MLA (Modern Language Association) is the standard citation method in arts and humanities courses: art, literature, drama, film, etc.

MLA requires an in-text citation in the body of your paper and a Works Cited page at the end. MLA places value on the author name(s) and page number (whereas APA emphasizes author last name(s), date, and page number).

Let’s say you’re writing a paper on Jane Austen’s depiction of the 19th century British middle class in Pride and Prejudice . Here is how this source would be cited in the body of the paper and on the Works Cited page:

Jones 2

Pride and Prejudice opens with one of the most famous first lines in all of literature: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” (Austen 3). Whether she is being sarcastic or serious, author Jane Austen introduces the novel’s central themes of social class and marriage in this single memorable line.

Jones 5

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice . Penguin, 2008.

This page titled 4.12: MLA Documentation is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Frost & Samra et al..