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English: Literature, Film, & Drama

Find information about authors, literary works, and the practice and application of literary criticism

MLA Citation Examples

Book Citation

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.

Bulawayo, NoViolet. We Need New Names . Back Bay Books, 2014. 

Book In-text/parenthetical citation

"Quoted words" (Author's last name page number). no comma!

"Because we were not in our country, we could not use our own languages, and so when we spoke our voices came out bruised" (Bulawayo 136). 

 

Database Article Citation

Author's Last Name, First Name, and Second Author's First Name Last Name. "Title of Article: Subtitle if Any." Name of Journal, vol. Volume Number, no. Issue NumberDate of Publication, pp. First Page Number-Last Page NumberName of Database, doi:DOI number.

Moji, Polo Belina. “New Names, Translational Subjectivities: (Dis)location and (Re)naming in NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names.” Journal of African Cultural Studies, vol. 27, no. 2, May 2015, pp. 181–90Academic Search Complete doi:10.1080/13696815.2014.993937.

Article in-text/parenthetical citation

"quoted text" (Author's last name page number).

"Naming is also used to anchor the story in a Zimbabwean location" (Moji 184).

 

Book chapter in an anthology/edited collection citation

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Essay/chapter." Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year. Page range of entry.

Cheng, Ying. “History, Imperial Eyes and the ‘mutual Gaze’: Narratives of African-Chinese Encounters in Recent Literary Works,” edited by Moradewun Adejunmobi and Carli CoetzeeRoutledge Handbook of African Literature, 1st ed., Routledge, 2019, pp. 92–109, doi:10.4324/9781315229546-7.

Chapter in an anthology/edited collection in-text/parenthetical citation

"quoted text" (Chapter author's last name page number).

 

Video found online (TED, YouTube etc.) Citation

Full name, username, or nambe of the company who posted the video. "Title of the video." Title of the website (YouTube, TED), Publisher of the video, Date the video was posted, URL. 

CrashCourse. “Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved: Crash Course Literature 214.” YouTube, Crash Course. 19 May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lQyPgaakY4. 

Online video in-text citation with author: (Last name, timestamp)
Online video in-text citation with no author: ("Title of video," timestamp)

"...they find ways to humanness anyway" ("Slavery, Ghosts, and Beloved," 3:07)

 

Website

Last name, First name of author. “Title of Web Page.” Title of Website, Publisher, Date published, URL.

Russell, Mary Doria. “We're All Completely Obsessed with This Award-Winning Novel.” Off the Shelf7 Aug. 2019, offtheshelf.com/2019/08/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves-by-karen-joy-fowler-review/.

Website in-text citation

"quoted/paraphrased text" (Author's last name). If author's last name is not available, use the first section of the citation which could be the website document's title.

"Sign language could bridge some of the gap."  (Russell)

Citation Icons

Citation Generators in Databases

Look for citation icons and generators in all databases. Check generated citations to be sure they haven't put something in all CAPS, or made other computer errors before copying into your project.

Credo citations are found at the bottom of articles

Academic Search Complete citations are found along the right sidebar