MLA 9 Quick Guide

When you directly quote or paraphrase an author, include the author's name and the page number of the quotation.

Examples*:

1. Author's name in text

According to Naomi Baron, reading is "just half of literacy. The other half is writing" (194). One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing.

2. Author's name in parentheses

Reading is just "half of literacy. The other half is writing" (Baron 194) . One might even suggest that reading is never complete without writing.

Work Cited

Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.

Note that the locations of author name and page help clarify which of the language and ideas belong to that particular author and source. The author's idea from that page is understood to end at the parenthetical page number.

When you include a citation, you must also include a full bibliographic entry in your Works Cited list.

*Examples excerpted from: Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 9th ed. New York: Modern Language Assoc. of America, 2021.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing or summarizing an author's ideas in your own words is fine as long as you acknowledge the author. Paraphrasing is a near 1:1 rephrasing, so you need a page number. Summarizing condenses either a full work or a large part of it into a brief version, so no page number is necessary.

Examples*:

1. Paraphrase (following a quote):

According to Gao Xingjian, "Literature is essence divorced from utility" (7). Gao adds, however, than the market for publishing works is constricted by politics (13).

Work Cited

Gao Xingjian. Aesthetics and Creation. Cambria Press, 2012.

2. Summary (with in-text citation):

Naomi Baron broke new ground on the subject.

3. Summary (with parenthetical citation):

At least one researcher has broken new ground on the subject (Baron).

Work Cited

Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-200.

Note that all of these examples would require a full bibliographic entry of the author's work on your works cited page.

*Examples excerpted from: Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 9th ed. New York: Modern Language Assoc. of America, 2021.

Citing a Source Cited in Your Source

Sometimes you may need to use information cited in another source. For example, a text by Boswell that you found quotes something written by Johnson. There are two possible ways of handling it. You can:

Find the original item by Johnson and cite directly from that author (preferred).
Name Johnson as a source in your paraphrase, but only cite Boswell in the references page (Acceptable if the original item would be prohibitively difficult to find; obviously that criteria depends on the situation and your professor's judgment. Ask them.)

Examples*

Quoted in ("qtd. in"):

Samuel Johnson admitted that Edmund Burke was an "extraordinary man" (qtd. in Boswell 289) .

Work Cited

Boswell, James. Boswell's Life of Johnson. Edited by Augustine Birrell, vol. 3, Times Book Club, 1912. HathiTrust Digital Library, hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b3123590.

Noted in Text:

In a speech urging listeners to reject physical destruction and to seek mutual undertanding, Robert F. Kennedy quoted Aeschylus: "In our sleep, pain which cannot foreget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

Work Cited

Kennedy, Robert F. "Statement on Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, www.jfklibrary.org.

Note that in works cited for both examples, you would only need to list the work(s) you actually read: in other words, Boswell or Kennedy, not Johnson or Aeschylus.

*Examples excerpted from: Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 9th ed. New York: Modern Language Assoc. of America, 2021.

Citing a Web Page

MLA no longer has specific guidance for web-based sources for citing sources in the text because they just fall under the same citation rules as any source without page numbers and/or potentially unclear authorship.

However, because citing from web-based sources is common and somewhat problematic, here is some guidance:

If there is no author listed, look for other authorship information, such as the creator or editor, or performer of the item, or organization responsible for the site. If there is none of those, or if the organization would also be the publisher, use a short-form version of the full title in quotation marks in place of the author's name in the citation.
Page numbers are very uncommon on websites, so MLA does not require a page number.

Examples:

Clear Author (NY Times online article):

"Small changes in your eating habits can lower your risk for many of the diseases associated with aging" (Parker-Pope), so it's never too early to evaluate your diet. *

Work Cited

Parker-Pope, Tara. "How to Age Well." The New York Times, 2 Nov. 2017, www.nytimes.com/guides/well/how-to-age-well. *

Unclear Author

The female bhakti poets "faced overwhelming challenges through their rejection of societal norms and values" ("Bhakti Poets"). *

Work Cited

"Bhakti Poets: Introduction." Women in World History, Center for History and New Media, chnm.gmu.edu/wwh/modules/lesson1/lesson1.php?s=0. Accessed 20 Sept. 2020. *

*Examples excerpted from: Modern Language Association. MLA Handbook. 9th ed. New York: Modern Language Assoc. of America, 2021.