El Segundo Libraries
Home Library MenuMLA Format Citation Guide
Created by El Segundo Middle School Librarian Kim Harris November 2020. For more information, or if you need help, please email Ms. Harris.
All citations must be in MLA format. Citations include books, videos, web sites and images, newspapers, journals and magazines. Here are some examples of how to do each, followed by citation sites to help you form your bibliography.
General Format For Any Citation
Author. Title. Title of Container (don’t need for novels), Other contributors (translators or
editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no,), Publisher, Publication Date,
Location (pages, paragraphs, URL or DOI), Date of Access.
Book
If the book is published in the U.S.:
Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.
Ex: Roth, Veronica. Insurgent. Katherine Tegen Books, 2012.
If the book is published outside of the U.S.
Last name, First name of author. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Year of
Publication.
Ex: Funke, Cornelia. Dragon Rider: The Griffin’s Feather. Somerset, U.K., Chicken House,
2016.
If you have more than one author:
Last name, First name and First name, Last name. Title of Book. City of Publication:
Publisher, Year of Publication.
Ex: Gillespie, Paula and Neil Lerner. The Allyn and Baker Guide to Peer Tutoring.
Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2000.
Book with no author:
Title. Publisher, Year of Publication.
Ex: Encyclopedia of Indiana. Sumerset, 1993.
Poems or Short Stories
Last, First name of author. “Poem Title.” Title of book, editor, Publisher, Year, page #.
Ex: Nesbitt, Ken. “My Penguin.” My Hippo Has the Hiccups and Other Poems I Totally Made
Up, illustrated by Ethan Long, Sourcebooks, 2009, p. 99.
Periodicals
Article in a Magazine
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical. Day Month Year: pages.
Ex: Poniewozik, James. “TV Makes a Too-Close Call.” Time. 20 Nov. 2000: 70-71.
Newspaper Article
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper date published: section and page.
Ex: Plank, Duane. “School Board Sees “State of School” High School Presentation.”
El Segundo Herald, El Segundo, CA 15 Jan 2015: p.1.
Anonymous Articles
“Title.” Title of Periodical. Day Month Year Published: pages.
Ex: “Business: Global Warming’s Boom Town; Tourism in Greenland.” The Economist 26
May 2007. p.82.
Articles in Scholarly Journals
Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Journal Volume. Issue, (Year), pages.
Ex: Bagchi, Alaknanda. “Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta
Devi’s Bashai Tudu.” Studies in Women’s Literature, vol. 15, No.1, 1996, pp. 41-50.
Web Sources
Ideally, you need to include the publisher and year web site was published. Sometimes these are hard to find and not listed on the site. If this is the case, please use n.p. for no publisher or sponsor and n.d. for no publication date.
Entire Web Site
Author, editor or compiler name (if available). Name or title of Site. Version number (if
available). Name of organization/institution affiliated with the site (sponsor or
publisher), date of resource creation (if available), DOI, URL or permalink. Date of access
day month year.
Ex: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U,
2008, www.owl.english.purdue.edu. Accessed 29 Oct 2020.
Web Site No Author
Editor, author or compiler name (if available). Name of site, Version number, Name of Institute/organization affiliated with site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available), URL, DOI, or permalink. Date of access.
Ex. Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literacy and Critical Theory. Purdue U, 28 Nov. 2003,
www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory/. Accessed 10 May 2006.
Individual Page on a Website
Author or alias (if known). “Article name”. Any version numbers available, including editions (ed) versions, posting dates, volumes (vol) or issue numbers (no), Name of site:
Publisher, date published. DOI or URL. Date accessed.
Ex: Lundman, Susan “How to Make Vegetarian Chili.” eHow.
www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 6 July 2015.
E-Book
Last name, First name of author. Title of Book. E-book, Publisher, Year.
Ex. Chainani, Soman. The Last Eve After: The School for Good and Evil Book 3. E-book,
HarperCollins, 2015.
If Book is formatted for a specific reader or service (ex. Kindle or Overdrive)
Last, First name of author. Title, (App/service) ed, Publisher, Year.
Ex: Machiavelli, Niccolo. The Prince, translated by W.K Marriott, Kindle ed, Library of Alexandria, 2018.
Image
Artist’s name. Work of Art, date of creation. Institution and city where it resides. Name of
website. Date accessed.
Ex: Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive,
www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed 29 Oct 2020.
Image on Web Only
Artist or username. “Title of Work.” Medium of work. Title of Creation. Publisher, date
published, URL or permalink. Date accessed.
Ex: Adams, Clifton R. “People Relax Beside a Swimming Pool at a Country Estate Near
Phoenix, Arizona, 1928.” Found, National Geographic Creative, 2 June 2016,
natgeofound.tumblr.com. Accessed 29 October 2020.
Article in a Web Magazine
Last, First name of author, “article name”, Title of Web magazine, publisher name,
publication date, URL, date of access.
Ex. Bernstein, Mark. “10 tips on Writing the Living Web.” A List Apart: For People who Make
Websites, 16 Aug 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 29 October 2020.
YouTube Video
Same guidelines as a print source.
If author is different than the uploader:
Last, First name of author. “Title of Video.” You Tube, uploader, date of video, URL.
Ex. McGonigal, Jane. “Gaming and Productivity.” You Tube, uploaded by Big Think, 3 July
2012, www.youtube.com/watch?mkdzy9bWW3E.
If author is the same as the uploader:
“Title of Video.” You Tube, author, date of video, URL.
Ex. “8 Hot Dog Gadgets Put to the Test.” You Tube, uploaded by Crazy Russian Hacker, 6
June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBIpjSEtELs.