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Citations: Books, eBooks and Pamphlets

Formatting

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Tips

Access Date

 Works from the web can typically be changed or removed at any time, so while it's optional, the date which you accessed material is often important.  This is especially true when there is no date specifying when an item was produced.This date will be added to the end of the entry. E.g. Accessed 23 July 2016.

Authors/Editors

An author can be a person but can also be an organization, or company. These are called group or corporate authors.

If you are citing a chapter from a book that has an editor, the author of the chapter is listed first, and is the name listed in the in-text citation.

Dates

The format of all dates is: Date Month (shortened) Year. E.g. 5 Sept. 2012.

Whether to give the year alone or include a month and day depends on your source: write the full date as you find it there.

If no date is listed, omit it unless you can find that information available in a reliable source. In that case the date is cited in square brackets. E.g. [2008]

Page Numbers

Page number on your Works Cited page (but not for in-text citations) are now proceeded by p. for a single page number and pp. for a range of page numbers. E.g. p. 156 or pp. 79-92.

Publishers

You have the option to use the shortened name of the publisher by using UP instead of University Press (e.g. Oxford UP, not Oxford University Press).

You also have the option to remove articles (A, An, The), business abbreviations (e.g. Co., Inc.) and descriptive words (e.g. Books, House, Press, Publishers).

Titles

Capitalize the first letter of every important word in the title. You do not need to capitalize words such as: in, of, or an.

If there is a colon (:) in the title, include what comes after the colon (also known as the subtitle).

Book in Print with One Author

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

Works Cited List Example  

 Kirsh, Steven J. Children, Adolescents, and Media Violence: A Critical Look at the Research. 2nd ed., Sage, 2006. 
In-Text Citation Example

 (Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Kirsh 70)

Book in Print with Two Authors

Last Name, First Name of First Author, and First Name Last Name of Second Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

  Note:Only the first author listed appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. Authors' names are separated by a comma. Before the last author to be listed, add the word "and."

Works Cited List Example  

  Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. Sage, 2005. 
In-Text Citation Example

  (Author's Last Name and Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Wykes and Gunter 53)

Book in Print with Three or More Authors

Last Name, First Name of First Author, et al. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. 

  Note: If you have three or more authors list only the first author's name followed by et al. instead of listing all authors names. For example Smith, John, et al. The first author is the first name listed on the work you are citing, not the first name alphabetically.

Works Cited List Example  

  Nickels, William, et al. Understanding Canadian Business. 9th ed., McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2016. 
In-Text Citation Example

(First Author's Last Name et al. Page Number)

Example: (Nickels et al. 5)

Book With a Group or Corporate Author

Name of Corporate Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication.

 Note: When a work is published by an organization that is also its author, begin the entry with the title, skipping the author element, and list the organization only as publisher.

Works Cited List Example  

  Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation. Employability Skills: Creating My Future. Nelson, 1996. 
In-Text Citation Example  

  (Name of Corporate Author Page Number)

  Example: (Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation 14)

eBook From a Library Database with One Author

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database.

Works Cited List Example

  Waldau, Paul. Animal Rights: What Everyone Needs To Know. Oxford University Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). 
In-Text Citation Example

 (Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Waldau 132)

eBook From a Library Database with Two Authors

Last Name of First Author, First Name, and First Name Last Name of Second Author. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database. 

  Note: Only the first author listed appears in "Last Name, First Name" format. Authors' names are separated by a comma. Before the last author to be listed, add the word "and."

Works Cited List Example  

  Foster, Lois E., and David Stockley. Multiculturalism: The Changing Australian Paradigm. Multilingual Matters, 1984. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
In-Text Citation Example

  (Author's Last Name and Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Foster and Stockley 22)

eBook From a Library Database with Three or More Authors

Last Name of First Author, First Name, et al. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication. Name of Library Database. 

  Note: If you have three or more authors you may choose to list only the first author's name followed by et al. instead of listing all authors names. For example Smith, John, et al. The first author is the first name listed on the work you are citing, not the first name alphabetically.

Works Cited List Example  

  Ziarek, Ewa Plonowska, et al. A Time for the Humanities: Futurity and the Limits of Autonomy. Fordham UP, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
In-Text Citation Example

(First Author's Last Name et al. Page Number)

Example: (Ziarek et al. 75)

eBook From a Website

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication, Website Name, URL. Accessed Access Date.

Works Cited List Example

  Henty, George Alfred. The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt. Blackie and Son, 1889. HathiTrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073478847. Accessed 6 July 2016.
In-Text Citation Example

 (Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Henty 132)

eBook from an eReader Platform

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, e-book or list type if known, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication.

  Note: If you know the type of e-book you consulted, list the type. 

Works Cited List Example  

Smith, Zadie. On Beauty: A Novel. E-book, Hamish, 2005.

Smith, Zadie. On Beauty: A Novel. Kindle ed., Hamish, 2005.
In-Text Citation Example

 (Author's Last Name Page Number)

 Example: (Smith 132)

 

Chapter, Short Story, Essay, or Article From a Book (Anthology or Collection)

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Short Story, Essay, or Article." Title of Book: Subtitle if Any, edited by Editor's First Name and Last Name, Edition if given and is not first, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of publication, Page numbers of the essay, article, or short story. 

Works Cited List Example  

  Ross, Colin. "The Story of Grey Owl." Fiction/Non-Fiction: A Reader and Rhetoric, edited by Garry Engkent and Lucia Engkent, 2nd ed., Thomson Nelson, 2006, pp. 327-333. 

  Note: The first author's name listed is the author of the chapter/essay/short story.

  Note: If there is no editor given you may leave out that part of the citation.
In-Text Citation Example  

  (Author's Last Name Page Number)

  Example: (Ross 332 )

Book With Editor(s) But No Author

Last Name of editor, First Name, editor(s). Title of Book: Subtitle if Any. Edition if given and is not first edition, Publisher Name often shortened, Year of Publication.

Works Cited List Example  

  Matuz, Roger, editor. Contemporary Canadian Artists. Gale Canada, 1997. 
In-Text Citation Example  

  (Last name page number)

  Example: (Matuz 35)

Learn more: See the MLA Handbook, pp. 22-23

Citing an ebook With No Page Numbers

When no page numbers are listed on an ebook, cite the chapter number instead in your in-text citation.

Example: (Smith ch. 2).