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Cite MLA Style 8

How to cite according to the 8th edition of the Modern Language Association.

Cite Plays

For your Works Cited page, when citing a play from a book you'll need to include both the book publication information and the play information. The examples below are for a print book. If the book is an eBook, it will also require the location of the eBook, generally the database provider and URL.  

Structure

Play author. "Play Title." Title of book, author(s) or editor(s), publisher, year of publication, page number(s).

Example

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. The Riverside Shakespeare, edited by G. Blakemore Evans et al., vol. 2, Houghton Mifflin, 1974, pp. 1307-42.

Here is advice from the Modern Language Association (MLA) for scripts and performances of plays, including works cited and in text citation.

Cite Poems

For your Works Cited page, when citing a poem from a book you'll need to include both the book publication information and the poem information. The examples below are for a print book. If the book is an eBook, it will also require the location of the eBook, generally the database provider and URL.  

Structure

Poem author. "Poem Title." Title of book, author(s) or editor(s), publisher, year of publication, page number(s).

Example

Burns, Robert. "Red, Red Rose." 100 Best-Loved Poems, edited by Philip Smith, Dover, 1995, p. 26.

Here is advice from the Modern Language Association (MLA) on in text citation for poems