Online Citations: Using the MLA Style Guide

The first step in citing online sources is to choose the appropriate writing style guide. This choice is usually determined by the educational institution or educator. The AP Style, developed for journalists by the Associated Press, is adopted by some schools. However, the standard format of undergraduate and graduate level writing programs in the United States is known as the MLA Style.

Created by the Modern Language Association of America, the MLA Style was developed fifty years ago by academics to standardize citations in the broad field of the humanities. It is primarily used with writing and literature. Educational institutions and literary journals both in the U.S. and abroad have adopted its formatting conventions for research papers and scholarly work in literature.

The MLA Style is contained in two guides: The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, and The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Both manuals are available through the MLA and members receive a slight discount.

The MLA Style aims for the short and specific when it comes to citations. To accommodate the ever-changing nature of the web, it incorporates the date the source was viewed in the citation. It also names the web site organization or association, the actual title page, the date the document was created, any authors listed and the web page location or url.

So for example, the web documents used in the above paragraph would be cited as such:

"MLA Handbook." Modern Language Association. 01 Jan 2009. Modern Language Association. 08 Feb 2009. <http://www.mla.org/store/CID24 /PID159>.

The components of the citation can be broken down into six sections:

1. "MLA Handbook" -  the web page title; always enclosed in quotes
2. Modern Language Association - the site title; always underlined.
3. 01 Jan 2009 - the date of the web document
4. Modern Language Association - the name of the association.
5. 08 Feb 2009 - the date the document was viewed.
6. <http://www.mla.org/store/CID24 /PID159> - the web site location; always enclosed in brackets.

In this case, there are no authors attributed to the web document. Let's look at an online source with a few extra components. The poet, Richard Garcia, was published in an online literary magazine called Woodmoor Village. His poem, "Adam and Eve's Dog," is being cited in a research paper. Here is how the citation would be composed:

Garcia, Richard. "Adam and Eve's Dog." Woodmoor Village 26 Jul 2006 8 Feb 2009. >.

1. Garcia, Richard. - the author's last name and first name; followed by a period.
2. "Adam and Eve's Dog." - the name of the poem being cited; enclosed in quotes and a period within the end quote.
3. Woodmoor Village - the publication title; always underlined.
4. 26 Jul 2006 - the date of the web document. Notice the first three letters month is used.
5. 08 Feb 2009 - the date the document was viewed.
6. > - the web site location; always enclosed in brackets.

And, now a secret. Get your MLA Handbook for reference. Use it for those more complex online citations. But for a quick and usually correct MLA citation machine, visit the Son of Citation This online helper will format your citations for you once you have loaded it with data.