Gather the bibliographic information you need to cite. While you research, when you find a point you might include in your paper note the title and author of the book, the date and place of publication, the publisher and the page number of the reference. For journal articles, include the title and volume number of the journal and the pages on which the article appeared.
Insert references into your text as your write. The MLA style uses in-text citations, meaning that citation information appears following the text that mentions it. This takes the form of the name of the author and page number. If you were citing a book written by an author named John Smith, you might write, "production declined 20 percent over the next five years (Smith 187)." If citing more than one work by the same author, use an abbreviated form of the title after the author's name.
If you have already used the author's name in the text, you can exclude it from the parenthetical reference, leaving only the page number. For instance, you might write "Smith (187) claims that production declined 20 percent over the next five years."
Create a "works cited" section for your essay. This contains full bibliographic data for each reference, allowing readers to check your work and read further. Arrange the entries alphabetically by the last name of the author. Each source type presents its information in a slightly different way; consult an MLA style guide, such as the one listed below, for details. The most common types of citations are books and journal articles.
To cite a book, list the bibliographic information as follows: Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication. The title of the book should be italicized. For instance, to revisit the Smith reference, you might write: Smith, John. Bauxite Production in Lesotho, 1990-1999. New York: Random House, 2009. Print.
In the case of a journal article, the format is: Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal Volume.Issue (Year): pages. Medium of publication. The title of the journal should be italicized. If Smith had written a journal article, the reference would be: Smith, John. "Bauxite Production in Lesotho, 1990-99." International Journal of Bauxite Studies IV.1 (2009): 129-40. Print.