Ask the MLA

FAQ

If a book collects works by one author, creating separate works-cited-list entries for each story, poem, or essay that you cite from the book is usually unnecessary. If, however, your discussion focuses on only one work in the collection—for example, Euripides’s play The Trojan Women, in the collection Ten Plays, by Euripides, or Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” in The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe—then you might create a separate entry for the work, as shown in the examples below, taken respectively from pages 27 and 35 of the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook:

Euripides. The Trojan Women. Ten Plays, translated by Paul Roche, New American Library, 1998, pp. 457-512.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. HathiTrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079574368;view=1up;seq= 266.

To cite stand-alone audio files, begin with the template of core elements:

In the author-element slot, list the person or persons responsible for creating the work found on the file. If the work has no creator—for example, if the file records children at a park singing “Happy Birthday” or dogs barking—leave the author element blank.

In the “Title of source” element, list the title of the work you are citing (e.g., the song); if you do not know the title, include a description of the work or the name of the file.

In the “Publication date” element on the template, include the date the recording was created, if known; otherwise, list the date the file was created in the optional-element slot at the end of the entry.

It would also be useful to include the file type as an optional element, since knowing the medium of publication may help the reader better understand the work.

Here are a few sample entries:

MLA Jug Band. “Handbook Hootenanny.” MP3 file, created 6 Apr. 2017.

“Happy Birthday.” MP3 file, created 5 June 2014.

Recording of dogs barking. MP3 file, created 5 Feb. 2011.

Salinas, Lois. Recording of live reading of Beowulf. 10 Jan. 2017. WAV file.

Tanner, Rumeli. “FinalAlbum_toMTAudio_forMastering.” WAV file, created 3 Mar. 2016.

If your discussion focuses on work performed by someone other than the artist—say, the person who mastered the song—list that person in the other-contributor slot:

MLA Jug Band. “Ode to the Core Elements.” Mastered by Seelie Thomas, 25 May 2017. WAV file.

No. As the MLA Handbook notes, “A Web site not involved in producing the works it makes available” lacks a publisher (42). Examples include sites like JSTOR and YouTube that aggregate works from other sources.

Include the name of the library in the publisher slot on the MLA template of core elements if the library is the publisher of the work or in the location slot if you are citing a unique work available only at the library, like a manuscript in an archive:

Baron, Sabrina Alcorn, et al., editors. Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein. U of Massachusetts P / Center for the Book, Library of Congress, 2007.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Circa 1400-10, British Library, London, Harley MS 7334.