MLA Style: Books and E-Books
NOTE: Your instructor might request that you cite differently from
the examples shown here. If so, follow his or her guidelines.
Basic Format
Author Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Copyright year. Print.
Ex:
Badke, William B. Research Strategies. New York: iUniverse, 2008. Print.
Two to three authors
Parker, Sue Taylor and Michael L. McKinney. Origins of intelligence : the evolution of cognitive development in
monkeys, apes, and humans. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999. Print.
Three authors or more
Gould, Graham, et al. Decoding Early Christianity: Truth and Legend in the Early Church. Oxford: Greenwood
World, 2007. Print.
Book with an editor (A work prepared for publication by someone other than the author)
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia: Chelsea, 2004. Print.
Book published in a second or subsequent edition
Moore, Brooke Noel and Kenneth Bruder. Philosophy: The Power of Ideas. Fifth ed. Boston:
McGraw Hill, 2001. Print.
Book by a corporate author
American Medical Association. CPT 2007: Current Procedural Terminology.Chicago: American Medical
Association, 2007. Print.
Parenthetical/In-Text Citation
(American 53)
E-Book (Use format for a print book, but after publication date add name of database/collection,
Web format, and date of access)
Kennedy, Leslie W. and David Robert Forde. When Push Comes to Shove: A Routine Conflict Approach to
Violence. Albany, NY: NY State U of New York, 1999. eBooks Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 4 May 2009.
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Google Book published after 1900
Gould, James L. and Carol Grant Gould. Animal Architects: Building and the Evolution of Intelligence. New
York: Basic Books, 2007. Google Book Search. Web. 14 Apr. 2009.
Google Book published before 1900
Dewey, John. Leibniz’s New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding: A Critical Exposition. Boston, 1888.
Google Book Search. Web. 14 Apr. 2009.
(Notice there is no publisher -- just city, date.)
Article in an encyclopedia or reference book
Magnuson-Martinson, Scott. “Baby-Boom Generation.” Encyclopedia of Family Life. Ed. Carl L. Bankston.
Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 1999. Print.
(If the above article was from a database, you would follow 1999. with title of the database, Web, and
date of access.)
Parenthetical/In-Text Citation
(Magnuson-Martinson 55) Author and page number used.
Multivolume reference book (If you are using two or more volumes, cite
the total set.)
Bankston, Carl L., ed. Encyclopedia of Family Life. 5 vols. Pasadena, CA: Salem, 1999. Print.
Parenthetical/In-Text Citation
(Bankston 3: 56) (Author volume number: page number(s))
(Bankston, vol. 4) (Use this if you are citing the entire volume. Notice the comma after the author.)
Work in an anthology
Hughes, Langston. “Passing.” American Poetry Since 1995: An Anthology. Ed. Eliot Weinberger. New York:
Marsilio, 1993. 56-57. Print.
For more help with citing books, refer to MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers or
contact the Reference Desk: 443-412-2131; http://www.harford.edu/library/ask_a_librarian.
Spring 2013 GCL