Giovanni Boccaccio
The Fates of Illustrious Men and Women
Written 1355-74. Illuminated about 1413-15.
There are several reasons why we cite our sources:
To cite a text, you will use MLA 8th edition style guidelines to create an entry for your Works Cited list. An entry, also known as a citation, is made up of common bibliographic elements, which provide your readers with the information that they need to track down your sources.
The common elements are:
Below you will find examples of primary, secondary, and tertiary texts cited in the MLA style. For general guidelines and numerous examples, please use the "MLA Style Guides Online" listed on this page.
Example 1 - Primary Texts
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Books, 2019.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Edited by Sandra Clark and Pamela Mason, Bloomsbury, The Arden Shakespeare, 2015.
Example 2 - Secondary Text - Book Chapter
Watson, Robert N. "Tragedies of Revenge and Ambition." The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy, Edited by Claire McEachern, 2nd ed., Cambridge UP, 2013, pp. 160-81.
Example 3 - Secondary Text - Academic Journal Article
Knowles, Katherine. “Appetite and Ambition: The Influence of Hunger in Macbeth.” Early English Studies, vol. 2, 2009, pp.1-20. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&AN=2011581995&site=ehost-live. Accessed 30 Aug. 2019.
Example 4 - Tertiary Texts
Gilson, David. A Bibliography of Jane Austen. St Paul's Bibliographies, 1997.
Moss, Joyce, and George Wilson. "Othello." Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them, vol. 1, Gale, 1997. Literature Resource Center, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1430002727/LitRC?u=ric_main&sid=LitRC&xid=b7d6c1df. Accessed 30 Aug. 2019.
Spevack, Marvin. The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare. Harvard UP, 1973.