In-text citation guidelines (MLA)

• Book with One Author

Format:

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date
of Publication. Format.

Citation:

Jowett, Lorna. Sex and the Slayer: A Gender Studies Primer for the Buffy
Fan. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP, 2005. Print.

• Essay from Edited Book

Format:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Essay." Title of Edited Book. Ed. Editor
First Name Last Name. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Page
Numbers of Essay. Format.

Citation:

Osgerby, Bill. "'So Who's Got Time for Adults!': Femininity, Consumption and the
Development of Teen TV - from Gidget to Buffy." Teen TV: Genre, Consumption,
Identity. Ed. Glyn Davis and Kay Dickinson. London: BFI, 2004. 71-87. Print

• Journal Articles

Format:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume Number
(Year of Publication): Page Numbers. Format.

Citation:

Magoulick, Mary. "Frustrating Female Heroism: Mixed Messages in Xena, Nikita,

and Buffy." Journal of Popular Culture 39 (2006): 729-55. Print.

• Monthly Magazine Articles

Format:

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 Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Magazine Month of
Publication (abbreviated except for May, June & July) Year of Publication: Page
Numbers. Format.

Citation:

DeCandido, Graceanne A. "Bibliographic Good vs. Evil in Buffy the Vampire

Slayer." American Libraries Sept. 1999: 44-47. Print.

• Web Sites

Format:

varies depending on type of web site, but basically...

Author's/Creator's Last Name, First Name (if given). "Title of Page." Title of Site.
Name of the creator or editor of the project or site (if available). Date of
Posting/Revision. Name of Organization or Sponsor Associated with the Site.
Format. Date Accessed

Citation:

"Buffy Slays Academics." BBC News Education. 7 Nov. 2001. BBC. Web. 8 July 2008 <
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1642829.stm>.

Quoting Plays and Poetry in MLA

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Written by Angela Eward-Mangione

Category: MLA Style
Published: 02 January 2017
Last Updated: 22 May 2018
Hits: 57908

The rules for quoting drama and/or poetry in Modern Language Association (MLA) Style differ
from those for quoting the genre of prose. This article discusses rules for using MLA style to
format quotes from drama and poetry. Consult the MLA Handbook to learn more.

Quoting Poetry

The MLA Handbook offers specific guidelines for quoting poetry.

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 Example: Many students enjoy William Yeats’s
Quoting part If it does not require special poem titled “A Prayer for My Daughter”; one of its
or all of a line emphasis, put it in quotation most tender lines appears in the second stanza: “I
of a verse marks within your text (77). have walked and prayed for this young child and
hour” (line 9).
Follow the rule for quoting one
In the first two lines of the poem “Break of Day,”
line, and use a forward slash with
Quoting two John Donne presents two questions: “’Tis true, ‘tis
a space on each side ( / ) to
or three lines day, what though it be? / O wilt thou therefore rise
indicate where the line breaks
from me?” (lines 1-2).
fall (77).
Many students find the first four lines of
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 39 puzzling:
Set these lines off from your text
Quoting more
as a block. Indent the block half Oh, how thy worth with manners may I sing
than three
an inch from the left margin. Do When thou art all the better part of me?
lines of verse
not add quotation marks. What can mine own praise to mine own self bring
And what is’t but mine own when I praise thee?
(1-4)

In addition to the amount quoted and line breaks, other factors that matter include stanza breaks,
and unusual layouts.

Special Issues: Stanza Breaks, Unusual Layouts

Stanza Breaks: Mark stanza breaks that occur in a quotation with two forward slashes, with a
space before and after them ( / / ) (78).

William Carlos Williams depicts a vivid image in “The Red Wheelbarrow”: “so much depends /
/ upon / / a red wheel / / barrow / / glazed with rain / / water / / beside the white / / chickens”
(“Williams”).

Unusual Layouts: If the layout of the lines in the original text is unusual, reproduce it as
accurately as you can (79).

The English metaphysical John Donne uses indentation in some of his poems to create unusual
layouts, as the first stanza of including “A Valediction: of Weeping” demonstrates:

Let me pour forth

My tears before they face, whilst I stay here,
For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear,
And by this mintage they are something worth,
For thus they be
Pregnant of thee;
Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more,

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When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore,
So thou and I are nothing then, when on a divers shore. (lines 1-9)

Quoting Plays

When you must quote dialogue from a play, adhere to these rules:

• Set the quotation off from your text.

• Begin each part of the dialogue with the appropriate character’s name.
o Indent each name half an inch from the left margin and write it in all capital
letters.
o Follow the name with a period and then start the quotation.
o Indent all other lines in the character’s speech an additional amount.
o When the dialogue shifts to another character, start a new line indented half an
inch.
• Maintain this pattern throughout the quotation (80).

Example:
One of the flashbacks in Margaret Edson’s Wit suggests Vivian Bearing’s illness causes her to
question some of her previous interactions with students:

STUDENT 1. Professor Bearing? Can I talk to you for a minute?

VIVIAN: You may.

STUDENT 1: I need to ask for an extension on my paper. I’m really sorry, and I know your
policy, but see—

VIVIAN: Don’t tell me. Your grandmother died.

STUDENT 1: You knew.

VIVIAN: It was a guess.

STUDENT 1: I have to go home.

VIVIAN: Do what you will, but the paper is due when it is due. (63)

Works Cited

Donne, John. “The Bait.” The Complete English Poems. Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 43-4.

---. “The Break of Day.” The Complete English Poems. Penguin Books, 1971, pp. 45-6.

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Shakespeare, William. Sonnet 39. The Pelican Shakespeare: The Sonnets. Penguin Books, 1970,
p. 59.

Williams, William Carlos: “The Red Wheelbarrow.” Poetry Foundation.

www.poetryfoundation.org/resources/learning/core-poems/detail/45502.

Yeats, William. “A Prayer for My Daughter.” The Collected Poems. Ed. Richard Finneran.
Scribner, 1983, pp. 188-190.

In-text Citations

The poet Wilson was a recluse with odd ideas (Stark 24-30).

Sheila Stark concludes through a survey of Wilson’s works and life that the poet was a recluse
with odd ideas (24-30).

These musical instruments came into vogue about the time of King Henry VI (Harvey 134). The
viola da gamba, for example, was being played in court in 1453 (140).

Shakespeare’s Richard II is full of images of the sun.

This policy, although strongly opposed by Carlson (Hindman 14-16), eventually was adopted by
the court.

In his novel Kingdom Come, Withers often uses the phrase “cold death” (68, 97, 110).

This form of poetry was most popular at court (Hall, Introduction 48).

Felltham was a fanatic about the royalist cause (Witherspoon and Warnke 317).

It is not until the middle of the novel that we meet the heroine (200; ch. 6).

The psychological aspects in Richard II become most obvious in the moving soliloquy of the
deposed and imprisoned king (5.5.1-45).

In 1850, a man who signed himself only “Tom Angry” wrote a fierce letter on the subject to the
editor of the Times (qtd. in Wallace 67).

Block Quotation

Describing the battle as he witnessed it from his bedroom window, Kendall wrote to a friend:

It was fierce and bloody. Bullets flew. Blood was everywhere. The noise was deafening.
Bodies lay on the sidewalk. (34)

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Full Citations

Fryer, Judith. The Faces of Eve: Women in the Nineteenth Century American Novel. Oxford:
Oxford UP, 1976.

Ring, Frances Kroll. “Memories of Scott.” F. Scott Fitzgerald: New Perspectives. Ed. Jackson,
Bryer, Alan Margolies, and Ruth Prigozy. Athens: U of Georgia, 2004. 18-21.

Bailey, Jennifer. “The Dangers of Femininity in Willa Cather’s Fiction.” Journal of American
Studies 16 (1982): 391-406.

Swartz, Carl. “Concept Formation and Problem Solving: Understanding and Managing Two key
Components of Higher Order Cognition.” All Kinds of Minds. 1999-2003. 28 July 2003
http://www.allkindsofminds.org/articleDisplay.