MLA citation guidelines require that you provide the last name of the author and the page number you are citing. This gives the reader enough information to locate the full bibliographic information on your Works Cited page. Place parenthetical citations directly after a quoted passage. For example:
One author states that milk is "disgusting, both in theory and execution" (Smith 19).
Put books cited on your MLA-style Works Cited page in the following general format:
Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book (in italics). Place of Publication: Name of Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.
If a book has been translated, then list the name of the translator after the title.
Articles are listed in the works cited page according to what type of source they were published in. For example, the general format for listing an article published in a magazine is as follows:
Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Magazine (in italics) Day, Month, Year of Publication: Pages. Medium of Publication.
Citations for articles published in scholarly journals must include the volume number and issue number, followed by a period. It is only necessary to provide the year of publication. The proper citation for articles must contain the exact date of publication, as well as the page on which the article begins. As with the names of magazines and journals, the name of the newspaper must be italicized.
The basic Works Cited entry format for a nonperiodical web page is as follows:
Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Website (in italics). Name of Organization Affiliated with the Site, Date of Publication. Medium of Publication. Date You Accessed the Website.
If no date of publication is given, then simply list "n.d."
MLA no longer requires that you use URLs, but you may include URLs after the date of access if you want. Enclose URLs in angle brackets, for example:
Smith, George. Guide to Lactose Demonology. University of Georgia, n.d.
Web. 11 Nov. 2009. <http://www.uge.edu/lactoseno/art=727565>