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MLA Style Guide Ninth Edition

Number

Number,

 

The source you are documenting may be part of a sequence, like a numbered  volume, issue, episode, or season. If your source uses a numbering system, include the number in your entry, preceded by a common abbreviation or term that identifies the kind of division the number refers to.

Books

A text too long to be printed in one book, for instance, is issued in multiple volumes, which may be numbered. If you consult one volume of a numbered multivolume set and each volume is titled the same, indicate the volume number.

Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, 2002.

Welleck, René. A History of Modern Criticism, 1750-1950. Vol. 5, Yale UP, 1986.

 

Journals

Journal issues are typically numbered. Some journals use both volume and issue numbers. In general the issues of a journal published in a single year compose one volume. Usually volumes are numbered sequentially, while the numbering of issues starts over with 1 in each new volume.

Young, Vershawn Ashanti. "Should Writers Use They Own English?" Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, vol. 12, no. 1, 2010, pp.110-18.

Kafka, Ben. "The Demon of Writing: Paperwork, Public Safety, and Reign of Terror." Representations, no. 98, 2007, pp. 1-24.

Note: If a work in a periodical is not printed in consecutive pages, just list the start page number and a plus sign.

 

Comic Books

Comic books, or graphic narratives,  are commonly numbered like journals—for instance, with issue numbers.

Clowes, Daniel. David Boring. Eightball, no. 19, Fantagraphics, 1998.

 

Seasons of a Television Series

The seasons of a television series are typically numbered, as are the episodes in a season. Both numbers should be recorded in the works-cited list if they are available.

"New Normal." Directed by Dan Attias. Homeland, season 5, episode 10, Showtime, 24 July 2016. Amazon Prime Video app.