What Is the MLA Citation Format for Short Stories?

Citing in Text

• When using the MLA format to cite a short story within the text of your writing, place the title within quotation marks. As usual with MLA style, if the title appears at the end of a sentence, enclose the period within the second quotation mark.

Basic MLA Book Entry

• Knowledge of the style of a basic entry is essential to using the MLA style for referencing works cited. Other citations are variations on it. First, list the author's name, last name first with a comma after the last name and a period after the first. Second, the title of the book in italics with a period at the end. Next, the publication information, which includes the city of publication followed by a colon, the publisher's name followed by a comma, and the year of publication followed by a period. Finally, list the media form of the work cited; for example, "Print," "Film," or "Web."

Short Story in Collection by Author

• To cite a short story that is published in a collection by a single author, simply follow the basic style listed above with the following modification: insert the name of the short story in quotations, with a period after the title and before the second quotation mark, between the period after the author's name and the title of the collection.

Short Story in an Anthology

• Step 1: When citing a short story in an anthology in MLA format, list the name of the editor, compiler or translator of the collection after the period that follows the title of the anthology. Abbreviate the roles as follows: "Ed." for edited by; "Comp." for compiled by; "Trans." for translated by. List the abbreviated role first followed by the person's name, first name first, last name second. Put a period after the person's last name.
  Step 2: List the page numbers of the story cited between the period after the year of publication and the medium of the publication, with a dash between the first and last page number of the story and a period after the last page number.

A Translated Story in an Anthology with a Different Editor

• Follow the same format listed above in Section 4 except insert the name of the translator of the story between the period after the title of the story and prior to the title of the anthology. Abbreviate translated by to "Trans." and list the translator's name after it, first name first, last name last, followed by a period.