Citation Guide - Valparaiso

Find a copy of the MLA Handbook, 9th ed. on campus library shelves at call number: REF 808.027 MLA

Common Questions

All MLA citations follow the same standard format in the following order with the punctuation listed:

1. Authors.
2. Title of source.
3. Title of container,
4. Other contributors,
5. Version,
6. Numbers,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date,
9. Location.

What do URLs look like in reference citations?

For the URL, omit http:// or https:// from the citation.

I don’t see the material I’m looking for in this list!

Don’t panic, there is help in the library. Please email, call, or come in for one-on-one help with your citations. You can find more examples on the Ask the MLA Blog.

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows: 

January = Jan.
February = Feb.
March = Mar.
April = Apr.
May = May
June = June
July = July
August = Aug.
September = Sept.
October = Oct.
November = Nov.
December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper. 

Click on the link below to download the MLA 9th ed, template. This is a template you can use every time you need to set-up a research paper using MLA style format. Simply open the template and type your own information every time you need to write an MLA style research paper

Click the link below to see a sample MLA paper with headers, page numbers, and works cited.