Authors
Generally, the first piece of information you will list when creating a works cited entry is the author's name or authors' names. Below, you will find examples of the most common types of authors and how to format names.
One Author
When you have one author, provide the author's last name, followed by a comma, and then give his/her first name and middle name or initial (if provided).
Format Last Name, First Name. Example Dunn, Jeff. "More People Now Subscribe to Netflix Than Cable TV in the US." Business Insider, 15 June 2017, http://www.businessinsider.com. Accessed 18 Dec. 2017. *Important note: MLA (8th edition) no longer requires the date of access (the date you looked at an online article/web source). However, some instructors may still want you to include this. Ask your instructor what his/her preference is. The above example shows you what a works cited entry would look like when you include a date of access. The rest of the examples on this page do not include dates of access. |
Two Authors
The following article was written by Katrina Piatek-Jimenez and Christine M. Phelps. Notice that the first author's hyphenated last name stays in the same order. The first author's first name is followed by a comma, the word and is used in between the two authors' names, and then the second author's name is written in regular order.
Format Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name. Example Piatek-Jimenez, Katrina, and Christine M. Phelps. "Using Disney's Frozen to Motivate Mathematics: Bringing Fractals into the Classroom." Australian Primary Mathematics Classroom, vol. 21, no. 2, Apr. 2016, pp. 18-25. EBSCOhost. |
Three or More Authors
When you have three or more authors, only list the first author's name. Follow that person's name with a comma and the abbreviation et al., which means "and all the rest."
Format Last Name, First Name, et al. Example Baugh, Christine M., et al. "Perceived Coach Support and Concussion Symptom-Reporting: Differences Between Freshmen and Non-Freshmen College Football Players." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, vol. 42, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 314-22. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/jlme.12148. |
Editor(s)
Sometimes, you may have an editor listed instead of an author. This is the case with the above anthology. You will list the name of the author like you normally would (first name, last name), but then follow the author's name with a comma and the word editor.
If you have more than one editor, you would follow the rules for formatting the names of two or more than three authors, but then put a comma followed by the word editors after their names. Format Last Name, First Name, editor. Example Baym, Nina, editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 1995. |
Government or Corporate Author
If a government or corporation does not provide the name of an author or editor, use the government or organization name in place of the author.
Format Government, Agency. Example United States, Environmental Protection Agency. "Green Sports." United States Environmental Protection Agency, 21 Dec. 2017, https://www.epa.gov/green-sports. |
Unknown Author
If there is no author listed and the source is not a government or organization source, then you will simply not list an author. You will skip to the next piece of information, which is usually the title of an article or web page.
Format "Title of Source." or Title of Container. Example "13 Fast Facts About Today's College Students." EAB, 26 Sept. 2017, https://www.eab.com/daily-briefing/2017/09/26/13-fast-facts-about-todays- college-students. |
Types of Sources
Listed below are the most common types of sources you will encounter. Make sure to follow the format for the number/types of authors listed above combined with the format for the type of source below. If you find a source not listed here, ask your teacher for help, reference the MLA Handbook (8th edition), or try the Purdue OWL website.
Websites
Social Media
Facebook Post
Monticello Main Street. "Save the Date." Facebook, 10 Jan. 2018, https://www.facebook.com/MonticelloMainStreet/. Tweet Zimmerman, Vic. "Frozen Pipe Crew from Johnson Controls and Monticello CUSD 25." Twitter, 17 Jan. 2018, 6:48 a.m., https://twitter.com/MonticelloCUSD/status/953610084755607553. |
Book
Print
Green, John. Turtles All the Way Down. Dutton, 2017. E-Book Green, John. Turtles All the Way Down. Dutton, 2017. Kindle Cloud Reader, www.amazon.com/turtles-all-the-way-down-john-green/dp/awe2342f Database Thomas, Derrick. Understanding Shakespeare's Julius Caesar Online: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Greenwood, 2002. EBSCOhost. |
Database Article
Database Journal Article
Baugh, Christine M., et al. "Perceived Coach Support and Concussion Symptom-Reporting: Differences between Freshmen and Non-Freshmen College Football Players." Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, vol. 42, no. 3, Fall 2014, pp. 314-22. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/jlme.12148. Database Magazine Article Berman, Eliza. "Two Filmmakers Reunited on Netflix." Time, vol. 190, no. 21, 20 Nov. 2017, pp. 49-51. EBSCOhost. Database Newspaper Article Hu, Winnie. "The Downside of a Boom." The New York Times, 4 Dec. 2014, pp. 1-9. MasterFILE Premier. |
Online Article
Sometimes, you are able to access journal, magazine, and newspaper articles online without using a library database. When citing articles accessed using a Google search, for instance, you may need to include slightly different information than you would for an article accessed via a database.
Journal Frasca, Gonzalo. "The Sims: Grandmothers Are Cooler Than Trolls." The International Journal of Computer Game Research, vol. 1, no. 1, July 2001, http://www.gamestudies.com/0101/frasca/. Magazine Starnes, Jennifer. "Facing Everest." Teen Ink, Feb. 2018, p. 6, http://www.teenink.com/Current/FlipBook/mobile/index.html#p=8. Newspaper Hoffman, Steve. "Pedestrian Crossing Planned in Monticello." Piatt County Journal- Republican, 13 Feb. 2018. http://www.journal-republican.com/news/politics-and- government/2018-02-13/pedestrian-crossing-planned-monticello.html. |
Print Article
A print article is one that you have an original hard copy version of. This is not a copy that you or someone else printed from an online source. This is an original print article from the publisher.
Journal Wolfinger, James. "The Strange Career of Frank Murphy: Conservatives, State-Level Politics, and the End of the New Deal." The Historian, vol. 65, no. 2, Winter 2002, pp. 377-402. Magazine Frankfurt, Henri. "The Best Kitchen Cleaners." Good Housekeeping, Aug. 2013, p. 15. Newspaper Jeromack, Paul. "This Once, a David of the Art World Does Goliath a Favor." The New York Times, 13 July 2002, B7. |
Television Episode or Series
When deciding whether or not to cite an episode or an entire series, you need to ask yourself if you are focusing only on one show or discussing the entire series. If you touch on aspects of the entire show, then it is probably best to cite the entire series.
Episode "Our Very First Show, Again." Fuller House, season 1, episode 1, Warner Horizon Television, 24 Feb. 2016. Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/title/80051137. Entire Series Franklin, Jeff, creator. Fuller House. Warner Horizon Television, 2016. |
Online Video
There are online videos posted on a wide variety of sites (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.), but YouTube is one of the most popular and is the one you are most likely to need to cite.
Public Counsel. "Elie Wiesel's Call for Justice: 'Don't Sleep Well When People Suffer.'" YouTube, 14 May 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lJ-8wx-MBo&t=86s. |
Film or Movie
Films and movies come in a variety of formats, and you do need to pay attention to the format (DVD, VHS, online, etc.) when citing it.
Film Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Paramount Pictures, 1968. Film (emphasizing director) Zeffirelli, Franco, director. Romeo and Juliet. Paramount Pictures, 1968. Film (emphasizing performers) Whiting, Leonard, and Olivia Hussey, performers. Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli. Paramount Pictures, 1968. |
Music or Sound Recording
Personal Interview
To include an interview that you conducted, provide the interviewee's name, a description of the type of interview you conducted (personal interview, telephone interview, e-mail interview), and the date of the interview.
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