SCC Research Guides: MLA Guide: Formatting the Author and Title

Formatting the Author

You can also review section 5.5 Author: How to Style It in the online *MLA Handbook*.
Authors	Rule	Examples
No Author	If no author given, skip the author and start with the title of source.
1 Author	Last Name, First Name.	Smith, John.
2 Authors	Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name.	Smith, John, and Mary Fields.
3+ Authors	Last Name, First Name of First Author, et al.	Smith, John, et al.
Association or Company	Use the name of the association or company as the author. If a work is written and published by an organization, list the organization as publisher only.	American Cancer Society.
Pseudonyms	Use pseudonyms and online usernames like regular author names.	@jsmith.
Editor or other role	If the role of that person or group is something other than creating the work’s main content (as the author), follow the name with a label that describes the role. Only do this in the author field if it is important to highlight this person; otherwise use the Other Contributors field.	Nunberg, Geoffrey, editor.

Formatting the Title

You can also review sections 5.25 Title of Source: How to Style It and 5.31–5.37: Title of Container Element in Works Cited in the online *MLA Handbook*.
Source	Rule: Italics or "quotation marks"	Example
Entire Book	Italicize self-contained works	The Awakening.
Collection of Essays	Italicize self-contained works	The Norton Introduction to Literature,
Essay, story, or poem	Contained in a larger work (book, website, etc.); use "quotation marks"	"The Cultural Consequences of Printing."
Play	Italicize plays even if they are in a larger work.	Romeo and Juliet.
Article from Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper	Contained in a larger work (journal) use "quotation marks"	"Literary History and Sociology."
Entire Journal, Magazine, or Newspaper	Italicize self-contained works	The Georgia Review.
Entire Website	Italicize self-contained works	WebMD.
Website Article	Contained in a larger work (website) use "quotation marks"	"Free Will."
Song	Contained in a larger work (album) use "quotation marks"	"Pretty Hurts."

MLA Guide