How do I cite the MLA’s publication Profession?

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.

How you cite the MLA’s journal Profession depends on which version you are citing. Before 2013, Profession was a print journal published once a year. Beginning in 2013 its articles were published online but were not grouped in discrete issues. In the fall of 2018 it became an online journal published three times a year; the articles published online between 2013 and 2018 are archived on the journal’s new website (profession.mla.org). Follow the MLA format template when you are citing articles from Profession, regardless of the version.

If you are citing the print version, you might write something like the following:

In an article from 2012, the scholar Christopher Freeburg explained how working at Starbucks has “shaped [his] thinking” and made him a better teacher (25).

Work Cited

Freeburg, Christopher. “Teaching Literature and the Bitter Truth about Starbucks.” Profession, 2012, pp. 25–30.

If you are citing the online version, you might write something like the following:

A recent article in Profession describes a version of “transformative mentorship” that attempts to realign the “perverse incentives” of the academic workplace (Sowards).

Work Cited

Sowards, Robin J. “Mentoring and Institutional Change.” Profession, Fall 2018, profession.mla.org/mentoring-and-institutional-change/.