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MLA 9th

This Research Guide lists examples of how to cite sources according to the MLA Handbook, 9th edition.

Print Book with Author

Kelly, John. The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. HarperCollins Publishers, 2005.

Author(s) of Book. Complete Title of Book. Edition (if other than 1st), Publisher, Year of Publication.

Author(s):

  • If one author: Sanford, Jason. (Last Name, First Name.)
  • If two authors: Sanford, Jason, and Rita T. Maxwell. (Only first author is Last Name, First Name.)
  • If three or more authors: Sanford, Jason, et al. (List first author only; et al. means "and others.")

Book Title:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.

Publisher:

  • Include the entire publisher's name as it appears in your source; omit any business words such as "Company (Co.)," "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," etc.
  • If the publisher's name includes an ampersand ("&"), change it to the word "and": Farrar & Straus becomes Farrar and Straus.
  • If the publisher's name includes an initial article (e.g., "The" ) omit it: The Book Group Publishers becomes Book Group Publishers.
  • For an academic (college) press, use U and P to substitute for the words "University" and "Press": Stanford UP; U of Pittsburgh P.
  • If more than one publisher shares equal responsibility for the work, list both names separated by a forward slash: Oxford UP / American Philatelic Society.
  • If interconnected publisher's names are found, list only the division or imprint that actually published the book, not the parent company (the copyright page will sometimes help determine this information).

Print Book with Editor

Khleif, Samir N., et al., editors. Skeel’s Handbook of Cancer Therapy. 9th ed., Wolters Kluwer, 2016.

Editor(s) of Book. Complete Title of Book. Edition (if other than 1st), Publisher, Year of Publication.

Editor(s):

  • If one editor: Hall, Michael, editor. (Last Name, First Name, editor.)
  • If two editors: Hall, Michael, and Rhonda A. Crowell, editors. (Only first editor is Last Name, First Name.)
  • If three or more editors: Hall, Michael, et al., editors. (List first editor only; et al. means "and others.")

Book Title:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.

Publisher:

  • Include the entire publisher's name as it appears in your source; omit any business words such as "Company (Co.)," "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," etc.
  • If the publisher's name includes an ampersand ("&"), change it to the word "and": Farrar & Straus becomes Farrar and Straus.
  • If the publisher's name includes an initial article (e.g., "The" ) omit it: The Book Group Publishers becomes Book Group Publishers.
  • For an academic (college) press, use U and P to substitute for the words "University" and "Press": Stanford UP; U of Pittsburgh P.
  • If more than one publisher shares equal responsibility for the work, list both names separated by a forward slash: Oxford UP / American Philatelic Society.
  • If interconnected publisher's names are found, list only the division or imprint that actually published the book, not the parent company (the copyright page will sometimes help determine this information).

Single Essay, Story, or Poem in an Anthology

Eberstadt, Mary. “Eminem Is Right.” The Blair Reader: Exploring Issues and Ideas, edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, 9th ed., Pearson, 2017, pp. 181-87.

Author(s) of Single Work (if listed). “Complete Title of Single Work.” Complete Title of Anthology, Editor(s) of Anthology, Edition (if other than 1st), Publisher, Year of Publication, Page(s) Where Single Work Appears.

Author(s) of Individual Work:

  • If one author: Sanford, Jason. (Last Name, First Name.)
  • If two authors: Sanford, Jason, and Rita T. Maxwell. (Only first author is Last Name, First Name.)
  • If three or more authors: Sanford, Jason, et al. (List first author only; et al. means "and others.")

No Author:

  • If no author is listed for your individual work, start your citation with the title of the individual work (in quotes).

Book Title:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.

Editors:

  • Include the words edited by when listing editor(s) of an anthology: edited by Susan A. Radwell.

  • Follow the rules for authors regarding how many editors to list (e.g., edited by Sarah K. Post et al. if your anthology has three or more editors).

Publisher:

  • Include the entire publisher's name as it appears in your source; omit any business words such as "Company (Co.)," "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," etc.
  • If the publisher's name includes an ampersand ("&"), change it to the word "and": Farrar & Straus becomes Farrar and Straus.
  • If the publisher's name includes an initial article (e.g., "The" ) omit it: The Book Group Publishers becomes Book Group Publishers.
  • For an academic (college) press, use U and P to substitute for the words "University" and "Press": Stanford UP; U of Pittsburgh P.
  • If more than one publisher shares equal responsibility for the work, list both names separated by a forward slash: Oxford UP / American Philatelic Society.
  • If interconnected publisher's names are found, list only the division or imprint that actually published the book, not the parent company (the copyright page will sometimes help determine this information).

In certain cases, especially in the case of textbooks, your book may have authors listed instead of editors and may still include a section of readings by multiple other authors. This is the case with the current English text, Everyone's an Author. Cite an individual work from this type of book as follows:

Pinker, Steven. “Mind over Mass Media.” Everyone's an Author with Readings, by Andrea Lunsford et al., 2nd ed., W. W. Norton, 2017, pp. 1029-32.

Print Book in a Series

Hirshberg, Edgar W. John D. MacDonald. Twayne Publishers, 1986. Twayne's United States Authors Series 486.

Author(s) or Editor(s) of Book. Complete Title of Book. Edition (if listed), Publisher, Year of Publication. Optional Series Title and Number (if listed).

Author(s):

  • If one author: Sanford, Jason. (Last Name, First Name.)
  • If two authors: Sanford, Jason, and Rita T. Maxwell. (Only first author is Last Name, First Name.)
  • If three or more authors: Sanford, Jason, et al. (List first author only; et al. means "and others.")
  • If editor(s) instead of author(s): Cleaver, Desmond, and Wallace E. Hall, editors. (Follow guidelines above according to number of editors.)

Book Title:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.

Publisher:

  • Include the entire publisher's name as it appears in your source; omit any business words such as "Company (Co.)," "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," etc.
  • If the publisher's name includes an ampersand ("&"), change it to the word "and": Farrar & Straus becomes Farrar and Straus.
  • If the publisher's name includes an initial article (e.g., "The" ) omit it: The Book Group Publishers becomes Book Group Publishers.
  • For an academic (college) press, use U and P to substitute for the words "University" and "Press": Stanford UP; U of Pittsburgh P.
  • If more than one publisher shares equal responsibility for the work, list both names separated by a forward slash: Oxford UP / American Philatelic Society.
  • If interconnected publisher's names are found, list only the division or imprint that actually published the book, not the parent company (the copyright page will sometimes help determine this information).

Inclusion of Series Title and Number:

  • If your source is part of a named series, including the series title and number (if any) is optional. Include this information at the end of your citation only if you think it may be useful for further identifying your source.

E-book

Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson's American Gothic. State U of New York P, 2005. Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pittcc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3408604.

Author(s) or Editor(s) of Book. Complete Title of Book. Edition (if other than 1st), Publisher, Year of Publication. Name of Database, URL of E-book.

If you use the "Cite" or "Cite Book" button next to your e-book in Ebook Central (and choose "MLA"), you will get the following citation to copy and paste:

Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson's American Gothic, State University of New York Press, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pittcc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3408604.

The errors in this citation are highlighted in yellow. Keep in mind that database-supplied citations are automatically generated, and are often not completely correct. Here is how it should look:

Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson's American Gothic. State U of New York P, 2003. Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/pittcc-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3408604.

If you use the "Cite" feature, compare your citation carefully to the example shown and change as necessary. Look at the e-book itself and the information provided with it to find anything that may be missing. Pay special attention to italicization and punctuation. Remember to remove the initial "http://" from the URL.

Note on database names: If you are not sure of the exact database in which you found your e-book, it is acceptable to use the name of the company that produced the database instead. For this example, any of these database names would be correct: ProQuest Ebook Central, Ebook Central, or ProQuest.

You will also need to check spacing and font. Citations may not paste with the correct font. Spacing between words and/or line spacing may not be correct.

Author(s):

  • If one author: Sanford, Jason. (Last Name, First Name.)
  • If two authors: Sanford, Jason, and Rita T. Maxwell. (Only first author is Last Name, First Name.)
  • If three or more authors: Sanford, Jason, et al. (List first author only; et al. means "and others.")
  • If editor(s) instead of author(s): Cleaver, Desmond, and Wallace E. Hall, editors. (Follow guidelines above according to number of editors.)

Book Title:

  • Use the complete title as found on the title page, including subtitle if any.

Publisher:

  • Include the entire publisher's name as it appears in your source; omit any business words such as "Company (Co.)," "Incorporated (Inc.)," "Limited (Ltd.)," etc.
  • If the publisher's name includes an ampersand ("&"), change it to the word "and": Farrar & Straus becomes Farrar and Straus.
  • If the publisher's name includes an initial article (e.g., "The" ) omit it: The Book Group Publishers becomes Book Group Publishers.
  • For an academic (college) press, use U and P to substitute for the words "University" and "Press": Stanford UP; U of Pittsburgh P.
  • If more than one publisher shares equal responsibility for the work, list both names separated by a forward slash: Oxford UP / American Philatelic Society.
  • If interconnected publisher's names are found, list only the division or imprint that actually published the book, not the parent company (the copyright page will sometimes help determine this information).

Database Name:

  • If you found your e-book using a multiple-database search and are unsure of the exact database from which you got your e-book, you may use only the database company name (e.g., EBSCOhost; ProQuest).
  • If you know the specific database name, you may use that instead (either choice is equally correct).

URL:

  • Look for the "permalink" when copying the URL for your e-book. This is often found under a "link" symbol to the side of the book details page.
  • You do not have to include the initial "https://" (or "http://") unless you need it to make a clickable hyperlink (test to see if it works without it).
  • If your instructor does not require clickable hyperlinks, any URL that is longer than three lines (or longer than the rest of the citation) may be shortened to end after the host (database company) name (e.g., "www.proquest.com"). MLA discourages the use of URL shortening services such as bitly.com.
  • Put a period at the end of your URL.
  • The exact format of your database article URL depends on your instructor's preferences. Make sure you know how your instructor prefers these database-supplied URLs to appear in your Works Cited list, or whether you should include them at all.

Supplemental Access Date:

  • Note that the inclusion of an access date for e-books stored in a database is not necessary, as these books are unlikely to change. However, some instructors may prefer that you include a date of access for all your online sources. Check with your instructor if you are unsure.