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Wellehan Library MLA Guide (9th ed.): Common Works Cited Rule Exceptions

Additional Information

Sometimes the item you are citing will include additional information. Use the examples below to help place additional information based on the type of source you are citing.


These common rule exceptions should be listed after the Title. If you have more than one exception, add them to your citation in this order, separated by a comma:

1. Other Contributors (ex. Editors or Translators)
2. Edition or Version
3. Volume Number

Other Contributors

Precede each name or group of names with a description of the role (MLA 151). If the book has more than one additional contributor, list them in the order in which the appear on the title page (MLA 153).

 

A Book with an Editor

Example (a Print Book):

Beethoven: Impressions by his Contemporaries. Edited by O. G. Sonneck, Dover Publications, 1926.

 

A Book with a Translator

Example (an Online Book): 

Euripides. The Trojan Women. Translated by George Gilbert Aimé Murray, Ballantyne Press, 1905. Fadedpage, www.fadedpage.com/books/20110207/html.php

 

A Book with an Editor and a Translator

Example (an eBook from a Database): 

Aristotle. The Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by David Ross, edited by Leslie Brown, Oxford UP, 2009. eBook Academic Collection (EBSCOhost), http://ezproxy.sjcme.edu:2048/login?url =http://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN =298419&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

An Edition or Version of a Work

Notations about version or edition may be descriptive (such as 'expanded edition') or numbered (such as 'second edition'). Use the description which appears on the title page, but shorten edition to ed. If numbered, utilize a shortened number (such as '2nd' in place of second).

 

An Edition of a Book

Example (a Print Book): 

Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, 2002. 

A Volume in a Multivolume Set

If you consult "one volume of a multivolume work that does not have a unique title, the number of the volume is specified in the entry in the works-cited list and does not need to be included in the in-text citation" (MLA 249).

"If you borrow from more than one volume, include a volume number and page number in the in-text citation, separating the two with a colon and space" (MLA 249). The total number of volumes should "be included as a final, supplemental element" in the works cited entry (MLA 215).

 

A Single Volume in a Multivolume Work

Example (a Print Book): 

Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. 2nd ed., vol. 2, Oxford UP, 2002. 

 

Multiple Volumes in a Multivolume Work

Example (a Print Book): 

Barr, Avon, and Edward A Feigenbaum. The Handbook of Artificial Intelligence. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1989. 4 vols. 

In-Text Citation:

(Barr and Feigenbaum, 1: 209)

Multiple Authors

When writing your Works Cited entry, if your source has multiple authors, "include them in the order in which they are presented" (MLA 111). 

 

Two Authors

For two authors, "reverse the first of the names" as Lastname, Firstname. "Follow it with a comma and the word and, and give the second name in the normal order" (MLA 111).

Example:

Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich.

 

Three or More Authors

For three or more authors, "reverse the first of the names" as Lastname, Firstname. "Follow it with a comma and the abbreviation et al." (MLA 112). Note that et al. is italicized and ends with a period.

Example:

Charon, Rita, et al.

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