Missing information is not indicated in the citation.
Use letter by letter alphabetization for your citations.
Single: Last Name, First Name Initial. Additional source by the same author: use ---. in place of their name (3 hyphens & a period.)
2 authors: Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name.
3 or more authors: Last Name, First Name, et al.
No author: Begin your citation with Title.
Organization is both author and publisher: begin the entry with the work's title, and list the organization only as publisher.
Italics: Book titles, Plays, Anthologies, and Database names. (These are Containers.)
“Quotation marks:” Article title, webpage title, chapter, and poems etc. in an anthology.
No title? Add a short description. Eg: photograph of – chart showing – gif of cat with …
Italicize them and follow by a comma: Journal Title, Anthology title, name of streaming site or database.
Eg: Sports Medicine, Riverside anthology of literature, Netflix, or ARTstor.
Description of their role follow by a comma then First Name Last Name: narrated by – performance by
Eg: Translated by Natasha Randall, or poetry reading by Kim Catrall, etc.
Follows title and ends in a comma. Eg: 2nd edition or Canadian edition or Director’s cut.
Your source is part of a number sequence or series. Abbreviate volume to vol. and number to no.
Eg: Orange is the New Black, S02 – E04. or Journal name, vol. 10, no. 4, etc.
Omit words such as Company & their abbreviations: Co., Inc., Ltd., Corp. Omit the publisher for a web site or newspaper if it duplicates information.
Shorten University Press to UP E.g. Oxford UP etc. More than one? separate with a forward slash. E.g. National Gallery / Yale UP,
Write the full date as you find it on the source. Format: Day Month Year Eg: Jan. 2013. Ends in either a period or comma.
Date missing? Do not write "No date" or "N.d."
This varies with different source types: page numbers, a permalink, a URL, or a physical location. Exclude http:// & https://
Eg: pp. 193-200, or pp. 57+ or doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021. or Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
Use p. for a single page source, pp. for multiple pages, add a Plus sign (57+) for multiple non-consecutive pages.
No page numbers? Do not try to guess or count paragraphs, leave out missing information.
Date of access, Date of original publication, City of publication, Series name, and Information on prior publication.
Your best estimate for missing information can be included in square brackets with a question mark Eg. for publication date: [2008?]
Include a description of an unusual or unexpected source type like a web comment or reblog. Eg. Slam Poetry performance: “Bic for Her.” poetry written and recited by Mary Pinkowski, or for a dissertation or Master's thesis: Diss., MA thesis, or MS thesis.
The MLA 8th ed. does not provide rules for citing specific types of resources. They provide a universal set of guidelines for any type of material based based on the core elements. The examples provided in this libguide were created by a Douglas College Librarian and follow this format.
This resource from the MLA provides guidance for citing laws, court decisions and other legal documents.
Title of Report. Publisher, Date of Publication or last update. URL.
EXAMPLE
Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Understanding the Trends, 1990-2006. Environment Canada, 2008,
publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2009/ec/En81-4-2006-2E.pdf.
In Text: (Canada's Greenhouse 17)
"When an organization is both author and publisher, begin the entry with the work's title, skipping the author element, and list the organization only as publisher." (MLA Handbook, 8th ed, page 104)
Title of Document. Name of Government Department, Agency or Committee, Publisher, Publication Date, URL.
EXAMPLE
Agriculture in Harmony with Nature: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Sustainable Development
Strategy 2001-2004. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, The Queens Printer, 2001,
publications.gc.ca/collections/ Collection/A22-166-1-2001E.pdf.
In Text: (Agriculture in Harmony 18)
"When a work's author and publisher are separate organizations, give both names, starting the entry with the one that is the author. When an organization is both author and publisher, begin the entry with the work's title, skipping the author element, and list the organization only as publisher." (MLA Handbook, 8th ed, page 104)
Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Document. Publisher, Publication Date, URL. Date Accessed.
EXAMPLE
Pearson, Caryn. The Impact of Mental Health Problems on Family Members. Statistics Canada, 7 Oct. 2015,
www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-624-x/2015001/article/14214-eng.pdf. Accessed 19 Nov. 2016.
In Text: (Pearson 4)
When providing the URL, copy the full URL from your browser but do not include the http:// or https:// (MLA Handbook, 8th ed., page 110)
EXAMPLE Families. Statistics Canada, 1994.
In Text: (Families 17)
Statistics Canada is both the author and the publisher of this document. Author is omitted, therefore as 'publisher' it follows the title
EXAMPLE 2
Information Use by the Ministry of Health in Resource Allocation Decisions for the Regional Health Care System. Office of the Auditor General of British Columbia, 2002.
In Text: (Information Use 22)
NOTE: For statistics or spreadsheets from government websites, use the URL for the site rather than the URL for the document. For the title of the document, use the title that makes it easiest to find the document on the government website rather than the title of the spreadsheet.
Census Metropolitan Areas / Census Agglomerations: 2011 to 2017 (XML). British Columbia, 2017,
www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/data/statistics/people-population-community/population
/population-estimates
In Text: (Census)
Name of Organization/Author. Title of Pamphlet. Publisher name, Publication Date. Pamphlet.
EXAMPLE
Not Everyone Has a Home. National Coalition for the Homeless. Pamphlet.
In Text: (Not Everyone)
NOTE "When an organization is both author and publisher, begin the entry with the work's title, skipping the author element, and list the organization only as publisher." (MLA Handbook, 8th ed, page 104) Often pamphlets do not provide publication dates. Do not include n.d. as was done in the past. MLA states "If the source is an unexpected type of work, you may identify the type with a descriptive term, in this case 'Pamphlet' or 'Brochure.'