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ENGL 3109 - Reading & Writing about Literature - Dr. Edenfield: How to Construct a Citation

LibGuide for Dr. Edenfield's ENGL 3109

MLA Examples

Three Examples of MLA: journal, book, and an edited book

Academic journals:

Lastname, Firstname. "Title of The Article." Tile of the Journal in Ital, vol. ##, no. ##, YEAR, pp. ##-##. Database Name in Ital, doi: ###.

 

Monk, Nicholas. "Desert Gothic: Cormac McCarthy, Paul Bowels, and Don Waters." The Cormac McCarthy Journal, vol. 17, no. 2, 2019, pp. 171-86. ProQuest One Literature, doi:10.5325/Cormmccaj.17.2.0171.

Link to example article

**Please note: Due to formatting limitations, I cannot replicate a hanging indent on this.

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A Book: 

Morton, Lisa. Calling Spirits: A History of Seances. Reaktion Books, 2021.

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Chapter in an edited book:

Nixon, Nicola. "Making Monsters or Serializing Killers." American Gothic: New Interventions in a National Narrative, edited by Robert K. Martin and Eric Savoy, University of Iowa Press, 1998, pp. 217-36.

Parts of a citation

While citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) differ in the order of their elements (author name, publisher, volume/issue number, date, etc.), most of them require you to identify the same properties of a given book or journal.  For example, you almost always have to identify the following: 

  • Author name(s)
  • Title of the journal 
  • Title of the journal article 
  • Volume number 
  • Issue number 
  • Date or year of publication 
  • Page numbers 
  • DOI 

Identifying these can be difficult at first, but practice always helps! 

Speed Dating with a Citation: Journal & Book with an Editor

Group Activity: Citing Academic Journals

Pro tip: before considering your citation complete, make sure you check the PDF of the article itself to ensure you have not missed any information. 

Hospitality - Group 1

The Coda - Group 2

Function of the Family - Group 3

The Boy & Critical Conclusions - Group 4

Memories & Dreams - Group 5

Link to shared Google Doc