When you're finding books for your research, make note of the author name(s), book title, publication date, publisher, and place of publication.
The medium of publication for all “hard copy” books is Print.
For each type of source in this guide, both the general form and a specific example will be provided.
The following format will be used:
Parenthetical Citation - entry that appears in the body of your paper.
Works Cited - entry that appears at the end of your paper.
Information on citing and several of the examples were drawn from the MLA Handbook (7th ed.).
Numbers in parentheses refer to specific pages in the manual.
When citing articles in a reference book, you generally follow the same format as you would for a work in an anthology.
However, you do not need to supply full publication information for well-known reference books in your Works Cited list. Instead, you need only include the edition, publication year, and medium (see general format 2 and example 2).
Author Surname, First Name. "Title of Article." Book Title: Subtitle.Ed. Editor First Name Surname. Edition [if available]. Vol. volume # [if available]. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium.
Kirschbaum, Frank. “Reproduction and Development in Mormyriform and Gymnotiform Fishes.” Electric Fishes: History and Behavior. Peter Moller. 1st ed. London: Chapman & Hall, 1995. Print.
"Title of Article." Book Title: Subtitle. Edition. Publication Year. Medium.
"Realism." Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. 2003. Print.