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MLA Style

Tips and examples on how to do MLA style citations, footnotes, and bibliography.

MLA Handbook: Bibliography Basics

-Identify your paper. You can use a header or footer in 10-pt. type. [In Microsoft Word go to Insert / Header and Footer]

-Arrange the bibliography in alphabetical order. Disregard A, An, The at the beginning of titles.

-The bibliography is double spaced, just like the text of the paper.

-In MLA style you may use Italics or Underlining for titles of books and journals.

-For an article from a database, you must identify the database, the date you viewed it, and the URL.

-Purdue OWL can help with more, click here.

Bibliography Example

Bibliography

 

 

Discovering the Music of Africa. DVD. Directed by Bernard Wilets. Huntsville, Tex.: Educational Video Network, 2004. (If there is no author, put the title first.)

“Fitzgerald, Ella.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music. Michael Kennedy and Joyce Kennedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Oxford Reference Online. Oct. 7, 2008. http://0-www.oxfordreference.com.lib.utep.edu:80/  (This is an article from an online encyclopedia.)

Guion, David M. The Trombone: Its History and Music, 1697-1811.   New York: Gordon and Breach, 1988.  (This is a book.)

Matthew-Walker, Robert. “Maria Callas and Elvis Presley: Immortals.” Musical Opinion 131, no. 1461 (Nov.-Dec. 2007): 24-25.  RILM.  Oct. 7, 2008. http://search.ebsco.com  (This is an article from a journal in a database.)

National Early Music Association Conference. From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2005. (If there is no person as author, you may use a corporate author.)

Phillips, Elizabeth V. and John-Paul Christopher Jackson. Performing Medieval and Renaissance Music: An Introductory Guide. New York: Schirmer Books, 1986. (If there are two or three authors, only the first one’s name is given with last name first.)

Smith, James F. “Bobby Sox and Blue Suede Shoes: Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as Teen Idols.” In Frank Sinatra and Popular Culture: Essays on an American Icon, 50-68. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1998.  (This is an essay in a collection.)

Tardieu, Julien [et al.]. “Perceptual Study of Soundscapes in Train Stations.” Applied Acoustics 69, no. 12 (December 2008): 1224-1239. Academic Search Complete. Oct. 10, 2008. http://search.ebsco.com  (If there are four or more authors, give only the first one with [et al.], which means ‘and others’.)

Annotated Bibliography

Purdue OWL has a great page breaking down annotated bibliographies, click here.  Always check with your professor for specifics.

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