Cite books in MLA

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	The film Clueless portrays youth in America during the 1990s addressing topics such as homosexuality and racial diversity giving (Speed 5-6).
Direct quote	Speed notes that “Clueless is a film for its time and for all times” (1).

Works cited

Give the author’s family name plus the given name(s) or initials as shown on the source.

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. Title. Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	Speed, Lesley. Clueless: American Youth in the 1990s. Routledge, 2018. https://researchonline.federation.edu.au/

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	According to Paul Allain and Jen Hevei theatre is a medium through which … (8).
Direct quote	Paul Allain and Jen Hevei state that "the field of theatre studies has undergone a paradigm shift in recent years …" (8). "The field of of theatre studies has undergone a paradigm shift in recent years ..." (Allain and Hevei 8).

Works cited

List both authors. Write the first author as 'Family Name, Given Name' and the subsequent author as 'Given Name Family Name'. Use commas to separate names, with 'and' before the last author.

Reference format	Example
Template	Author/s. Title. Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	Allain, Paul, and Jen Harvie. The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Performance. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2015.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	The literature review is … (Booth et al. 15).
Direct quote	According to Booth et al. "the literature review is a crucial part of any research study because …" (15).

Works cited

Name the first author followed by "et al." (Latin for "and others").

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. Title. Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed., U of Chicago P, 2008.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	Civilizations as created by Arnason illustrate … (Smith 216).
Direct quote	Smith asserts that “in all respects, Arnason’s characterization of the creation of civilizations emphasizes context-dependent instantiations of social imageries” (216).

Works cited

• Basic application: Give author, title (in italics), place and name of publisher and year, and publication medium.
• Different edition: For editions other than the first, add the edition description after the title. If no edition statement is shown on the book, assume it is a first edition and no statement is needed.

Edited collection

List editor(s) in author position followed by ‘editor.’ or ‘editors.’

Reference format	Example
Template	Editor(s). Book title. Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	Mills, Alice, and Jeremy Smith, editors. Utter Silence: Voicing the Unspeakable. Peter Lang, 2001.

Chapter from an edited collection

Give the chapter title in quotation marks and the book title in italics. Write the editor(s) name(s) as 'Given Name Family Name', preceded by 'edited by'.

Reference format	Example
Template	Chapter author. “Chapter title.” Book title, edited by editor/s given name(s) then surname, Publisher, Year, Chapter page range.
Works cited entry	Smith, Jermey C. A. “Regionality and civilizations in the Americas: Considerations on Civilizational Analysis in the Context of American Modernities.” Civilization, Modernity, and Critique: Engaging Johann P. Arnason’s Macro-Social Theory, edited by Lubomir Dunaj, Jeremy C. A. Smith and Kurt C. M. Mertel, Routledge, 2023, pp. 214-227.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	Civilizations as created by Arnason illustrate … (Smith 216). The traditional structure of fairy tales is … (Arnavas 75). The character Micheale McGuire finally regretted deserting his son many years ago when …  (Groves 14-15).
Direct quote	Smith states, “In all respects, Arnason’s characterization of the creation of civilizations emphasizes context-dependent instantiations of social imageries” (216). Arnavas challenges the notion of “rigid boundaries related to aesthetic, ideological, and ontological values” (78) in fairy tales. “The best-known Australian actor to guest-star in Whiplash was Chips Rafferty (1909–1971), who was renowned for playing “typical Australian” characters” (Groves 112).

Works cited

• Treat e-books like a print book, and include the publisher's information.
• If accessed online, include the website or database name. You can include the access date if you think it is relevant to your discussion, although this is optional.
• If accessed offline as a digital file, add the file type.
• If you do not know the type of e-book, write 'e-book' before the publisher.

Whole e-book

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year. Title of the database or website, URL.
Works cited entry	Arnavas, Francesca. Uncanny Fairy Tales: Hybrid Wonders in the Mirror. Routledge, 2024. Taylor  & Francis, www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003403449/uncanny-fairy-tales-francesca-arnavas Groves, Derham. Australian Westerns in the Fifties: Kangaroo, Hopalong Cassidy on Tour, and Whiplash. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. Springer Nature Link, link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-12883-7#publish-with-us.

Chapter

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. “Title of Chapter.” Title of ebook, edited by Authors, Publisher, Year, Page numbers. Title of the database or website, URL.
Works cited entry	Smith, Jermey C. A. “Regionality and civilizations in the Americas: Considerations on Civilizational Analysis in the Context of American Modernities.” Civilization, Modernity, and Critique: Engaging Johann P. Arnason’s Macro-Social Theory, edited by Lubomir Dunaj, Jeremy C. A. Smith and Kurt C. M. Mertel, Routledge, 2023, pp. 214-227. ProQuest Book Central, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003275046-20.

E-reader

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. Title of book. Version. Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	​Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Kindle ed., Simon and Schuster, 2003.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s) from the book.

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	African villages are often … (Goh 132).
Direct quote	Lee Goh describes the landscape of Africa as "extremely variable due to  …" (5).

Works cited

For multi-volume works, list the volume number(s) after the title and edition number (if there is one). Give all volumes (e.g. '3 vols.') to cite the whole work or the volume number (e.g. 'Vol. 2') for a single volume.

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. Title. Edition, Volume, Publisher, Year.
Works cited entry	Goh, Lee. African Voyages. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Greyguides, 1984.

In-text citations

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks (" ") and provide the page number(s).

Citation format	Example
Paraphrasing	Djuna Barnes led a quiet life who began her career in New York city after … (Danzer-Radecker 119).
Direct quote	During her career Djuna Barnes “became a member of the Provincetown Players crowd acting and writing short plays …” (Danzer-Radecker 120).

Works cited

• Treat the encyclopedia like a chapter from a book. If using the whole work, treat it like a book.
• Give author of entry if one is named; otherwise, begin with title.
• Give title of entry in quotation marks (" ") and title of whole work (in italics).
• Add page, edition and volume numbers (if applicable) after title for print and print versions online.
• Place and publisher are not needed for widely-used reference works; just give the year.

Print

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. “Title of Entry.” Title of Work. Edition, Volume, Publisher, Year, Page range of entry,  URL.
Works cited entry	Danzer-Radecker, Ian. “Djuna Barnes.” The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 118-128.

Online

Reference format	Example
Template	Author. “Title of Entry.” Title of Work. Edition, Volume, Publisher, Year, Page range of entry,  URL.
Works cited entry	Perlstein, Rick. “Watergate Scandal.” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, 2012, www.britannica.com/event/Watergate-Scandal.