MLA Style Guide
Eng 256 : Literature of Science Fiction
Northern Virginia Community College, Extended Learning Institute
Dr. Agatha Taormina

When you use outside sources, including the short story or novel you are writing about, you must properly document references to and quotations from these sources.

You are required to use the documentation style of the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Here is a brief review of the most commonly used formats for in-text documentation and Works Cited.

Mention of author in the text:

According to Brian Aldiss, the publication of Dune by Frank Herbert roughly marks the point at which modern science fiction begins (20).

No mention of author in the text:

Sufism "is concerned with . . . the organic evolution of mankind" (Shah 125).

Note that there is no punctuation between the author's name and the page number.

Provide a Works Cited page at the end of your paper.

Be sure to alphabetize entries by the authors' last names and to double space all entries.

Use hanging indentation (i.e., first line to the left margin, second and subsequent lines indented).

Some Common Formats

Book with one author:

Herbert, Frank. Dune. New York: Berkley, 1965.

Book with two authors:

Article from a magazine or journal with separate pagination:

Article from a periodical with continuous pagination:

Full text of article originally published elsewhere but retrieved from an online database:

• Start with the entire MLA reference based on the type of source the article originally appeared in (e.g., a newspaper, a weekly or monthly popular magazine, a monthly or quarterly scholarly journal).
• Add the title of the database; italicize the title.
• Add the date of the electronic publication or last update of the site.
• Include the number range of the pages or paragraphs if they are numbered.
• Provide the date on which you accessed the material.

Material retrieved directly from a Web Site:

• Start with the author of the material and the title (in quotation marks) of the article.
• Provide the title of the web site; the title can be found at the very top of your screen. If a site has no title, give it a description such as Home page. Italicize (or underline) this title.
• Add the date of electronic publication or last update.
• Provide the date on which you accessed the material.
• Provide the URL (i.e., the online address of the source) in angle brackets.

Additional information about proper formats for MLA documentation can be found at the following web sites:

• Documentation: Modern Language Association from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center
• A Guide for Writing Research Papers Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation from Capital Community College in Hartford, CT
• Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab

Eng 256: Literature of Science Fiction
© 2002 Agatha Taormina
Last Revised: May 12, 2004