MLA Citation Guide (9th Edition): Books, eBooks & Pamphlets

A print book means it's printed on paper. If you checked the book out of a library or bought it from a bookstore, it's print.

An eBook is a book you can read entirely online or on an eReader.

When there are no page numbers listed on an ebook, or it is a resizable format like Kindle or EPUB, cite the chapter number instead in your in-text citation.

Example: (Smith ch. 2).  

When citing a book that has been translated, you include the translator's information in the Works Cited reference after the title of the book.

Example:

Dorfman, Ariel, and Armand Mattelart. How to Read Donald

Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic.

Translated by David Kunzle, OR Books, 2018.

Access Date

Works from the web can be changed or removed at any time, so it is often important to include the date you accessed the material in your citation. This is optional, but is especially important when there is no date specifying when the item (web document, article, webpage) was produced, or you believe the source has been edited without notice. Add the access date to the end of your citation. E.g. Accessed 23 July 2019.

Authors/Editors

An author can be a person but can also be an organization, or company. These are called group or corporate authors.

If you are citing a chapter from a book that has an editor, the author of the chapter is listed first, and is the name listed in the in-text citation.

Dates

The format of all dates is: Day Month (shortened) Year. E.g. 5 Sept. 2012.

Write the full date as you find it on the source. If there is only a year listed, you will only put the year in your citation. For others, you will also include a month and day if they are given.

If there is no date listed, just leave it out unless you can find that information available in a reliable source. In that case the date is cited in square brackets to show that you found that information somewhere else. E.g. [2008]

Page Numbers

On your Works Cited page (but not for in-text citations), single page numbers are preceded by p. and a range of page numbers is preceded by pp. E.g. p. 156 or pp. 79-92.

Publishers

You have the option to use the shortened name of the publisher. For example, you can use UP instead of University Press (e.g. Oxford UP instead of the full name Oxford University Press).

You also have the option to remove articles (A, An, The), business abbreviations (e.g. Co., Inc.) and descriptive words (e.g. Books, House, Press, Publishers). 

Titles

Capitalize the first letter of every important word in the title. You do not need to capitalize words such as: in, of, or an. Do not use all-caps (except for words like USA where each letter stands for something), even if the words appear that way on the book or article.

If there is a colon (:) in the title, include what comes after the colon (also known as the subtitle).

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches. Microsoft Word and some other text editing programs allow you to highlight a citation and apply a hanging indent. 

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

Last Name, First Name of First Author, and First Name Last Name of Second Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

  Note: Only the first author's name appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. The second author's name appears in "First Name Last Name" format. 

Last Name, First Name of First Author, et al. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

  Note: If there are three or more authors list only the first author's name followed by et al. instead of listing all authors' names. The first author is the first name listed on the work you are citing, not the first name alphabetically.

Name of Corporate Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication.

 Note: When the organization that published the work is also the corporate author of the work, begin the entry with the title, skipping the author element, and list the organization only as publisher. If the corporate author is a division of a larger organization, the division is the author and the organization is the publisher. 

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database.

Last Name of First Author, First Name, and First Name Last Name of Second Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database. 

  Note: Only the first author's name appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. The second author's name appears in "First Name Last Name" format.

Last Name of First Author, First Name, et al. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database. 

  Note: If there are three or more authors list only the first author's name followed by et al. instead of listing all authors' names. The first author is the first name listed on the work you are citing, not the first name alphabetically.

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Website Name, URL. Accessed Day Month Year site was visited if there is no publication date. File type.

 Note: When the landing page provides a choice of formats (such as PDF or EPUB), include the file type at the end of the citation (in case there are slight differences between versions). If you use the default format of the book, omit this element. In most cases, a URL should be provided. However, if there is a DOI, use it instead (because it is the most stable link to the book), beginning with https://doi.org. 

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, e-book ed., Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. File type.

  Note: The file type is important to include, since only a PDF will have stable page numbering. Do not cite the website (Amazon, VitalSource, Google Play, etc) as a container.

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher name if different from website name, Year of Publication. Website Name, URL if no DOI is provided. File type.

 Note: When the landing page provides a choice of formats (such as PDF or EPUB), include the file type at the end of the citation (in case there are slight differences between versions). If you use the default format of the book, omit this element. In most cases, a URL should be provided. However, if there is a DOI, use it instead (because it is the most stable link to the book), beginning with https://doi.org. 

Author Last Name, Author First Name. "Title of Book Chapter." Moodle, uploaded by Instructor Name, upload date [if known], moodle.columbiacollege.bc.ca/.

Note: The MLA Style Center has more guidance on citing online handouts and readings, including the difference between a reading that is uploaded to a course versus one that is shared via a link. If your instructor asks you to practice citing a course reading using the original publication information, follow the model for the original type of source (book chapter, journal article, etc.). 

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, edited by Editor's First Name and Last Name, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication.

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Chapter, Short Story, or Essay." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, edited by Editor's First Name and Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication, Page numbers of the chapter, short story, or essay. 

  Note: The author listed at the beginning of the citation is the author of the chapter, short story, or essay.

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Short Story or Essay." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication, Page numbers of the short story or essay. 

  Note:  Use this format when the book is a collection of an author's own work. In this case, there will be no editor.

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article or Essay." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, by Author's First Name and Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication, Page numbers of the article or essay. 

  Note: The first author's name listed is the author of the article or essay. The second is the author of the textbook.

Last Name of editor, First Name, editor(s). Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication.