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MLA Guide

This guide contains information to help you cite your sources in MLA format.

Citing a Play

When you refer to lines from a play in-text, you need to cite these lines according to MLA. There are several ways to do in-text citations for plays. Depending on what information you have about your play will determine how you do your citations.

Citing a Play from Textbook

Format: Author. Title of Play in ItalicsTitle of Textbook, edited by Editor Name, edition, vol. #, Publisher, Year, Page Numbers.

Example: Hansberry, Lorraine. A Raisin in the Sun. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Valerie Smith, 3rd ed. vol. 2, W.W. Norton and Company, 2014, pp. 470-532.


Citing a Play in a Book 

*Note: this citation should be used if you find your play in a book where the play is the entire book

Format: Author. Title of Play in Italics. Edition, Publisher, Year. Database Name in Italics (if electronic), URL.

Example: Sophocles. Antigone. Translated by David Mulroy, University of Wisconsin Press, 2013. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/sccsc/detail.action?docID=3445283.

How you cite in-text depends on whether you are using line numbers or page numbers. 

Using Line Numbers

Example: (Hansberry, 4.5. lines 171-9)

*Note: If the text of your play includes line numbers on the side of the page, then replace the page number with the act, scene, and line numbers.

*Notes: Once you establish you are using line numbers for your in-text citations, you no longer need to use the word "line" in your parenthetical citation.

*Note: If you have used the author's name or the play's title in the signal phrase before introducing a quote, you do not need to include it in your in-text citation.


Using Page Numbers

Example: (Wilson 200)

*Note: If lines in your play are not numbered, you can use the page number in your citation.

*Note: If you have used the author's name or the play's title in the signal phrase before introducing a quote, you do not need to include it in your in-text citation.