Titles of chapters in books, articles in magazines or journals, articles or columns in newspapers, episodes of a television series, and songs on an album are to be placed within quotation marks ("Interplay of Language on the Set", "Best of Both Worlds, Part 1", "Alaska Man Jumps Burning Ship, Saves Others", "Longview").
MLA Format for Parenthetical Documentation
MLA [Modern Language Association] style uses parenthetical citations
in the text of an essay to document every quotation, paraphrase, summary, or
other material requiring documentation. Parenthetical citations correspond to
full bibliographic entries in a list of works cited at the end of the text.
Usually the author's name is mentioned in a signal phrase introducing the
material, and the page number of the original source is given in parentheses
after the material. Use an author's full name the first time you cite a source.
For later citations, use just the last name. In general, make your parenthetical
citations short, including the information your readers need to locate the full
citation in the works cited list.
Place a parenthetical citation as near the relevant material as possible
without disrupting the flow of the sentence, usually before the punctuation mark
at the end of the sentence or phrase containing the material. Place any
punctuation mark after the closing parenthesis. If your citation refers to
a quotation, place the citation after the closing quotation, but
before any punctuation mark. For long quotations typed as a block, place
the parenthetical citation two spaces after the final punctuation mark.
Here are some examples of the various ways to cite sources.
Author named in a signal phrase
Ordinarily, use the author's name in a signal phrase to introduce the material, and simply cite the page number(s) in parentheses.
Herrera indicates that Kahlo believed in a "vitalistic form of pantheism" (328).
Author named in citation
When you do not name the author in the text, include the author's last name before the page number(s) in the parenthetical citation. There is no punctuation separating the author's name from the page number(s).
In places, Beauvoir "sees Marxists as believing in subjectivity as much as existentialists do" (Whitmarsh 63).
Two or three authors
Use all the authors' last names in a signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation.
Gortner, Hebrun, and Nicolson maintain that "opinion leaders" influence other people in an organization because they are respected, not because they hold high positions (175).
Corporate authors
Give the full name of a corporate author if it is brief or, if it is long, give a shortened form in a signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation.
In fact, one of the leading foundations in the field of higher education supports the recent proposals for community-run public schools (Carnegie Corporation 45).
Unknown author
Use the full title if it is brief or, if it is long, give a shortened version in a single phrase in the parenthetical citation.
"Hype," by one analysis, is "an artificially engendered atmoshphere of hysteria" ("Today'sMarketplace" 51).
Author of two or more works
For a work by an author of two or more works in your list of works cited, include a shortened version of the title in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation.
Gardner presents readers with their own silliness through his desription of a "pointless, ridiculous monster, crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men and murdered children, and martyred cows" (Grendel 2).
Two or more sources in the same citation
If you refer to more than one source in parentheses, separate the information with semicolons.
Recently, however, some economists have recommended that employment be redefined to include unpaid domestic labor (Clark 148; Nevins 39).
Nonprint or electronic source
Give enough information in a signal phrase or parenthetical citation for readers to locate the source in the list of works cited. Usually use the name or title under which you list the source.
Kahlo is seated with a Judas doll, identified in the film Portrait of an Artist: Frida Kahlo as a papier-mache doll stuffed with firecrackers to be exploded on the day before Easter.
A website entitled The Catcher's Place offers the suggestion that people often underestimate the need for protective gear when playing sports.