The Modern Language Association (MLA) is another popular citation style used in humanities academic writing. It is most commonly used in the following fields:
For more information on the MLA Handbook, please see the resources below:
MLA Handbook (9th edition)
by
The in-text citation appears within the body of your writing and identifies the cited work by its author and page number. Both paraphrasing and quotes require in-text citations. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself (in prose) or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase. However, the page number(s) should always appear in parentheses.
Here is a guide on how to format in-text citations:
| Author type | In-text citation | Work cited |
|---|---|---|
|
One author In prose
Parenthetical |
Feder highlights the popularity of rakes in eighteenth-century fiction (108). Eighteenth-century fiction is teeming with seductive men who leave women ruined rather than married (Feder 108). |
Feder, Rachel. The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters they Taught Us to Love. Quirk Books, 2023. |
| Two authors | Draxler and Spratt discuss the fairy tale nature of eighteenth-century writing and how students today cannot relate to it (38). |
Draxler, Bridget, and Danielle Spratt. Engaging the Age of Jane Austen: Public Humanities in Practice. University of Iowa Press, 2019. |
| Three or more authors | According to Li et al., Austen's work has typically been undervalued in China due to its perceived lack of political relevance (1). |
Li, Qi, Saihong Li, and William Hope. "Translating Political Allusions in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park." SAGE Open, vol. 15, no. 1, 2025, 1–15. |
| No known author |
Austen is known for using the literary technique of "free indirect style" ("She Was a Literary Genius"). |
"She Was a Literary Genius, and Pioneered New Writing Techniques." Jane Austen's House. https://janeaustens.house/learn/school-visits/online-resources/who-is-jane-austen/new-writing-techniques/. |
At the end of your work, you will include a reference list or bibliography containing each work you cited within your text. Here are three common types of references and how to format their citations.
|
Print journal article Last name, First name, and First name Last name. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol. #, issue no. #, year, pages. |
Example
Knezevich, Ruth, and Devoney Looser. "Jane Austen’s Afterlife, West Indian Madams, and the Literary Porter Family: Two New Letters from Charles Austen." Modern Philology, vol. 112, no. 3, 2015, pp. 554-568.
|
Book Last name, First name, and First name Last name. Book Title. Publisher, year. |
Example
Feder, Rachel. The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters they Taught Us to Love. Quirk Books, 2023.
|
Website Last name, First name. "Web Page Title." Website Name, Publisher, Date. DOI/URL. |
Example
"Teenage Writings." Jane Austen's House, 2025. https://janeaustens.house/teenage-writings/
