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Food Films: MLA Citations

MLA Style Manual

 Available at the Reference Desk!

For specific examples of citation formats for books, articles, websites, etc.  check out these sites.

Parts of an MLA Citation

Each source format has its own citation format. In addition to the author and title:

  • a book will require the city of publication, the publisher and copyright date.
  • a magazine article will require the date of publication, volume and page number and the date you viewed it.
  • a scholarly journal may require the DOI or digital object identifier.
  • a website will require the URL.

All MLA citations must include whether the source was print or web format.

Here is an example of book citation.

Here is an example of a magazine article from a database citation.

In-Text Citations for MLA

In MLA style, whenever you use another person's words or ideas, you must indicate where you got the information in the body of your paper.  This is called in-text citation.

 From a Source with Page Numbers:

Generally, after a paraphrase or after a direct quote, put the name of the author and page of the original work in parentheses.

 "Experts predict nearly 75 percent of Americans will be overweight and 41 percent of them will be obese by 2015." (Douglas 26).

If you choose to paraphrase an idea, you still need an in-text citation.

 Obesity rates in the United States are growing and are cause for concern (Douglas 26).


From an Online Source or a Source with no Page Numbers:

When the information comes from the Internet or an html document in a database with no pagination, just include the author's last name.

 Obesity can lead to heart disease, liver failure and other serious if not fatal illnesses (Douglas).


From a Source Noted in the Sentence or the Previous Quote:

 If you mention the author in the sentence, then you only need the page number.

 According to Douglas, there is not enough emphasis on physical education in schools today (4). 

All sources cited must appear in your Works Cited page at the end  of your paper!

Videos and Tutorials for MLA In-Text Citations