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Communication & Media

MLA Formatting & Citations

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities.

If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult a copy of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, located in McQuade Library's reference collection: 

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is the gold standard for online tools to teach you about citations and formatting.

From the website you can learn to:

  • Format in-text, and full bibliographical citations for a variety of source types
  • Follow formatting and style guidelines for a variety of assignments

APA Formatting & Citations (7th edition)

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the social sciences.

If you are asked to use APA format, be sure to consult the Publication manual of the American Psychological Association, located in McQuade Library's reference collection:

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is the gold standard for online tools to teach you about citations and formatting.

From the website you can learn to:

  • Format in-text, and full bibliographical citations for a variety of source types
  • Follow formatting and style guidelines for a variety of assignments

Perdue OWL: APA Formatting and Style Guide

APA Tips:

  • All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
  • Authors' first and middle names should be written as initials.
  • Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors
  • Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
  • For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
  • When referring to the titles of books, chapters, articles, reports, webpages, or other sources, capitalize only the first letter of the first word of the title and subtitle, the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and proper nouns.
  • Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on).
  • Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.
  • Present journal titles in full.
  • Italicize journal titles.
  • Maintain any nonstandard punctuation and capitalization that is used by the journal in its title.
  • Capitalize all major words in the titles of journals. Note that this differs from the rule for titling other common sources (like books, reports, webpages, and so on) described above.
  • Capitalize the first word of the titles and subtitles of journal articles, as well as the first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and any proper nouns.
  • Do not italicize or underline the article title.
  • Do not enclose the article title in quotes. 
  • All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.

Citing COM Specific Sources in APA (Purdue OWL)

Interviews, Email, and Other Personal Communication

No personal communication is included in your reference list; instead, parenthetically cite the communicator's name, the phrase "personal communication," and the date of the communication in your main text only.

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).
A. P. Smith also claimed that many of her students had difficulties with APA style (personal communication, November 3, 2002).

Motion Picture

Basic reference list format:

Producer, P. P. (Producer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of motion picture [Motion picture]. Country of origin: Studio or distributor.

Note: If a movie or video tape is not available in wide distribution, add the following to your citation after the country of origin: (Available from Distributor name, full address and zip code).

A Motion Picture or Video Tape with International or National Availability

Smith, J. D. (Producer), & Smithee, A. F. (Director). (2001). Really big disaster movie [Motion picture]. United States: Paramount Pictures.

A Motion Picture or Video Tape with Limited Availability

Harris, M. (Producer), & Turley, M. J. (Director). (2002). Writing labs: A history [Motion picture]. (Available from Purdue University Pictures, 500 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907)

Television Broadcast or Series Episode

Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of broadcast or copyright). Title of broadcast [Television broadcast or Television series]. In P. Producer (Producer). City, state of origin: Studio or distributor.

Single Episode of a Television Series

Writer, W. W. (Writer), & Director, D. D. (Director). (Date of publication). Title of episode [Television series episode]. In P. Producer (Producer), Series title. City, state of origin: Studio or distributor.

Wendy, S. W. (Writer), & Martian, I. R. (Director). (1986). The rising angel and the falling ape [Television series episode]. In D. Dude (Producer), Creatures and monsters. Los Angeles, CA: Belarus Studios.

Television Broadcast

Important, I. M. (Producer). (1990, November 1). The nightly news hour [Television broadcast]. New York, NY: Central Broadcasting Service.

A Television Series

Bellisario, D. L. (Producer). (1992). Exciting action show [Television series]. Hollywood, CA: American Broadcasting Company.

Music Recording

Songwriter, W. W. (Date of copyright). Title of song [Recorded by artist if different from song writer]. On Title of album [Medium of recording]. Location: Label. (Recording date if different from copyright date).

Taupin, B. (1975). Someone saved my life tonight [Recorded by Elton John]. On Captain fantastic and the brown dirt cowboy [CD]. London, England: Big Pig Music Limited.

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