WORKS CITED PAGE: BOOKS

When citing books, provide the following general categories of information:

Author’s last name, first name. Book Title. Additional information. City of Publication: Publisher, publication date.

A Book by One Author

Sidel, Ruth. On her Own: Growing Up in the Shadow of the American Dream. New York: Penguin, 1990.

Necessary information will be found on the title page and the copyright page. Use the most recent copyright date and a shortened form, usually one word, of the publisher’s name. Use the abbreviation “U” for university and “P” for press with no periods.

A Book by Two or More Authors

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: U of Chicago P,1980.

For an entry with four or more authors, either follow the pattern above for two or three authors or use only the first author’s name followed by “et al.”

Bellah, Robert N., et al. Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life. Berkeley: U of California P, 1985.

Two or More Books by the Same Author

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. New York: Harcourt, 1982.---In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. New York: Harcourt, 1983.

Books by Authors with the Same Last Name
Authors with the same last name should be listed alphabetically by first name.

Blanchard, Carol. Caring about the Universe. New York: Gale, 2005.
Blanchard, William. Life in the Fast Lane. Boston: Prentice-Hall, 1999.

A Book with No Author Listed
The title is placed first. Alphabetize according to the first significant word in the title. Do not consider A, An and The. If one of those words is the first word of the title, place that word at the end of the title entry preceded by a comma.

Chicago Manual of Style, The. 14th ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1993.

A Multivolume Work

Barr, Avon, and Edward A. Feigenbaum. The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. 3 vols. Stanford: Heuristech, 1981-82.

A Work Prepared by an Editor
Use the abbreviation “ed.” Or “eds.” after the name(s) of the editor or editors.

Gates. Henry Louis, Jr., ed. Classic Slave Narratives. New York: NAL, 1987.

A Specific Work in an Anthology or Reference Book
For a specific article, story, etc. in an anthology, first list the author and title of the specific piece. Follow this with the title and editor of the anthology, publication information for the anthology, a period and then the pages in the anthology on which the specific work is found.

Des Pres, Terrrence. “Poetry and Politics.” The Writer in Our World. Ed. Reginald Gibbons. Boston: Atlantic Monthly, 1986. 17-29.

For a well known reference book such as a major encyclopedia, give only the edition number, year of publication and page numbers following the title.

“Multiculturalism.” Columbia Encyclopedia. 5th ed. 1993. 84-86.

A Translated Book

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Trans. Richard Howard. New York: Vintage-Random House, 1998.



An Introduction, a Preface, a Foreword, or an Afterword
Farrell, Thomas B. Introduction. Norms of Rhetorical Culture. Eds. Mary Boss and Brad Newberry. New Haven: Yale UP, 1993. 1-13.

A Book by a Corporate Author
American Allergy Association. Allergies in Children. New York: Random, 1998.



SPECIAL PRINT/BOOK SOURCES

Certain book sources are handled in a special way by MLA style.

A Government Publication
United States. Government Accountability Office. Climate Change: EPA and DOE Should Do More to Encourage Progress Under Two Voluntary Programs. Washington: GPO, 2006.

A Pamphlet
Your Rights Under California Welfare Programs. Sacramento, CA: California Dept. of Social Services, 2007.