Style and Formatting Guide for Citing a Work of Fiction

The following information is an adapted version of the style and formatting guidelines found in the MLA

Handbook, 8th ed. (2016), published by the Modern Language Association. This sheet is to serve as a ready-

reference; more in-depth descriptions can be found in the handbook.

Authorship can be shown in a number of ways when quoting an excerpt from a work of fiction. If you

have already included a direct reference to the author in the body of your essay immediately preceding

the quotation, then you need only the page number in parentheses:

Mansfield describes Miss Brill’s reaction to this couple: “They did not speak. This was a disappoint-

ment, for Miss Brill always looked forward to the conversation. She had become really quite expert, she

thought, at listening as though she didn’t listen” (299).

If, however, you have not yet mentioned the author’s name or it could possibly be confused with an-

other, include the author’s last name in the parenthetical citation:

Many modernist authors, such as Joyce and Mansfield, portrayed characters who simply listened to the

conversations of others. Miss Brill, for instance, “had become really quite expert, she thought, at listening as

though she didn’t listen” (Mansfield 299).

When you quote an excerpt that the author had already placed in quotation marks, such as dialogue,

replace the author’s double-quotes with single-quotes:

Both Tweedles acknowledge a coming darkness as Alice notices that “there must be a thunderstorm

coming on. ‘What a thick black cloud that is!’ she said” (151-152).

Use an ellipsis to omit portions of the original text that is being quoted. You might need to omit words

from an original text to maintain the flow of the sentence containing the quotation. Ellipses are used as

shown (1.3.5):

Alice attempts to be cordial to Dumpty, but he declares, “You needn’t go on making remarks like that

… they’re not sensible, and they put me out” (172).

Use brackets to add to the original quote for clarification:

Alice attempts to be cordial to Dumpty, but he declares, “You needn’t go on making remarks like that

… [those remarks are] not sensible, and they put me out” (172).

Near the end of Caleb Williams, the title character attempts to convince himself that the events and charac-

ters surrounding him are not supernatural after all:

Mr. Falkland, wise as he is and pregnant in resources, acts by human not by supernatural

means. He may overtake me by surprise, and in a manner of which I had no previous expec-

tation; but he cannot produce a great and notorious effect without some visible agency, how-

ever difficult it may be to trace that agency to its absolute author. He cannot … shroud him-

self in clouds and impenetrable darkness, and scatter destruction upon the earth from his se-

cret habitation. (Godwin 306)

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Number the page in continuation with the pages before it.

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Title the page -Works Cited- and center it on the first line. Do not underline it, italicize it, bold it, or

put it in quotation marks.

•

Alphabetize the entries according to the first word of the entry, usually the author’s last name.

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Make the first line of a citation flush with the left margin; indent subsequent lines 1/2˝.

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For a complete list of Works Cited entry formats, please refer to the MLA Handbook, 8th ed. (2016).

A WORK OF FICTION BY A SINGLE AUTHOR:

Author’s Name. Title of Work. Publisher, Year.

Fielding, Henry. Joseph Andrews. Broadview Press, 2001.

TWO WORKS OF FICTION BY THE SAME AUTHOR:

Author’s Name. Title of Work. Publisher, Year.

Title of Work. Publisher, Year.

Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room. Harcourt, 1950.

Mrs. Dalloway. Harcourt, 1990.

Notes:

You do not need to use ellipses at the beginnings or endings of quotes or paraphrases to indicate that words

have been omitted. For more information on quoting fiction and the use of ellipses and brackets, please see our

“Style and Formatting Guide for Direct Quotations.”

Use block quotation format for prose excerpts of five or more typed lines. These quotations must be

double-spaced and indented one inch (ten spaces). Do not use quotation marks, and place the end

punctuation before the parenthetical citation:

A WORK OF FICTION (Essay, Short Story, Poem) FROM AN ANTHOLOGY OR COLLECTION:

Author’s Name. “Title of Work.” Title of Anthology, Editors/Translators. Edition., Publisher, Year,

Page Numbers.

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Heath Introduction to Literature, edited by Alice S.

Landy, 5

ed., D.C. Heath, 1996, pp. 202-206.

A WORK OF FICTION (Play, Novel, etc.) FROM AN ANTHOLOGY OR COLLECTION DIVIDED

INTO VOLUMES:

Author’s Name. Title of Work. Title of Anthology, Editors/Translators. Edition., Volume, Publisher,

Year, Page Numbers.

Marlowe, Christopher. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. The Longman Anthology of British Literature,

edited by David Damrosch, 2

ed., vol. A, Pearson/Longman, 2004, pp. 685-733.

Last modified 6/13/16