The core elements of a citation are listed below in their order of appearance along with the punctuation that follows each element. Any element that is not relevant should be omitted from the citation.
Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Other Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.
Each of these elements is discussed in greater detail with specific examples in the relevant tabs above.
Citation Examples
Note: Omit any information that does not apply to your source.
Print book
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter or Section." Title of the Work. Translated by or Edited by First Name Last Name, Vol. number, Publisher, year the book was published, page number(s).
Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. Random House Publishing Group, 1991.
Different version or edition
The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.
Cheyfitz, Eric. The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan. Expanded ed.,
U of Pennsylvania P, 1997.
Miller, Casey and Kate Swift. Words and Women. Updated ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 1991.
Newcomb, Horace, editor. Television: The Critical View. 7th ed., Oxford UP, 2007.
E-Book
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter or Section." Title of the Work. Translated by or Edited by First Name, Last Name, Vol. number, Publisher, year the book was published, page number(s). Title of the Web Site or Database, URL.
Walker, Greg, and Elaine M. Treharne. The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English. Oxford UP,
2011, EBSCOhost eBookCollection, http://scsu.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http:// eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/ebookviewer/ebook/
bmxlYmtfXzM4MTAzMF9fQU41? sid=7ed1249f-d0cd-4ad8-8957- 7ea0b3c9391c@sessionmgr
4009&vid=5&format=EB&rid=15
Anthology (Short story, poem, play, essay)
Last Name, First Name of author. "Title of Piece." Title of Book. Editor, Publisher, Date of publication, pp.
Baraka, Amiri. "Norman's Date." The Jazz Fiction Anthology. Edited by Sascha Feinstein and David Rife,
Indiana UP, 2009, pp.66-77.
Graphic Novel
Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Illustrated by First Name Last Name of artist, Publisher, Date of Publication.
Loeb, Jeph. Batman: The Long Halloween. Illustrated by Tim Sale, Warner, 1998.
Additional examples for book citations can be found under the Author and Title tabs (source with no author, translator, editor as translator, corporate author, etc.).
Print Journal Article
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Title of the Journal, vol, number, issue number, date, page (p. 28) or page range (pp. 28-35).
Aspiz, Harold. “Walt Whitman: The Spermatic Imagination.” American Literature, vol. 56, no. 3, 1984, pp. 379-95.
Journal Article in a Database
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Title of the Journal, vol, number, issue number, page (p. 28) or page range (pp. 28-35). Name of Database. DOI or URL.
Gay, Peter. “On Not Psychoanalyzing Virginia Woolf." American Scholar, vol. 71, no. 2
Spring 2002, pp. 71-75. Academic Search Premier.
http://0eds.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=3&sid=1e2d2e10-5be4-4c11-b2e1-92b8a12ca6fc%40sessionmgr4010&hid=4102
Print Newspaper Article
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Title of the Newspaper. First Name, Last Name of any other contributors, Version, Numbers, Date of publication, location.
Feder, Barnaby J. "For Job Seekers, a Toll-Free Gift of Expert Advice." New York Times, late edition,
30 Dec. 1993,D1+.
(Note: If an article is not printed on consecutive pages, write only the first page number and a plus sign, leaving no intervening space).
Newspaper Article in a Database
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article." Title of the Newspaper. First Name, Last Name of any other contributors, Version, Numbers, Date of publication, Location. Database, URL.
Hayes, Bryant. "Why Bush Failed." New York Times,15 Nov.1992, E18
Proquest. http://0search.proquest.com/docview/108991468/fulltextPDF/
F42CFCAB01FE4A52PQ/1?accountid=13743
Web Site
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of the Article or Web Page." Title of the Website, Name of the publisher, Date of publication, URL.
Actman, Jani. "Baby Elephant's Death a Grim Reminder of Lack of Wilderness." Wildlife Watch, National Geographic,
August 14, 2016, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/wildlife-elephant-india-explosives-crop-raiding-
shrinking-habitat/
Government Publication
Author (Government agency), Name of the Agency. "Title of Source". Title of Container, edition/version, publication date.
Begin the entry with the name of the government, followed by a comma and then the name of the agency.
(e.g., California, Department of Industrial Relations)
New York State, Committee on State Prisons. Investigation of the New York State Prisons. 1883. Arno Press, 1974.
Government Website
Author (Government agency). "Title of Source." Title of Container, edition/version, publication date, URL
United States. Department of Labor. Bureau of Statistics. "Sales Managers." Occupational Outlook
Handbook, 2010/2011 ed., http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/sales-managers.htm
Book/Film Review
Last Name, First Name of reviewer. "Title of Review Article." (If there is no title, skip this). Review of Title that is being reviewed, by First Name, Last Name of author. Name of Publication in which review appears. Number, Date, page, database, URL.
Watt, Ian. Jane Austen: A Study in Fictional Conventions, by Henrietta Ten Harmsel. Nineteenth-Century Fiction, Vol. 31,
No.1, 1976, p. 275. JSTOR, 0-www.jstor.org/stable/2932763.
Digital Image
Digital images are pictures that can be viewed electronically by a computer or digital device. They can include photographs, illustrations, or graphics found on a website, database, or scanned or saved to your computer.
Creator’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of the Digital Image.” Title of the Website, First Name Last Name of any contributors, Version (if applicable), Number (if applicable), Publisher, Publication date, URL.
Example for citing a photo from MLA 8 edition
Vasquez, Gary A. Photograph of Coach K with Team USA. NBC Olympics, USA Today Sports, 5 Aug. 2016,
www.nbcolympics.com/news/rio-olympics-coach-ks-toughest-test-or-lasting-legacy.
Painting
Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid. Museo Macional del Prado,
www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-
71759e417e74.
Martin, Agnes. Morning. 1965. Painting. Tate Gallery, London. Oxford Reference,
www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195335798.001.0001/acref-9780195335798-e-1302.
Digital Image from a Database
Creator’s last name, first name. “Title of the image.” Title of the journal or container that the image was found on, First name Last name of any other contributors responsible for the image, Version of the image (if applicable), Any numbers associated with the image (such as a volume and issue number, if applicable), Publisher, Publication date, Location. Title of the database or second container, URL or DOI number.
Example of a citation for a digital image found on a database in MLA 8:
Huanca Barrantes, Angela. “Questions and statements posted on the wall are reminders for Ms. Huanca’s students."
English Teaching Forum, U.S. Department of State, vol. 53, no. 2, 2015, p. 41. ERIC,
eric.ed.gov/?q=english+teaching+forum&id=EJ1065702.
DVD/Video
Title of DVD/Video. Director, Performed by/Narrated by/Created by, Publisher/Distributor, Date of publication.
William Shakespeare: A Life of Drama. Directed by Rebecca Jones, A&E Home Video, 1996.
Little Women. Directed by Gillian Armstrong, Produced by Denise DiNovi, Columbia/Tristar Home Video, 1997.
Click on "Other Contributors" tab for additional help.
Streaming Video
Creator's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Video". Title of Container, Date, URL.
Robinson, Ken. "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" TED, Jan. 2006.
www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
Interview
Last Name, First Name of person being interviewed. Interview type (personal, e-mail, phone), Date or range of dates
Doe, John. Personal Interview, August 15, 2016.
E-mail
Last Name, First Name of sender. Subject of email message. First Name, Last Name of person who received the message. Date.
Doe, John. "Re: Why Citing Matters." Received by Jane Doe, Aug 15, 2016.
Tweet
Username (Author). "Use Full Text of Tweet as Title". Container Name. Date, Time, URL.
@persiankiwi. “We have report of large street battles in east & west of Tehran now - #Iranelection.” Twitter, 23 June 2009,
11:15 a.m., twitter.com/persiankiwi/status/2298106072.
Speech/Lecture/Conference/Oral Presentation
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Presentation". Title of Event, Publisher/Institution, Date. Description (Unpublished Conference Paper, Speech, Lecture, etc.).
Stein, Bob. "Reading and Writing in the Digital Era." Discovering Digital Dimensions, Computers and Writing Conference,
Indiana, 23 May 2003. Keynote Address.
