How Is a Book Title Typed in an MLA Style Report?

The Modern Language Association publishes the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, a handbook for writing and bibliography. The MLA citation format is commonly used in the United States and Canada, particularly in humanities subjects such as English. The guide specifies how bibliographic information is supposed to be presented in order to make it easy for readers to retrieve it quickly. When citing a book in a report or essay, therefore, it's important to follow the style exactly.

Instructions

    • 1

      Gather bibliographic data from the book you are citing. You'll need the names of all authors or editors, the full title of the book, and the publisher, date and place of publication.

    • 2

      Begin with the name of the author. This is cited with the last name first. In the case of books with multiple authors, the first author is cited by last name and subsequent authors are cited first name first. If, for example, you were citing a book by John Smith and Jane Brown, the author citation would be "Smith, John, and Jane Brown." In the case of a book with more than three authors, the names of subsequent authors can be omitted and replaced with "et al." The name of the author or authors is followed by a period.

    • 3

      Follow the name of the author with the book's title. Include subtitles. The title should be italicized. Like the name of the author, the title is followed by a period. If the book has been translated, the name of the the translator comes after the title of the book, as "Trans." followed by the translator's name and then a period.

    • 4

      Add publication information. Begin with the place of publication. If this is in the United States, you may wish to add the two-letter state abbreviation, but it is not required. A colon comes after the location. Now add the name of the publisher, a comma, the date of publication and a period.

    • 5

      Complete your entry by adding the format information. In the case of a book, this will always be "Print."

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