alphabetize according to the title.
The Holy Bible. Wheaton: Crossway-Good News, 2003. Print. Eng. Standard Vers.
American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style. Boston: Houghton, 2005. Print.
See MLA Handbook, 7th ed., 5.5.9 for "An Anonymous Book."
Titles
To cite a separately-published, full-length work (such as a novel, play, or epic poem)
capitalize and italicize.
- Twelfth Night
- Wallace Stevens: A Collection of Critical Essays
- Religious Imagery in Macbeth: A Linguistic Critique
To cite a full work that appears in a collection, see "Sources: Selection."
Capitalize the first and last word of the title, as well as all
- nouns (Letter, Pride, Inferno)
- pronouns (It, Our, Their, Who)
- verbs (Love, Get, Is, Was)
- modifiers (Scarlet, Nightly, Far)
- subordinating conjunctions (Although, Unless, When, If)
In the middle of the title, lowercase:
- articles (a, an, the)
- prepositions (of, in, to)
- coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, so, for)
In MLA Style we follow standard rules for formatting and capitalizing, regardless of how the title appears on the cover.
Thus, if the cover of the book reads "ROBOTS" in decorative letters,
with "machines in man's image" in smaller print,
and the title page lists the title as "Robots, Machines in Man's Image,"
in MLA Style we would use a colon and space to separate the title and subtitle,
and standardize the capitalization thus:
Robots: Machines in Man's Image
Note: The BibBuilder will automatically italicize the whole title of a book or other full-length work.
If the title of your book includes the title of another book,
you'll have to format the BibBuilder output in order to remove the italics from the title-within-the-title.
- Macbeth
(underline the title of a play)
- Religious Imagery in Macbeth: A Linguistic Critique
(underline the book title, but not the play)
Editor, Translator or Compiler
Einstein, Albert. Letters of Albert Einstein. Ed. D. B. Jones.
Label the editor, translator, or compiler with an appropriate abbrevation (Ed., Trans., or Comp.), and include the person's name, in the usual order.
If the source identifies no author, leave the "Ed/Tras" slot blank and see No Author instead.
Options:
- One job, one person: Ed. D. B. Jones.
- One job, two people: Ed. Christopher Ricks and William L. Vance.
- Two jobs, one person: Comp. and ed. Peter Spafford.
- Two jobs, two people: Trans. Jessie Coulson. Ed. George Gibian.
Edition
- 2nd ed.
- Rev. ed.
- Abr. ed.
Unless your paper is comparing a first edition with some other edition of the same work, you can omit any reference to "1st ed."
Location of Publication
Unknown Location
If you can supply only partial information, enter it in brackets: [England]
If you have no idea whatsoever, enter "N.p." (for "no place"); or, leave this slot blank (the Bib-Builder will add it for you).
Multiple locations
Use the first location listed on the title page.
Obscure or possibly confusing location
If the city of publication is not well-known, add an abbreviation for the province, state, or country. Use the standard abbreviations ("Tex." or "N.J."), not postal code abbreviations (TX or NJ). You will find the standard abbreviations in a dictionary.
Publisher
- University of Toronto Press
- O'Reilley & Associates, Inc.
- n.p.
Use the name given on the title page. You may abbreviate: U of Toronto P, Oxford UP.
If none is given, leave the slot blank; the Bib-Builder will add "n.p." for you.
Year of Publication
- 2011
- [c. 1996] (sometime around 1996)
- [1996?] (possibly 1996, but you are unsure)
- n.d. (you really have no idea)
Database
If you are citing an online work that you found through a database, name the database here.
Academic Search Elite
Google Book Search
The point of citing any source is to help your reader find it. Citing a "database service" such as EBSCOhost is not specific enough, since different libraries may use EBSCOhost to deliver data to the users, but they may not subscribe to the same databases you used -- such as the MLA International Bibliography or JSTOR.
EBSCOhost is like the cab driver who will take you to a specific address; so, citing a database service such as EBSCOhost instead of a specific database is like giving a cab's license plate instead of an address.
Medium
What physical form does your source take? The most common choices are "Web" or "Print," but there are many more options.
- DVD
- E-mail
- Interview
- Film
- Lecture
- MP3 file
- Performance
- Radio
- Television
The above is just a sample; if your medium is not listed here, describe it as best as you can. Note that a ballet, a rock concert, and an amateur piano recital all count as a "Performance," while a comic book, a restaurant menu, and a store receipt are all examples of the "Print" medium.
Access Date
Electronic sources tend to change over time. If you are citing a web page or online database, include the date that you last accessed your source.
5 Apr. 2011
Use three-letter abbreviations for the months, but spell out May, June, and July.
5 May 2011
20 June 2011
1 Oct. 2011