Rather than give strict format rules for different types of sources, the 8th edition of the MLA Handbook identifies 9 "core elements" common to most sources and provides flexible guidelines on how to reference them in your Works Cited list.
(Commas separate details of the "container" or master work until all details are exhausted.)
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BASIC MODEL OF A CITATION (to be set in Times New Roman, 12 Pt font, double spaced, with a "hanging indent")
NOTE: A "Container" is a larger work that can take the form of a book/e-books, performance, journal, magazine or newspaper, as well a website, search engine or database. Cite the container if you used the whole work. |
The idea is to avoid complexity and confusion, as well as ambiguity. If there is information you can add to help the reader, make that distinction. As noted in MLA 8:
First Container -- Title of larger or self-contained work
E.g.: Book, Journal, Newspaper, Magazine, Website
Second Container* -- Name of service or platform that serves up the work. *Use if applicable
E.g.: Database, Streaming Service, Social Media Platform, Website (sometimes); Book Collection or Series
In-Text (Parenthetical) and Style Changes
| MEDIA: Include time of video when citing media (MLA 57). | Buffy's promise that "there's not going to be any incidents like at my old school" is not one she can honor ("Buffy" 00:03:16-17). |
| Shorten to the shortest "Noun Phrase" (MLA 117) |
The Double Vision: Language and Meaning in Religion (Double Vision 6) |
| Articles on Titles Reintroduced | The New York Times |
| Two forward slashes (//) mark stanza breaks in run-in quotations of verse (78). |
"I’d like to get away from earth awhile /And then come back to it and begin over.//Earth’s the right place for love: I don’t know where it’s likely to go better (Frost 48-52) ." |
| If a block quotation of prose contains internal paragraphing, the first line of the quotation now begins without a paragraph indention even if one is present in the source (77). |
Other changes include:
