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MLA 8 Citation Guide

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Book with One Author or Editor

The general format below refers to a book with one author.

If you are dealing with one editor or compiler, instead of one author, insert the editor's name in the place where the author's name is otherwise, followed by a comma and the wod 'editor' without the quotation marks.  The rest of the format remains the same.

If the book is a later edition, etc. this follows the title, followed by a comma and the publisher, etc.

Reference list:

Author Surname, First Name.  Book Title: Subtitle. Publisher, Year.

Example:

Fine, Albert Hangman. Handbook on Animal-Assisted Therapy: Foundations and Guidelines for Animal-Assisted Interventions. 4th ed.,  Academic Press, 2015

In-Text Citation:

(Author Surname, page number)

Example:

(Fine 167)

MORE EXAMPLES

 

Source

Works Cited List

Basic book

Jans, Nick. The Last Light Breaking: Life among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos. Alaska Northwest Books, 1993.

Edited book

Miller, John, and Tim Smith, editors. Cape Cod Stories: Tales from Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha's Vineyard. Chronicle Books, 1996.

Please see the sample citation for a chapter or article in an anthology below for information on citing a component of an edited collection.

Numbered edition other than the first

Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs, editors. Writing About Writing: A College Reader. 2nd ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.

Revised edition

Culliney, John L. Islands in a Far Sea: The Fate of Nature in Hawai'i. Rev. ed., U of Hawai'i P, 2006.

Multi-volume set

Green, Constance McLaughlin. Washington. Princeton UP, 1962-63. 2 vols.

In-text citation: (Green 1: 112-14)
"1" is the volume number.

Chapter or article in an anthology

Toibin, Colm. "Send My Roots Rain: Gerard Manley Hopkins." Not Less Than Everything, edited by Catherine Wolff, HarperOne, 2013, 284-99.

If the piece being cited was previously published, give the original date of publication after its title. The page numbers of the chapter or article should follow publication information for the book in your citation.

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