How can I avoid redundancy in my in-text citations?

As the MLA Handbook notes, “The in-text citation should direct the reader unambiguously to the entry in your works-cited list for the source—and, if possible, to a passage in… Read More

If I have two works with identical titles and no authors in my works-cited list, how do I distinguish between them in my parenthetical citations?

Writers sometimes need to cite anonymous sources with identical titles, such as articles in reference works. Since in MLA style works without authors are cited… Read More

If I need to fit a quotation syntactically into a sentence, can I use empty brackets to indicate that I have removed letters from a verb?

No. In MLA style, brackets are generally only used to add material or show visible alterations, not to indicate omissions.1 So when attempting to fit… Read More

How do I cite an essay from one volume of a multivolume work when the volume is identified by a date range?

You can cite an essay from one volume of a multivolume work when the volume is identified by a date range in any one of… Read More

How do I cite an essay from a multivolume work when each volume has a different title?

Multivolume works can seem complex and difficult to cite because they present the writer with an abundance of bibliographic information—some essential, some optional—that can be… Read More

Citing Artifacts in a Digital Archive

Get tips for citing work in a digital archive . . . Read More

A Guide to Citing Materials from Physical Archives and Collections

Here's a handy guide to citing materials in physical archives . . . Read More

When italic characters are unavailable, how should I style a title or a word used as a word?

In handwritten and typewritten material—where italics are impossible to render—titles of works normally italicized, words used as words, and letters used as letters are underlined:… Read More

Is it OK if my works-cited-list entry runs from one page to another?

Yes. Read More

Can I silently change the initial capital letter in a quotation to fit the quotation syntactically into my sentence?

No. As the MLA Handbook advises, “Unless indicated in square brackets or parentheses, changes must not be made in the spelling, capitalization, or interior punctuation of… Read More