MLA Style Guide, 7th Edition: About MLA

Always refer to the MLA Manual for authorized examples of citations.

Some of the citations in this guide are taken from the MLA Manual; others are recommendations from IRSC librarians.

Always ask your instructor for specific directions pertaining to your assignment.

A copy of this manual is available in all IRSC campus libraries.

The standard citation style guide for the humanities, especially languages and literature, is the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th edition, 2010. The American Modern Language Association (MLA) publishes the manual. It is commonly referred to it as the "MLA Manual".

The English departments at IRSC recommend MLA format for papers written in these fields.

Two types of citations are included in most research papers: citations within the text of the document and a list of reference citations at the end of the paper.

In-Text Citations:

In-text citations appear in the body of your paper. They identify your use of an idea from one of your sources. The MLA Manual uses the author-page citation system for in-text citations. 

Reference Citations:

Information about the sources you use in your work are included as a separate list at the end of the paper.  The MLA Manual suggests using the title, Works Cited, for the list.

Any source information that you provide in an in-text citation must correspond to a source in your Works Cited page.

MLA no longer requires URLs in MLA citations. However, your instructor may wish you to include the URL as part of the citation so that your source may be easily located. MLA suggests that the URL appear in angle brackets after the date of access.

Potter, Michelle. "Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Life." LiteraryTraveler.com n.d. Web. 22 Mar 2016. <http://www.literarytraveler.com/articles/zora-neale-hurston-a-literary-life/>