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MLA 9th Edition

Things To Be Aware of for All Citations

Include as much information as you can in your citation to help your reader “see” your source: more is better than less! 

TRICKY SPOT: 

THE FIX: 

Hanging Indent 

The second and subsequent line of each citation is indented .5” (Google “hanging indent MLA” if you need tips) 

 

One Author? 

2 Authors? 

3 (or more) Authors? 

LastName, FirstName. → Dubner, Stephen. 

LastName, FirstName, and FirstName LastName. → Dubner, Stephen and Steven Levitt. 

LastName, FirstName, et al. → Dubner, Stephen, et al. 

Page or Paragraph numbers 

Include the page number(s) if you know them (p. for one page, pp. for a range of pages) and leave blank if you don’t know the pages.   

If a source does not include page numbers, you may include paragraph numbers (par. for one paragraph, pars. for a range of paragraphs) instead if they are included. However, they should not be applied if they are not explicitly included in the source. 

Dates 

Usually follow a [Day Mo Year] pattern, with months abbreviated. (Do not abbreviate May, June, or July) 

 

Formatting: MLA is very specific and detail oriented!   

  • Major Title Words are Capitalized 

  • no underlining ever 

  • “quotes”: go around book chapters, article titles, and webpage names 

  • Italics: are used on book, magazine, newspaper, and journal titles as well as database names

Publishers: shorten and abbreviate.  Omit words like Company/Co, Corporation/Corp, Limited/Ltd, University, Press, etc. 

  • University of Chicago Press → U of Chicago P 

  • Cambridge University Press → Cambridge UP 

  • Houghton Mifflin Co. → Houghton 

 

URLS (links)/Permalinks/DOI#s 

 

Include a link (URL, permalink, or DOI) for all database articles and internet sources.  Omit the “http://” or “https://” on any URL. 

If your source includes a permalink (i.e., a permanent or persistent URL), use it instead of the URL that appears on the address line of the browser. 

Some sources may include a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), which is a type of permalink, and should be used if available.

Example → 10.17719/jisr.2018.2525 

dividerFAIRFIELD CAMPUS
4000 Suisun Valley Road
Fairfield, CA 94534
(707) 864-7000
dividerVACAVILLE CENTER
2001 North Village Parkway
Vacaville, CA 95688
(707) 863-7836
dividerVALLEJO CENTER
545 Columbus Parkway
Vallejo, CA 94591
(707) 864-7292
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE
530 Hickam Ave., Bldg. 249
Travis Air Force Base, CA 94535
(707) 424-2431