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45 MLA Style

Modern Language Association style calls for (1) brief in-text documenta-
tion and (2) complete documentation in a list of works cited at the end of
your text. The models in this chapter draw on the MLA Handbook for Writ-
ers of Research Papers, 6th edition, by Joseph Gibaldi (2003). Additional infor-
mation is available at www.mla.org.

A DIRECTORY TO MLA STYLE

MLA In-Text Documentation 381

1. Author named in a signal phrase 381
2. Author named in parentheses 382
3. Two or more works by the same author 382
4. Authors with the same last name 383
5. After a block quotation 383
6. Two or more authors 384
7. Organization or government as author 384
8. Author unknown 384
9. Literary works 385
10. Work in an anthology 386
11. Sacred text 386
12. Multivolume work 386
13. Two or more works cited together 387
14. Source quoted in another source 387

378

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15. Work without page numbers 387

16. An entire work 387

Notes 388

MLA List of Works Cited 388

BOOKS 388

1. One author 389

2. Two or more works by the same author(s) 389
3. Two authors 390
4. Three authors 390
5. Four or more authors 390
6. Organization or government as author 391
7. Anthology 391
8. Work(s) in an anthology 392
9. Author and editor 392
10. No author or editor 392
11. Translation 393
12. Foreword, introduction, preface, or afterword 393
13. Multivolume work 393
14. Book in a series 394
15. Sacred text 394
16. Edition other than the first 394
17. Republished work 394

PERIODICALS 395

18. Article in a journal paginated by volume 395

19. Article in a journal paginated by issue 396
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20. Article in a monthly magazine 396

21. Article in a weekly magazine 396
22. Article in a daily newspaper 396
23. Unsigned article 397
24. Editorial 397
25. Letter to the editor 397
26. Review 397

ELECTRONIC SOURCES 397

27. Professional Web site 398

28. Personal Web site 399
29. Home page for an academic department 399
30. Online book or part of a book 399
31. Article in an online periodical or database 399
32. Document accessed through AOL or other subscription service 400
33. Email 401
34. Posting to an electronic forum 401
35. CD-ROM 401

OTHER KINDS OF SOURCES 402

36. Advertisement 402

37. Art 403
38. Cartoon 403
39. Dissertation 403
40. Film, video, or DVD 404
41. Interview 404
42. Letter 405
43. Map 405
44. Musical composition 405

author title publication

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45. Music recording 406

46. Oral presentation 406
47. Paper from proceedings of a conference 406
48. Performance 406
49. Television or radio program 407

Sample Research Paper, MLA Style 407

MLA IN-TEXT DOCUMENTATION

Brief documentation in your text makes clear to your reader what you took
from a source and where in the source you found the information.
In your text, you have three options for citing a source: quoting,
paraphrasing, and summarizing. As you cite each source, you will need to
decide whether or not to name the author in a signal phrase — “as Toni
Morrison writes” — or in parentheses — “(Morrison 24).”
The first examples in this chapter show basic in-text citations of a
work by one author. Variations on those examples follow. All of the exam-
ples are color-coded to help you see how writers using MLA style work
authors and page numbers — and sometimes titles — into their texts. The
examples also illustrate the MLA style of using quotation marks around
titles of short works and underlining titles of long works. (Your instructor
may prefer italics to underlining; find out if you’re not sure.)

1. AUTHOR NAMED IN A SIGNAL PHRASE

If you mention the author in a signal phrase, put only the page number(s)
in parentheses. Do not write page or p.

McCullough describes John Adams as having “the hands of a man

accustomed to pruning his own trees, cutting his own hay, and splitting
his own firewood” (18).

McCullough describes John Adams’s hands as those of someone used to

manual labor (18).
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2. AUTHOR NAMED IN PARENTHESES

If you do not mention the author in a signal phrase, put his or her last
name in parentheses along with the page number(s). Do not use punctu-
ation between the name and the page number(s).

Adams is said to have had “the hands of a man accustomed to pruning

his own trees, cutting his own hay, and splitting his own firewood”
(McCullough 18).

One biographer describes John Adams as someone who was not a

stranger to manual labor (McCullough 18).

Whether you use a signal phrase and parentheses or parentheses only, try
to put the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence or as close as
possible to the material you’ve cited without awkwardly interrupting the
sentence. Notice that in the first example above, the parenthetical
reference comes after the closing quotation marks but before the period
at the end of the sentence.

3. TWO OR MORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR

If you cite multiple works by one author, you have four choices. You can
mention the author in a signal phrase and give the title and page reference
in parentheses. Give the full title if it’s brief; otherwise, give a short version.

Kaplan insists that understanding power in the Near East requires

“Western leaders who know when to intervene, and do so without
illusions” (Eastward 330).

You can mention both author and title in a signal phrase and give only
the page reference in parentheses.

In Eastward to Tartary, Kaplan insists that understanding power in the

Near East requires “Western leaders who know when to intervene, and
do so without illusions” (330).

You can indicate author, title, and page reference only in parentheses, with
a comma between author and title.

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Understanding power in the Near East requires “Western leaders who

know when to intervene, and do so without illusions” (Kaplan,
Eastward 330).

Or you can mention the title in a signal phrase and give the author and
page reference in parentheses.

Eastward to Tartary argues that understanding power in the Near East

requires “Western leaders who know when to intervene, and do so
without illusions” (Kaplan 330).

4. AUTHORS WITH THE SAME LAST NAME

If your works-cited list includes works by authors with the same last name,
you need to give the author’s first name in any signal phrase or the
author’s first initial in the parenthetical reference.

Edmund Wilson uses the broader term imaginative, whereas Anne Wilson
chooses the narrower adjective magical.

Imaginative applies not only to modern literature (E. Wilson) but also to
writing of all periods, whereas magical is often used in writing about
Arthurian romances (A. Wilson).

5. AFTER A BLOCK QUOTATION

When quoting more than three lines of poetry, more than four lines of
prose, or dialogue from a drama, set off the quotation from the rest of
your text, indenting it one inch (or ten spaces) from the left margin. Do
not use quotation marks. Place any parenthetical documentation after the
final punctuation.

In Eastward to Tartary , Kaplan captures ancient and contemporary

Antioch for us:
At the height of its glory in the Roman-Byzantine age, when
it had an amphitheater, public baths, aqueducts, and sewage
pipes, half a million people lived in Antioch. Today the
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population is only 125,000. With sour relations between Turkey

and Syria, and unstable politics throughout the Middle East,
Antioch is now a backwater — seedy and tumbledown, with
relatively few tourists. I found it altogether charming. (123)

6. TWO OR MORE AUTHORS

For a work by two or three authors, name all the authors, either in a sig-
nal phrase or in the parentheses.

Carlson and Ventura’s stated goal is to introduce Julio Cortázar, Marjorie

Agosín, and other Latin American writers to an audience of
English-speaking adolescents (v).

For a work with four or more authors, you have the option of mentioning
all their names or just the name of the first author followed by et al., which
means “and others.”

One popular survey of American literature breaks the contents into sixteen
thematic groupings (Anderson, Brinnin, Leggett, Arpin, and Toth A19-24).

One popular survey of American literature breaks the contents into

sixteen thematic groupings (Anderson et al. A19-24).

7. ORGANIZATION OR GOVERNMENT AS AUTHOR

If the author is an organization, cite the organization either in a signal

phrase or in parentheses. It’s acceptable to shorten long names.

The U.S. government can be direct when it wants to be. For example, it
sternly warns, “If you are overpaid, we will recover any payments not
due you” (Social Security Administration 12).

8. AUTHOR UNKNOWN

If you don’t know the author of a work, as you won’t with many reference
books and with most newspaper editorials, use the work’s title or a short-
ened version of the title in the parentheses.

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The explanatory notes at the front of the literature encyclopedia point

out that writers known by pseudonyms are listed alphabetically under
those pseudonyms (Merriam-Webster’s vii).

A powerful editorial in last week’s paper asserts that healthy liver donor
Mike Hurewitz died because of “frightening” faulty postoperative care
(“Every Patient’s Nightmare”).

9. LITERARY WORKS

When referring to literary works that are available in many different edi-
tions, cite the page numbers from the edition you are using, followed by
information that will let readers of any edition locate the text you are citing.

NOVELS

Give the page and chapter number.

In Pride and Prejudice, Mrs. Bennett shows no warmth toward Jane and
Elizabeth when they return from Netherfield (105; ch. 12).

VERSE PLAYS

Give the act, scene, and line numbers; separate them with periods.

Macbeth continues the vision theme when he addresses the Ghost with
“Thou hast no speculation in those eyes / Which thou dost glare with”
(3.3.96-97).

POEMS

Give the part and the line numbers (separated by periods). If a poem has
only line numbers, use the word line(s) in the first reference.

Whitman sets up not only opposing adjectives but also opposing nouns
in “Song of Myself” when he says, “I am of old and young, of the foolish
as much as the wise, / . . . a child as well as a man” (16.330-32).

One description of the mere in Beowulf is “not a pleasant place!” (line

1372). Later, the label is “the awful place” (1378).
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10. WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY

If you’re citing a work that is included in an anthology, name the author(s)

of the work, not the editor of the anthology — either in a signal phrase or
in parentheses.

“It is the teapots that truly shock,” according to Cynthia Ozick in her
essay on teapots as metaphor (70).

In In Short: A Collection of Creative Nonfiction, readers will find both

an essay on Scottish tea (Hiestand) and a piece on teapots as metaphors
(Ozick).

11. SACRED TEXT

When citing sacred texts such as the Bible or the Qur’an, give the title of
the edition used, and in parentheses give the book, chapter, and verse (or
their equivalent), separated by periods. MLA style recommends that you
abbreviate the names of the books of the Bible in parenthetical references.

The wording from The New English Bible follows: “In the beginning of
creation, when God made heaven and earth, the earth was without form
and void, with darkness over the face of the abyss, and a mighty wind
that swept over the surface of the waters” (Gen. 1.1-2).

12. MULTIVOLUME WORK

If you cite more than one volume of a multivolume work, each time you
cite one of the volumes, give the volume and the page numbers in paren-
theses, separated by a colon.

Sandburg concludes with the following sentence about those paying last
respects to Lincoln: “All day long and through the night the unbroken
line moved, the home town having its farewell” (4: 413).

If your works-cited list includes only a single volume of a multivolume

work, the only number you need to give in your parenthetical reference
is the page number.

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13. TWO OR MORE WORKS CITED TOGETHER

If you’re citing two or more works closely together, you will sometimes
need to provide a parenthetical citation for each one.

Tanner (7) and Smith (viii) have looked at works from a cultural
perspective.

If the citation allows you to include both in the same parentheses, sepa-
rate the references with a semicolon.

Critics have looked at both Pride and Prejudice and Frankenstein from
a cultural perspective (Tanner 7; Smith viii).

14. SOURCE QUOTED IN ANOTHER SOURCE

When you are quoting text that you found quoted in another source, use
the abbreviation qtd. in in the parenthetical reference.

Charlotte Brontë wrote to G. H. Lewes: “Why do you like Miss Austen so

very much? I am puzzled on that point” (qtd. in Tanner 7).

15. WORK WITHOUT PAGE NUMBERS

For works without page numbers, give paragraph or section numbers,

using the abbreviation par. or sec. If you are including the author’s name
in the parenthetical reference, add a comma.

Russell’s dismissals from Trinity College at Cambridge and from City

College in New York City are seen as examples of the controversy that
marked the philosopher’s life (Irvine, par. 2).

16. AN ENTIRE WORK

If your text is referring to an entire work rather than a part of it, identify
the author in a signal phrase or in parentheses. There’s no need to include
page numbers.

Kaplan considers Turkey and Central Asia explosive.

At least one observer considers Turkey and Central Asia explosive (Kaplan).
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388 DOING RESEARCH

NOTES

Sometimes you may need to give information that doesn’t fit into the text
itself — to thank people who helped you, provide additional details, or refer
readers to other sources not cited in your text. Such information can be
given in a footnote (at the bottom of the page) or an endnote (on a separate
page with the heading Notes just before your works-cited list. Put a super-
script number at the appropriate point in your text, signaling to readers
to look for the note with the corresponding number. If you have multiple
notes, number them consecutively throughout your paper.
TEXT

This essay will argue that small liberal arts colleges should not recruit
athletes and, more specifically, that giving student athletes preferential
treatment undermines the larger educational goals.1
NOTE

1I want to thank all those who have contributed to my thinking on

this topic, especially my classmates and my teachers Marian Johnson and
Diane O’Connor.

MLA LIST OF WORKS CITED

A works-cited list provides full bibliographic information for every source

cited in your text. The list should be alphabetized by authors’ last names
(or sometimes by editors’ or translators’ names). Works that do not have
an identifiable author or editor are alphabetized by title. See pages 415–16
for a sample works-cited list.

Books

BASIC FORMAT FOR A BOOK

For most books, you’ll need to provide information about the author; the
title and any subtitle; and the place of publication, publisher, and date.
You’ll find this information on the book’s title page and copyright page.

author title publication

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Greenblatt, Stephen. Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became

Shakespeare. New York: Norton, 2004.

A FEW DETAILS TO NOTE

• TITLES:capitalize the first and last words of titles, subtitles, and all
principal words. Do not capitalize a, an, the, to, or any prepositions or
coordinating conjunctions unless they begin a title or subtitle.
• PLACE OF PUBLICATION: If more than one city is given, use only the first.
• PUBLISHER:Use a shortened form of the publisher’s name (Norton for
W. W. Norton & Company, Princeton UP for Princeton University Press).
• DATES: If more than one year is given, use the most recent one.

1. ONE AUTHOR

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of
publication.

Miller, Susan. Assuming the Positions: Cultural Pedagogy and the Politics
of Commonplace Writing. Pittsburgh: U of Pittsburgh P, 1998.

When the title of a book itself contains the title of another book (or other
long work), do not underline that title.

Walker, Roy. Time Is Free: A Study of Macbeth. London: Dakers, 1949.

Include the author’s middle name or initials. When the title of a book con-
tains the title of a short work, the title of the short work should be enclosed
in quotation marks, and the entire title should be underlined.

Thompson, Lawrance Roger. “Fire and Ice”: The Art and Thought of
Robert Frost. New York: Holt, 1942.

2. TWO OR MORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR(S)

Give the author’s name in the first entry, and then use three hyphens in
the author slot for each of the subsequent works, listing them alphabeti-
cally by the first important word of each title (see page 390).
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Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title That Comes First Alphabetically.
Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

---. Title That Comes Next Alphabetically. Publication City: Publisher, Year
of publication.

Kaplan, Robert D. The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the

Post Cold War. New York: Random, 2000.

---. Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the
Caucasus. New York: Random, 2000.

3. TWO AUTHORS

First Author’s Last Name, First Name, and Second Author’s First and Last
Names. Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Malless, Stanley, and Jeffrey McQuain. Coined by God: Words and

Phrases That First Appear in the English Translations of the Bible.
New York: Norton, 2003.

4. THREE AUTHORS

First Author’s Last Name, First Name, Second Author’s First and Last
Names, and Third Author’s First and Last Names. Title. Publication
City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Sebranek, Patrick, Verne Meyer, and Dave Kemper. Writers INC: A Guide
to Writing, Thinking, and Learning. Burlington: Write Source, 1990.

5. FOUR OR MORE AUTHORS

You may give each author’s name or the name of the first author only,
followed by et al., Latin for “and others.”

First Author’s Last Name, First Name, Second Author’s First and Last
Names, Third Author’s First and Last Names, and Final Author’s First
and Last Names. Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

author title publication

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Anderson, Robert, John Malcolm Brinnin, John Leggett, Gary Q. Arpin,

and Susan Allen Toth. Elements of Literature: Literature of the
United States. Austin: Holt, 1993.

First Author’s Last Name, First Name, et al. Title. Publication City:
Publisher, Year of publication.

Anderson, Robert, et al. Elements of Literature: Literature of the United

States. Austin: Holt, 1993.

6. ORGANIZATION OR GOVERNMENT AS AUTHOR

Sometimes the author is a corporation or government organization.

Organization Name. Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of

publication.

Diagram Group. The Macmillan Visual Desk Reference. New York:

Macmillan, 1993.

National Assessment of Educational Progress. The Civics Report Card.

Princeton: ETS, 1990.

7. ANTHOLOGY

Editor’s Last Name, First Name, ed. Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year
of publication.

Hall, Donald, ed. The Oxford Book of Children’s Verse in America. New
York: Oxford UP, 1985.

If there is more than one editor, list the first editor last-name-first and
the others first-name-first.

Kitchen, Judith, and Mary Paumier Jones, eds. In Short: A Collection of

Brief Creative Nonfiction. New York: Norton, 1996.
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8. WORK(S) IN AN ANTHOLOGY

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Work.” Title of Anthology.

Ed. Editor’s First and Last Names. Publication City: Publisher, Year of
publication. Pages.

Achebe, Chinua. “Uncle Ben’s Choice.” The Seagull Reader: Literature.

Ed. Joseph Kelly. New York: Norton, 2005. 23-27.

To document two or more selections from one anthology, list each selec-
tion by author and title, followed by a cross-reference to the anthology. In
addition, include on your works-cited list an entry for the anthology itself
(see no. 7 on page 391).

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Work.” Anthology Editor’s Last
Name. Pages.

Hiestand, Emily. “Afternoon Tea.” Kitchen and Jones. 65-67.

Ozick, Cynthia. “The Shock of Teapots.” Kitchen and Jones. 68-71.

9. AUTHOR AND EDITOR

Start with the author if you’ve cited the text itself.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Ed. Editor’s First and Last Names.
Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Austen, Jane. Emma. Ed. Stephen M. Parrish. New York: Norton, 2000.

Start with the editor if you’ve cited his or her work.

Editor’s Last Name, First Name, ed. Title. By Author’s First and Last Names.
Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Parrish, Stephen M., ed. Emma. By Jane Austen. New York: Norton, 2000.

10. NO AUTHOR OR EDITOR

Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

2004 New York City Restaurants. New York: Zagat, 2003.

author title publication

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11. TRANSLATION

Start with the author to emphasize the work itself.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Trans. Translator’s First and Last
Names. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and Punishment. Trans. Richard Pevear and

Larissa Volokhonsky. New York: Vintage, 1993.

Start with the translator to emphasize the translation.

Translator’s Last Name, First Name, trans. Title. By Author’s First and Last
Names. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Pevear, Richard, and Larissa Volokhonsky, trans. Crime and Punishment.

By Fyodor Dostoevsky. New York: Vintage, 1993.

12. FOREWORD, INTRODUCTION, PREFACE, OR AFTERWORD

Part Author’s Last Name, First Name. Name of Part. Title of Book.
By Author’s First and Last Names. Publication City: Publisher, Year
of publication. Pages.

Tanner, Tony. Introduction. Pride and Prejudice. By Jane Austen.

London: Penguin, 1972. 7-46.

13. MULTIVOLUME WORK

If you cite all the volumes of a multivolume work, give the number of vol-
umes after the title.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Complete Work. Number of vols.
Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. 4 vols. New York:
Harcourt, 1939.

If you cite only one volume, give the volume number after the title.

Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. Vol. 2. New York:
Harcourt, 1939.
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14. BOOK IN A SERIES

Editor’s Last Name, First Name, ed. Title of Book. By Author’s First and
Last Names. Series Title abbreviated. Publication City: Publisher, Year
of publication.

Hunter, J. Paul, ed. Frankenstein. By Mary Shelley. Norton Critical Ed.

New York: Norton, 1996.

15. SACRED TEXT

If you have cited a specific edition of a religious text, you need to include
it in your works-cited list.

Title. Editor’s First and Last Names, ed. (if any) Publication City:
Publisher, Year of publication.

The New English Bible with the Apocrypha. New York: Oxford UP, 1971.

The Torah: A Modern Commentary. W. Gunther Plaut, ed. New York:

Union of American Hebrew Congregations, 1981.

16. EDITION OTHER THAN THE FIRST

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Name or number of ed. Publication
City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed.
New York: MLA, 2003.

Hirsch, E. D., Jr., ed. What Your Second Grader Needs to Know:
Fundamentals of a Good Second-Grade Education. Rev. ed. New
York: Doubleday, 1998.

17. REPUBLISHED WORK

Give the original publication date after the title, followed by the publica-
tion information of the republished edition.

author title publication

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Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Year of original edition.

Publication City: Current Publisher, Year of republication.

Bierce, Ambrose. Civil War Stories. 1909. New York: Dover, 1994.

Periodicals

BASIC FORMAT FOR AN ARTICLE

For most articles, you’ll need to provide information about the author, the
article title and any subtitle, the periodical title, any volume or issue num-
ber, the date, and inclusive page numbers.

Weinberger, Jerry. “Pious Princes and Red-Hot Lovers: The Politics of

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.” Journal of Politics 65 (2003): 370-75.

A FEW DETAILS TO NOTE

• AUTHORS: If there is more than one author, list the first author last-
name-first and the others first-name-first.
• TITLES: Capitalize the first and last words of titles and subtitles and
all principal words. Do not capitalize a, an, the, to, or any prepositions
or coordinating conjunctions unless they begin a title or subtitle. For
periodical titles, omit any initial A, An, or The.
• DATES: Abbreviate the names of months except for May, June, or July:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Journals paginated
by volume or issue call only for the year (in parentheses).
• PAGES:If an article does not fall on consecutive pages, give the first
page with a plus sign (55
).

18. ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL PAGINATED BY VOLUME

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal

Volume (Year): Pages.

Bartley, William. “Imagining the Future in The Awakening.” College

English 62 (2000): 719-46.
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19. ARTICLE IN A JOURNAL PAGINATED BY ISSUE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal

Volume.Issue (Year): Pages.

Weaver, Constance, Carol McNally, and Sharon Moerman. “To

Grammar or Not to Grammar: That Is Not the Question!” Voices
from the Middle 8.3 (2001): 17-33.

20. ARTICLE IN A MONTHLY MAGAZINE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine

Month Year: Pages.

Fellman, Bruce. “Leading the Libraries.” Yale Alumni Magazine

Feb. 2002: 26-31.

21. ARTICLE IN A WEEKLY MAGAZINE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine

Day Month Year: Pages.

Cloud, John. “Should SATs Matter?” Time 12 Mar. 2001: 62
.

22. ARTICLE IN A DAILY NEWSPAPER

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Name of Newspaper

Day Month Year: Pages.

Springer, Shira. “Celtics Reserves Are Whizzes vs. Wizards.” Boston Globe
14 Mar. 2005: D4
.

If you are documenting a particular edition of a newspaper (indicated on

the front page), specify the edition (late ed., natl. ed., etc.) in between the
date and the section and page reference.

Margulius, David L. “Smarter Call Centers: At Your Service?” New York

Times 14 Mar. 2002, late ed.: G1
.

author title publication

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23. UNSIGNED ARTICLE

“Title of Article.” Name of Publication Day Month Year: Page(s).

“Laura Bush Ponders Trip to Afghanistan.” New York Times 2 Dec. 2003:
A22.

24. EDITORIAL

“Title.” Editorial. Name of Publication Day Month Year: Page.

“Gas, Cigarettes Are Safe to Tax.” Editorial. Lakeville Journal 17 Feb.

2005: A10.

25. LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title (if any).” Letter. Name of
Publication Day Month Year: Page.

Festa, Roger. “Social Security: Another Phony Crisis.” Letter. Lakeville

Journal 17 Feb. 2005: A10.

26. REVIEW

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title (if any) of Review.” Rev. of Title
of Work, by Author’s First and Last Names. Title of Periodical Day
Month Year: Pages.

Lahr, John. “Night for Day.” Rev. of The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. New
Yorker 18 Mar. 2002: 149-51.

Electronic Sources

BASIC FORMAT FOR AN ELECTRONIC SOURCE

Not every electronic source gives you all the data that MLA would like to
see in a works-cited entry. Ideally, you will be able to list the author’s
name, the title, any information about print publication, information about
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 398

398 DOING RESEARCH

electronic publication (title of site, editor, date of first electronic publica-

tion and / or most recent revision, name of the sponsoring institution), date
of access, and URL. Of those nine pieces of information, you will find seven
in the following example.

Johnson, Charles W. “How Our Laws Are Made.” Thomas: Legislative

Information on the Internet 31 Jan. 2000. Lib. of Congress. 5 Apr.
2005 <http://thomas.loc.gov/home/holam.txt>.

A FEW DETAILS TO NOTE

• AUTHORS: If there is more than one author, list the first author last-
name-first and the others first-name-first.
• TITLES:Capitalize the first and last words of titles and subtitles, and all
principal words. Do not capitalize a, an, the, to, or any prepositions or
coordinating conjunctions unless they begin a title or subtitle. For peri-
odical titles, omit any initial A, An, or The.
• DATES: Abbreviate the names of months except for May, June, or July:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Although MLA asks for
the date when materials were first posted or most recently updated,
you won’t always be able to find that information. You’ll also find that
it will vary — you may find only the year, not the day and month. The
date you must include is the date on which you accessed the electronic
source.
• URL: Give the address of the Web site in angle brackets. When a URL
will not fit on one line, break it only after a slash (and do not add a
hyphen). If a URL is very long, consider giving the URL of the site’s home
page or search page instead. Also keep in mind that if you are access-
ing an online source through a library’s subscription to a database
provider (such as EBSCO), you may not see the URL itself. In that case,
end your documentation with a period after your access date.

27. PROFESSIONAL WEB SITE

Title of Site. Ed. Editor’s First and Last Names. Date posted or last
updated. Sponsoring Institution. Day Month Year of access <URL>.

author title publication

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 399

45 / MLA Style 399

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Ed. Edward N. Zalta. 2003.

Metaphysics Research Lab, Center for the Study of Language and
Information, Stanford U. 25 July 2004 <http://plato.stanford.edu>.

28. PERSONAL WEB SITE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Home page. Date posted or last
updated. Day Month Year of access <URL>.

Chomsky, Noam. Home page. 25 July 2004 <http://web.mit.edu/

linguistics/www.chomsky.home.html>.

29. HOME PAGE FOR AN ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT

Academic Department. Dept. home page. School. Day Month Year of

access <URL>.

English Language and Literatures. Dept. home page. Wright State U

College of Liberal Arts. 12 Mar. 2003 <http://www.cola.wright.edu/
Dept/ENG/Index.htm>.

30. ONLINE BOOK OR PART OF A BOOK

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Short Work.” Title of

Long Work. Original year of publication. Database. Date of
electronic publication. Day Month Year of access <URL>.

Anderson, Sherwood. “The Philosopher.” Winesburg, Ohio. 1919.

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online. 1999. 7 Apr. 2002 <http://
www.bartleby.com/156/5.html>.

31. ARTICLE IN AN ONLINE PERIODICAL OR DATABASE

If a source does not number pages or paragraphs, follow the year with a
period instead of a colon. Some periodicals have dates; others have volume
and issue numbers instead—volume 10, issue 3 should be listed as 10.3, fol-
lowed by the year (in parentheses). See the next page for examples.
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400 DOING RESEARCH

FROM A PERIODICAL’S WEB SITE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical

Date or Volume.Issue (Year): Pages or pars. Day Month Year of
access <URL>.

Landsburg, Steven E. “Putting All Your Potatoes in One Basket:

The Economic Lessons of the Great Famine.” Slate 13 Mar.
2001. 15 Mar. 2001 <http://slate.msn.com/Economics/01-03-13/
Economics.asp>.

FROM A DATABASE PROVIDER

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical Date
or Volume.Issue (Year): Pages or pars. Database. Database provider.
Library. Day Month Year of access <URL>.

Bowman, James. “Moody Blues.” American Spectator June 1999: 64-65.

Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Paul Laurence Dunbar Lib., Wright
State U. 15 Mar. 2005 <http://epnet.com>.

32. DOCUMENT ACCESSED THROUGH AOL OR OTHER SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE

Note the keyword you used or the path you followed.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Document.” Title of Longer

Work. Date of work. Service. Day Month Year of access.
Keyword: Word.

Stewart, Garrett. “Bloomsbury.” World Book Online. 2003. America

Online. 13 Mar. 2003. Keyword: Worldbook.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Document.” Title of Longer

Work. Date of work. Service. Day Month Year of access. Path:
Sequence of Topics.

author title publication

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 401

45 / MLA Style 401

Hamashige, Hope. “New Pope’s Election to Be Shrouded in Ritual,

Secrecy.” National Geographic News. 1 Apr. 2005. America Online.
25 Apr. 2005. Path: Research and Learning; History; History of Pope
Selection.

33. EMAIL

Writer’s Last Name, First Name. “Subject Line.” Email to the author. Day
Month Year of message.

Smith, William. “Teaching Grammar — Some Thoughts.” Email to the

author. 19 Nov. 2004.

34. POSTING TO AN ELECTRONIC FORUM

Writer’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Posting.” Online posting.

Day Month Year of posting. Name of Forum. Day Month Year
of access <URL>.

Schafer, Judith Kelleher. “Re: Manumission.” Online posting. 27 Jan.

2004. H-Net List on Slavery. 29 Jan. 2004 <http://h-net.msu.edu/
cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trxlm&listH-Slavery>.

35. CD-ROM

FOR A SINGLE-ISSUE CD-ROM

Title. CD-ROM. Any pertinent information about the edition, release, or

version. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Othello. CD-ROM. Princeton: Films for the Humanities and Sciences, 1998.

If you are citing only part of the CD-ROM, name the part as you would a
part of a book.

“Snow Leopard.” Encarta Encyclopedia 1999. CD-ROM. Seattle: Microsoft,

1998.
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 402

402 DOING RESEARCH

FOR A PERIODICAL ON A CD-ROM

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical.

Date or Volume.Issue (Year): Page. Database. CD-ROM. Database
provider. Month Year of CD-ROM.

Hwang, Suein L. “While Many Competitors See Sales Melt, Ben &
Jerry’s Scoops Out Solid Growth.” Wall Street Journal. 25 May 1993:
B1. ABI-INFORM. CD-ROM. Proquest. June 1993.

Other Kinds of Sources

This section shows how to prepare works-cited entries for categories other
than books, periodicals, and writing found on the Web and CD-ROMs. The
categories are in alphabetical order. Two of them — art and cartoon — cover
works that do not originate on the Web but make their way there. From
these examples, you can figure out a documentation style for any texts
that you may come across on the Web.

A FEW DETAILS TO NOTE

• AUTHORS: If there is more than one author, list the first author last-
name-first and the others first-name-first. Do likewise if you begin an
entry with performers, speakers, and so on.
• TITLES: Capitalize the first and last words of titles and subtitles, and
all principal words. Do not capitalize a, an, the, to, or any prepositions
or coordinating conjunctions unless they begin a title or subtitle. For
periodical titles, omit any initial A, An, or The.
• DATES: Abbreviate the names of months except for May, June, or July:
Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. Journals paginated
by volume or issue need only the year (in parentheses).

36. ADVERTISEMENT

Product or Company. Advertisement. Title of Periodical Date or

Volume.Issue (Year): Page.

Empire BlueCross BlueShield. Advertisement. Fortune 8 Dec. 2003: 208.

author title publication

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 403

45 / MLA Style 403

37. ART

Artist’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Art. Year. Institution, City.

Van Gogh, Vincent. The Potato Eaters. 1885. Van Gogh Museum,
Amsterdam.

ART ON THE WEB

Warhol, Andy. Self-Portrait. 1979. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

29 Mar. 2005 <http://getty.edu/art/collections/objects/oll4421.html>.

38. CARTOON

Artist’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Cartoon (if titled).” Cartoon. Title
of Periodical Date or Volume.Issue (Year): Page.

Chast, Roz. “The Three Wise Men of Thanksgiving.” Cartoon. New Yorker
1 Dec. 2003: 174.

CARTOON ON THE WEB

Fairrington, Brian. Cartoon. Arizona Republic 6 Apr. 2002. 7 Apr. 2002

<http://cagle.slate.msn.com/politicalcartoons/pccartoons/archives/
fairrington.asp???ActionGet!>.

39. DISSERTATION

Treat a published dissertation as you would a book, but after its title, add
the abbreviation Diss., the name of the institution, and the date of the dis-
sertation. If the dissertation is published by University Microfilms Inter-
national (UMI), include the order number, as in the example below.

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title. Diss. Institution, Year.

Publication City: Publisher, Year.

Goggin, Peter N. A New Literacy Map of Research and Scholarship in

Computers and Writing. Diss. Indiana U of Pennsylvania, 2000. Ann
Arbor: UMI, 2001. 9985587.
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 404

404 DOING RESEARCH

For unpublished dissertations, put the title in quotation marks and end
with the degree-granting institution and the year.

Kim, Loel. “Students Respond to Teacher Comments: A Comparison of

Online Written and Voice Modalities.” Diss. Carnegie Mellon U, 1998.

40. FILM, VIDEO, OR DVD

Title. Dir. Director’s First and Last Names. Perf. Lead Actors’ First and Last
Names. Distributor, Year of release.

Casablanca. Dir. Michael Curtiz. Perf. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman,

and Claude Rains. Warner, 1942.

If it’s a video or DVD, give that information before the name of the
distributor.

Easter Parade. Dir. Charles Walters. Perf. Judy Garland and Fred Astaire.
DVD. MGM, 1948.

41. INTERVIEW

BROADCAST INTERVIEW

Subject’s Last Name, First Name. Interview. Title of Program. Network.

Station, City. Day Month Year.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Interview. Fresh Air. NPR. WNYC, New York.
9 Apr. 2002.

PUBLISHED INTERVIEW

Subject’s Last Name, First Name. Interview. or “Title of Interview.” Title

of Periodical Date or Volume.Issue (Year): Pages.

Brzezinski, Zbigniew. “Against the Neocons.” American Prospect Mar.

2005: 26-27.

Stone, Oliver. Interview. Esquire Nov. 2004: 170.

author title publication

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 405

45 / MLA Style 405

PERSONAL INTERVIEW

Subject’s Last Name, First Name. Personal interview. Day Month Year.

Berra, Yogi. Personal interview. 17 June 2001.

42. LETTER

UNPUBLISHED LETTER

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Letter to the author. Day Month Year.

Quindlen, Anna. Letter to the author. 11 Apr. 2002.

PUBLISHED LETTER

Letter Writer’s Last Name, First Name. Letter to First and Last Names.
Day Month Year of letter. Title of Book. Ed. Editor’s First and
Last Names. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication. Pages.

White, E. B. Letter to Carol Angell. 28 May 1970. Letters of E. B. White.

Ed. Dorothy Lobarno Guth. New York: Harper, 1976. 600.

43. MAP

Title of Map. Map. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

Toscana. Map. Milan: Touring Club Italiano, 1987.

44. MUSICAL COMPOSITION

Composer’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Short Composition.” or Title

of Long Composition. Year of composition (optional).

Ellington, Duke. “Mood Indigo.” 1931.

If you are identifying a composition by form, number, key, and opus, do

not underline that information or enclose it in quotation marks.

Beethoven, Ludwig van. String quartet no. 13 in B flat, op. 130. 1825.
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 406

406 DOING RESEARCH

45. MUSIC RECORDING

Artist’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Long Work. Other pertinent
details about the artists. Manufacturer, Year of release.

Beethoven, Ludwig van. Missa Solemnis. Perf. Westminster Choir and

New York Philharmonic. Cond. Leonard Bernstein. Sony, 1992.

Whether you list the composer, conductor, or performer first depends on

where you want to place the emphasis. If you are citing a specific song,
put it in quotation marks before the name of the recording, which should
be underlined.

Brown, Greg. “Canned Goods.” The Live One. Red House, 1995.

46. ORAL PRESENTATION

Speaker’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Lecture.” Sponsoring

Institution. Site, City. Day Month Year.

Cassin, Michael. “Nature in the Raw—The Art of Landscape Painting.”

Berkshire Institute for Lifetime Learning. Clark Art Institute,
Williamstown. 24 Mar. 2005.

47. PAPER FROM PROCEEDINGS OF A CONFERENCE

Author’s Last Name, First Name. “Title of Paper.” Title of Conference

Proceedings. Date, City. Ed. Editor’s First and Last Names.
Publication City: Publisher, Year. Pages.

Zolotow, Charlotte. “Passion in Publishing.” A Sea of Upturned Faces:

Proceedings of the Third Pacific Rim Conference on Children’s
Literature. 1986, Los Angeles. Ed. Winifred Ragsdale. Metuchen:
Scarecrow P, 1989. 236-49.

48. PERFORMANCE

Title. By Author’s First and Last Names. Other appropriate details about
the performance. Site, City. Day Month Year.

author title publication

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 407

45 / MLA Style 407

Medea. By Euripedes. Dir. Jonathan Kent. Perf. Diana Rigg. Longacre

Theatre, New Haven. 10 Apr. 1994.

49. TELEVISION OR RADIO PROGRAM

“Title of Episode.” Title of Program. Other appropriate information

about the writer, director, actors, etc. Network. Station, City.
Day Month Year of broadcast.

“Stirred.” The West Wing. Writ. Aaron Sorkin. Dir. Jeremy Kagan. Perf.
Martin Sheen. NBC. WPTV, West Palm Beach. 3 Apr. 2002.

SAMPLE RESEARCH PAPER, MLA STYLE

Dylan Borchers wrote the following essay, which reports information, for
a first-year writing course. It is formatted according to the guidelines of
the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition (2003). While
the MLA guidelines are used widely in literature and other disciplines in
the humanities, exact documentation requirements may vary from disci-
pline to discipline and course to course. If you’re unsure about what your
instructor wants, ask for clarification.
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 408

408 DOING RESEARCH

1
"
2
1" • Borchers 1
Put your last
name and the
Dylan Borchers
•
page number in
the upper-right Professor Bullock
corner of each
page. English 102, Section 4

20 January 2004
Center the title. • Against the Odds:
Harry S. Truman and the Election of 1948
Double-space
throughout.
• “Thomas E. Dewey’s Election as President Is a Foregone

Conclusion,” read a headline in the New York Times during the

presidential election race between incumbent Democrat Harry S.

Truman and his Republican challenger, Thomas E. Dewey. Earlier,

Life magazine had put Dewey on its cover with the caption “The

Next President of the United States” (qtd. in “1948 Truman-Dewey

Election”). In a Newsweek survey of fifty prominent political writers,

each one predicted Truman’s defeat, and Time correspondents

1" • • 1"
declared that Dewey would carry 39 of the 48 states (Donaldson

210). Nearly every major media outlet across the United States

endorsed Dewey and lambasted Truman. As historian Robert H.

If you name the • Ferrell observes, even Truman’s wife, Bess, thought he would be
author of a
source in a signal beaten (270).
phrase, give the
page numbers in The results of an election are not so easily predicted, as the
parentheses.
famous photograph on page 2 shows. Not only did Truman win the

election, but he won by a significant margin, with 303 electoral

votes and 24,179,259 popular votes, compared to Dewey’s 189

electoral votes and 21,991,291 popular votes (Donaldson 204-07). In

fact, many historians and political analysts argue that Truman

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 409

45 / MLA Style 409

Borchers 2

Fig. 1. President Harry S. Truman holds up an Election Day edition • Insert illustra-
tions close to the
of the Chicago Daily Tribune, which mistakenly announced “Dewey text to which
they relate. Label
Defeats Truman.” St. Louis, 4 Nov. 1948 (Rollins). with figure num-
ber, caption, and
parenthetical
source citation.
would have won by an even greater margin had third-party

Progressive candidate Henry A. Wallace not split the Democratic

vote in New York State and Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond not won

four states in the South (McCullough 711). Although Truman’s

defeat was heavily predicted, those predictions themselves,

Dewey’s passiveness as a campaigner, and Truman’s zeal turned

the tide for a Truman victory.

In the months preceding the election, public opinion polls • Indent para-
graphs 12 -inch or
predicted that Dewey would win by a large margin. Pollster Elmo 5 spaces.

Roper stopped polling in September, believing there was no reason

to continue, given a seemingly inevitable Dewey landslide.

Although the margin narrowed as the election drew near, the other
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 410

410 DOING RESEARCH

Borchers 3
Give the author • pollsters predicted a Dewey win by at least 5 percent (Donaldson
and page num-
bers in parenthe- 209). Many historians believe that these predictions aided the
ses when no
signal phrase is president in the long run. First, surveys showing Dewey in the lead
used.
may have prompted some of Dewey’s supporters to feel

overconfident about their candidate’s chances and therefore to stay

home from the polls on Election Day. Second, these same surveys

may have energized Democrats to mount late get-out-the-vote

efforts (“1948 Truman-Dewey Election”). Other analysts believe that

the overwhelming predictions of a Truman loss also kept at home

some Democrats who approved of Truman’s policies but saw a

Truman loss as inevitable. According to political analyst Samuel

Lubell, those Democrats may have saved Dewey from an even greater

defeat (Hamby, Man of the People 465). Whatever the impact on the

voters, the polling numbers had a decided effect on Dewey.

Historians and political analysts alike cite Dewey’s overly

cautious campaign as one of the main reasons Truman was able to

achieve victory. Dewey firmly believed in public opinion polls. With

all indications pointing to an easy victory, Dewey and his staff

believed that all he had to do was bide his time and make no foolish

mistakes. Dewey himself said, “When you’re leading, don’t talk”

If you quote text • (qtd. in McCullough 672). Each of Dewey’s speeches was well-crafted
quoted in
another source, and well-rehearsed. As the leader in the race, he kept his remarks
cite that source
in a parentheti- faultlessly positive, with the result that he failed to deliver a solid
cal reference.
message or even mention Truman or any of Truman’s policies.

Eventually, Dewey began to be perceived as aloof and stuffy. One

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 411

45 / MLA Style 411

Borchers 4
observer compared him to the plastic groom on top of a wedding

cake (Hamby, “Harry S. Truman”), and others noted his stiff, cold • If you cite two or
more works
demeanor (McCullough 671-74). closely together,
provide a paren-
As his campaign continued, observers noted that Dewey thetical citation
for each one.
seemed uncomfortable in crowds, unable to connect with ordinary

people. And he made a number of blunders. One took place at a

train stop when the candidate, commenting on the number of

children in the crowd, said he was glad they had been let out of

school for his arrival. Unfortunately for Dewey, it was a Saturday

(“1948: The Great Truman Surprise”). Such gaffes gave voters the

feeling that Dewey was out of touch with the public.

Again and again through the autumn of 1948, Dewey’s

campaign speeches failed to address the issues, with the candidate

declaring that he did not want to “get down in the gutter” (qtd. in

McCullough 701). When told by fellow Republicans that he was

losing ground, Dewey insisted that his campaign not alter its

course. Even Time magazine, though it endorsed and praised him,

conceded that his speeches were dull (McCullough 696). According

to historian Zachary Karabell, they were “notable only for taking

place, not for any specific message” (244). Dewey’s numbers in the

polls slipped in the weeks before the election, but he still held a

comfortable lead over Truman. It would take Truman’s famous

whistle-stop campaign to make the difference.

Few candidates in U.S. history have campaigned for the

presidency with more passion and faith than Harry Truman. In the
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 412

412 DOING RESEARCH

Borchers 5
autumn of 1948, he wrote to his sister, “It will be the greatest

campaign any President ever made. Win, lose, or draw, people will

know where I stand” (91). For thirty-three days, Truman traveled

the nation, giving hundreds of speeches from the back of the

Ferdinand Magellan railroad car. In the same letter, he described

the pace: “We made about 140 stops and I spoke over 147 times,

shook hands with at least 30,000 and am in good condition to start

out again tomorrow for Wilmington, Philadelphia, Jersey City,

Newark, Albany and Buffalo” (91). McCullough writes of Truman’s

campaign:

No President in history had ever gone so far in quest

Set off quota- • of support from the people, or with less cause for the
tions of four or
more lines by effort, to judge by informed opinion. . . . As a test of his
indenting 1 inch
(or 10 spaces). skills and judgment as a professional politician, not to say

his stamina and disposition at age sixty-four, it would be

like no other experience in his long, often difficult career,

as he himself understood perfectly. More than any other

event in his public life, or in his presidency thus far, it

Put parenthetical • would reveal the kind of man he was. (655)

references after
final punctuation He spoke in large cities and small towns, defending his
in block quota-
tions. policies and attacking Republicans. As a former farmer and

relatively late bloomer, Truman was able to connect with the public.

He developed an energetic style, usually speaking from notes rather

than from a prepared speech, and often mingled with the crowds

that met his train. These crowds grew larger as the campaign
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 413

45 / MLA Style 413

Borchers 6
progressed. In Chicago, over half a million people lined the streets

as he passed, and in St. Paul the crowd numbered over 25,000.

When Dewey entered St. Paul two days later, he was greeted by only

7,000 supporters (“1948 Truman-Dewey Election”). Reporters • If you cite a

work with no
brushed off the large crowds as mere curiosity seekers wanting to known author,
use the title in
see a president (McCullough 682). Yet Truman persisted, even if he your parentheti-
cal reference.
often seemed to be the only one who thought he could win. By

going directly to the American people and connecting with them,

Truman built the momentum needed to surpass Dewey and win the

election.

The legacy and lessons of Truman’s whistle-stop campaign

continue to be studied by political analysts, and politicians today

often mimic his campaign methods by scheduling multiple visits to

key states, as Truman did. He visited California, Illinois, and Ohio 48

times, compared with 6 visits to those states by Dewey. Political

scientist Thomas M. Holbrook concludes that his strategic

campaigning in those states and others gave Truman the electoral

votes he needed to win (61, 65).

The 1948 election also had an effect on pollsters, who, as Elmo

Roper admitted, “couldn’t have been more wrong” (qtd. in Karabell

255). Life magazine’s editors concluded that pollsters as well as

reporters and commentators were too convinced of a Dewey victory

to analyze the polls seriously, especially the opinions of undecided

voters (Karabell 256). Pollsters assumed that undecided voters

would vote in the same proportion as decided voters -- and that

5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 414

414 DOING RESEARCH

Borchers 7
turned out to be a false assumption (Karabell 258). In fact, the

lopsidedness of the polls might have led voters who supported

Truman to call themselves undecided out of an unwillingness to

associate themselves with the losing side, further skewing the polls’

In a work by • results (McDonald, Glynn, Kim, and Ostman 152). Such errors led
four or more
authors, either pollsters to change their methods significantly after the 1948
cite them all or
name the first election.
one followed by
et al. After the election, many political analysts, journalists, and

historians concluded that the Truman upset was in fact a victory for

the American people, who, the New Republic noted, “couldn’t be

ticketed by the polls, knew its own mind and had picked the rather

unlikely but courageous figure of Truman to carry its banner” (qtd.

in McCullough 715). How “unlikely” is unclear, however; Truman

biographer Alonzo Hamby notes that “polls of scholars consistently

rank Truman among the top eight presidents in American history”

(Man of the People 641). But despite Truman’s high standing, and

despite the fact that the whistle-stop campaign is now part of our

political landscape, politicians have increasingly imitated the style

of the Dewey campaign, with its “packaged candidate who ran so as

not to lose, who steered clear of controversy, and who made a good

show of appearing presidential” (Karabell 266). The election of 1948

shows that voters are not necessarily swayed by polls, but it may

have presaged the packaging of candidates by public relations

experts, to the detriment of public debate on the issues in future

presidential elections.
5363_a45_p378-416 5/17/05 10:26 AM Page 415

45 / MLA Style 415

1" Borchers 8
Center the
• Works Cited • heading.

Donaldson, Gary A. Truman Defeats Dewey. Lexington: UP of • Double-space

Kentucky, 1999. throughout.

Ferrell, Robert H. Harry S. Truman: A Life. Columbia: U of Missouri P, Alphabetize the

list by authors’
1994. last names or by
title for works
Hamby, Alonzo L., ed. “Harry S. Truman (1945-1953).” with no author.
AmericanPresident.org. 11 Dec. 2003. Miller Center of Public
Begin each entry
Affairs, U of Virginia. 12 Jan. 2004 <http:// at the left mar-
gin; indent sub-
www.americanpresident.org/history/harrytruman>. sequent lines
1
 -inch or 5
2
---. Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman. New York: Oxford • spaces.

UP, 1995.
If you cite more
Holbrook, Thomas M. “Did the Whistle-Stop Campaign Matter?” PS: than one work
by a single
Political Science and Politics 35 (2002): 59-66. author, list them
alphabetically by
Karabell, Zachary. The Last Campaign: How Harry Truman Won the title, and use 3
hyphens instead
1948 Election. New York: Knopf, 2000. of repeating the
author’s name
McCullough, David. Truman. New York: Simon, 1992. after the first
entry.
McDonald, Daniel G., Carroll J. Glynn, Sei-Hill Kim, and Ronald E.

Ostman. “The Spiral of Silence in the 1948 Presidential

Election.” Communication Research 28 (2001): 139-55.

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Inst. of Politics, Rutgers, State U of New Jersey. 11 Jan. 2004

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“1948: The Great Truman Surprise.” Media and Politics Online

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pols.3380/pres/1948.html>.

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Check to be sure • Truman, Harry S. “Campaigning, Letter, October 5, 1948.” Harry S.

that every source
you use is on the Truman. Ed. Robert H. Ferrell. Washington: CQ P, 2003. 91.
list of works
cited.