Formatting a Book Entry in MLA 9: Four Parts

Let's build our first entry: a book with one author.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

If you're using PERRLA, this part is a breeze. Look the book up by its ISBN, and PERRLA finds the book's details, fills in the form for you, formats the entry, and adds it to your Works Cited page.

Done, and right from the start. Not using PERRLA (yet)? Here's how to format the same entry by hand.

Step by step

We'll create an entry for this book: Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science by Jeff Meldrum, published in 2007 by Forge.

1. Author's name

Start with the author's last name, a comma, then the first name, written the way it appears on the book:

Meldrum, Jeff.

End with a period. A few special cases:

• Middle names or initials stay as the book shows them: Buhs, Joshua Blu.
• Suffixes like Jr. go at the end, after a comma: King, Martin Luther, Jr.
• Titles and degrees, like Dr. or PhD, are left off.
• Two authors: reverse only the first, and join them with "and": Strange, Jonathon, and Kathy H. Weber.
• Three or more authors: the first author, then et al.

2. Book title

The full title of the book comes next. It's:

• Italicized
• In title case: capitalize the first word, the last word, and every major word, including the first word after a colon

Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science.

End with a period, and make sure the period itself isn't italicized.

If the book has an editor or translator, or it's a later edition, those details come right after the title: edited by Jane Smith, 2nd ed.

3. Publisher

Add the publisher's name, followed by a comma:

Forge,

A few rules keep it short:

• No city. MLA gives the publisher's name only.
• Drop business words like Inc., Company, or LLC.
• University presses shorten University Press to UP, so Oxford University Press becomes Oxford UP, and University of Chicago Press becomes U of Chicago P.
• Press without University stays spelled out: MIT Press.

4. Year of publication

Finish with the year the book was published, and a period:

2007.

The finished entry

Here's the complete entry, as it sits on the Works Cited page:

1. AuthorLast name, comma, first name, period.
2. TitleItalic, title case, with a period that isn't italic.
3. PublisherThe name only, then a comma.
4. YearThen the final period.

It's that simple once you know each part. Notice that the year sits at the end in MLA, not after the author.

Quick checklist

• Author reversed, with the full first name
• Title italicized, in title case, with a period that isn't italic
• Publisher's name only, shortened the MLA way
• Year at the end, followed by a period

Related MLA 101 lessons

• Adding Works Cited entries: the nine core elements, containers, and the one template behind every entry.
• Formatting a journal article entry: the article in quotation marks, the journal in italics, the numbers, and the DOI.
• Formatting a web page entry: the page title, the website, the date, the URL, and pages with no author.
• In-text citations: author and page with no comma, and when et al. applies.
• All 18 lessons in MLA 101