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.

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 contains 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 alphabetically by the first important word of each title.

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.

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.

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 selection 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 above).

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.

cit_cit_10. NO AUTHOR OR EDITOR

Title. Publication City: Publisher, Year of publication.

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

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 volumes 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.

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 publication information of the republished edition.

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title. Year of original edition.
     Publication City: Current Publisher, Year of republication.

Bierce, Ambrose. Civil War Stories. 19cit_09. New York: Dover, 1994.