The core components of a citation are:

Central to MLA Style, 8th edition, is the concept of core elements and containers. Core elements such as author, title, version, and publishing information are details that apply to all types of sources, regardless of format. They are put together in a specific order and with specific rules for punctuation and capitalization.

Containers are used when a source lies within another source. For example, a book could be cited as a whole and stand alone without a container. But if you are only citing one chapter within a whole book, the book becomes the "container" in which the chapter is found. Articles are part of a whole journal (the container) and an online journal may be found within a database (a secondary container) of journals.

MLA has created a downloadable Practice Template to guide writers in building correct Works Cited list citations.

The images below are copied from the online MLA Style Center and illustrate the concepts of core elements and containers. Note that the correct punctuation appears at the end of each core element.

  • Author name(s) always end with a period. 
  • If source has more than one author, list the authors or editors for each citation in the order given on the publication. 
  • Last/Family name, First name Middle name. 

Examples: 

Rushkoff, Douglas.

Kalish, Mildred Armstrong.

If source has two authors:
  • Last, First Middle, and First Middle Last. 

Example:

Kauffman, James M., and Harold J. Burbach.

If source has three or more authors:
  • Give only first listed author, Last, First Middle, then “et al.” to indicate multiple authors.

Example:

Wolfteich, Claire E., et al.

If source has editors but no authors:
  • Format names as you would for authors, comma, then the word "editor" or "editors", then a period.

Example:

Smith, John, and Margaret Jolly, editors.

If source has a corporate author:
  • Give organization name as it appears in work, but omit any beginning A, An, or The.

Example:

Modern Language Association.

If source has a government author:
  • Name of country, comma, Department followed by a period.

Example:

United States, National Institutes of Health.

If source gives no author:
  • Skip the author and begin citation with title of source (see Element 2: Title of source).


Page 2

1) Are you using your own independent material (i.e., material that reflects your own thoughts, opinion)?

□ Yes            □ No

• If Yes, OK. If No, you need to CITE.

2) Are you using common knowledge (i.e., something that everyone knows)?

□ Yes            □ No

• If Yes, OK. If No, you need to CITE.

3) Are you using someone else’s independent material (i.e., material NOT your own thoughts)?

□ Yes            □ No

• If Yes, you need to CITE. If No, OK.

4) Do all the quotations exactly match their source?

□ Yes □ No

• If Yes, well done! If No, you need to make sure they are correctly matched.

5) Have you used your own words and sentence structures for every paraphrase and summary related to another’s work?


□ Yes □ No

• If Yes, well done! If No, you need to make sure you use quotation marks around the author’s/authors’ words.

6) Have you included an in-text citation for every paraphrase and summary related to another’s work?

□ Yes □ No

• If Yes, well done! If No, you need to make sure you create an in-text citation for each reference to another’s work, even when you put that idea into your own words.

7) Does your list of References include all the sources you have mentioned in your paper?

□ Yes □ No

• If Yes, well done! If No, you need to make sure all of the sources you mention in your paper are listed on the References page.

Source: Reproduced with permission of Erin K. Elgin, Business Instructor on Iowa City Campus.


Page 3

Directions and examples to follow for APA style in-text citations and references

Some additional links from APA.org

Title of Source

The "Title of Source" refers to the title of the specific work you are citing - so an article, chapter, or essay title, or a book title if you are using the entire book.

For more information on formatting different source titles, see pages 130-133 in the MLA Handbook.

Title of Container

If you are citing something like an encyclopedia article, journal article, essay, or any other piece of information that is part of a larger work, you will need to include the title of that "container." For example, if I am citing a chapter of a book, the title of the chapter would be the "Title of Source" and the title of the entire book would be the "Title of Container."

For more information on formatting different container titles, see pages 134-145 in the MLA Handbook.

The MLA Handbook (8th edition, section 1.6) gives approved abbreviations for common terms, publishers' names, and the parts of the Bible and works of Shakespeare.

When giving the names of publishers in the Works Cited list:

  • omit business words like Company (Co.), Corporation (Corp.), Incorporated (Inc.) and Limited (Ltd.), and their foreign equivalents
  • in the names of academic presses, replace University Press with UP, University with U, and Press with P - e.g. MIT P, U of Chicago P, Teacher's College P

The container is the element where the source is found.  An article is contained in a magazine or journal.  A chapter is contained in a book.  

Sometimes a source can have more than one container - an article contained in a journal which is contained in a database.

Essay in a Book

Cancian, Francesca M. "The Feminization of Love." Women and Romance: A Reader, edited by Susan Ostrov Weisser, New York UP, 2001, pp.189-204.

Article in a Magazine or Journal

Barthelme, Frederick. "Architecture." Kansas Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 3-4, 1981, pp.77-80.

Article in a Journal Found in a Database

Pope, Victoria, and Jerelyn Eddings. "An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove." U.S. News & World Report, vol. 121, no. 7, 19 August, 1996, p. 26. Academic Search Premiere, libproxy.uco.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=9608147548&site=ehost-live.

Song on an Album

Duran Duran. "Girls on Film." Decades, 1989, open.spotify.com/album/4P6rgSkSEXFGrpTk9NZUAj.

Access Date: The date you first look at a source. The access date is added to the end of citations for all websites except library databases.

Citation: Details about one cited source.

Citing: The process of acknowledging the sources of your information and ideas.

Container: Name of the larger entity holding smaller containers where you found your source. Containers may include: newspaper, research database, web site, and book anthology. Citations may include multiple containers, such as when you cite an article from an academic journal found in Gale in Context: Opposing. (see also When Is a Website a Container?)

In-Text Citation: A brief note at the point where information is used from a source to indicate where the information came from. An in-text citation should always match more detailed information that is available in the Works Cited List.

Paraphrasing: Taking information that you have read and putting it into your own words.

Plagiarism: Taking, using, and passing off as your own, the ideas or words of another.

Quoting: The copying of words of text originally published elsewhere. Direct quotations generally appear in quotation marks and end with a citation.

Works Cited List: Contains details on ALL the sources cited in a text or essay, and supports your research and/or premise.