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Referencing guide at the University of Manchester: MLA

This referencing guide is designed to provide support for all referencing requirements at the University of Manchester

MLA citations within the text

This guide provides you with examples of how to correctly cite references within the text of your assignments in the Modern Language Association (MLA) style.

There are a variety of different referencing styles used across the University (Harvard, Vancouver, MHRA), so you should always check with your supervisor that this method of citation is accepted within your School. It is also vital that you remain consistent with your referencing style throughout your document.

Citations you include in the main body of your writing provide brief details of the work you are referring to. In the MLA style, you place the relevant source information in brackets after a quote or a paraphrase. These short “parenthetical citations” then link to a fully detailed reference, which you should include in your works cited list. You should also check with the person assessing your work whether parenthetical citations need to be included in your final word count.

The format of the parenthetical citation will depend upon a number of factors. These include the nature of the source (print, DVD, web etc), and also on the format of the source’s entry on your works cited list. The signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text (which will usually be the author’s surname), must be the first thing that appears on the corresponding entry in the works cited list.

The MLA style allows you to phrase your text so that credit is given to the author’s view (direct citation) or you can cite the author and page number after the relevant section (indirect citation).

MLA works cited lists/bibliographies

Your list of works cited links with your in-text citations and enables readers to easily trace the sources cited within your work. It is a list of the documents from which any direct quotations, or examples have been taken.

N.B. A bibliography (where you give credit to sources that were used for background reading, but were not quoted within the body of the text), is not usually required. You should however always check this with your tutor first.

Your list of references (and bibliography if you choose to provide one) should be arranged alphabetically by author and then, where necessary, by year of publication.

Different types of publication require different amounts of information. The MLA system lays down standards for the amount of information required for each document type; these are detailed below.

Basic rules

  • Begin the Works Cited list on a separate page at the end of your paper / assignment. It should use the same formatting style as the rest of your work.
  • Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks).
  • Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by five spaces so that you create a hanging indent.
  • List page numbers efficiently e.g. 225-50 not 225-250.
  • You must include the medium of publication, for example Print or Web, but other possibilities include Film, DVD etc.

Disclaimer

The information contained within these pages is intended as a general referencing guideline.

Please check with your supervisor to ensure that you are following the specific guidelines required by your school.

Creative Commons Licence This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence.

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