How do I cite conference proceedings?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

To cite conference proceedings, follow the MLA format template. The example below lists the editors (as “Author”), the title, the publisher, and the date of publication:

Chang, Steve S., et al., editors. Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena. Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2000.  

If you are citing a section of the proceedings, cite the section the same way you would an essay in a collection: first list the author and title of the essay and then continue the entry with the title of the collected proceedings (now, in the “Title of container” slot):

Hualde, José Ignacio. “Patterns of Correspondence in the Adaptation of Spanish Borrowings in Basque.” Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, February 12-15, 1999: General Session and Parasession on Loan Word Phenomena, edited by Steven S. Chang et al., Berkeley Linguistics Society, 2000, pp. 348-58.