ACADEMIC SKILLS CENTRE, DAWSON COLLEGE E 1.

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MLA FOOTNOTING: PRINT SOURCES


In a term paper, the exact sources of your research information must be shown, even though most of it is
summarized in your own words. One method of citing sources is the use of footnotes, which appear at the
bottom of the page wherever research information has been used.

In this system, a raised number (superscript) is placed in the essay as a marker, immediately following a
passage of research information.
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At the foot of that same page, a note beginning with the corresponding
number identifies the source of the information. Footnote numbers rise consecutively through the paper.

Footnote forms must be adapted to suit different types of source material. This handout illustrates some
common variations for print sources. (A separate handout covers electronic sources, including Internet
material. (Consult the MLA Handbook for more complete guidelines.)


Examples of two common formsa book and a journal articleare shown below:


indent the authors name book title, underlined city of
first line in natural order or in italics publication

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Elizabeth Greene, The Art of the Italian Renaissance (New York:
Simon & Shuster, 1995) 31-32.

Publisher date of page
publication

numbers


article title, journal title, volume,
author in quotation marks underlined issue*


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James Bly, Beyond Oedipus, Canadian Psychological Journal 51.3
(1997): 48.

year page *Note: If the journals page numbering runs continuously through
all the issues of the year, omit the issue number.




Full-length footnotes, as shown above, are used only for your first reference to each source.

Other footnotes citing the same sources later in the paper simply give the authors last name and
the page number(s), as shown below:


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Greene 52.
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Anderson 49-50.


WM 2003

FIRST-REFERENCE FOOTNOTE FORMATS FOR VARIOUS PRINT SOURCES



A book other than the first edition (edition number or rev. ed. appears after the title)

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Michael B. OMalley, The History of the Celtic Cross, 3
rd
ed. (Dublin: Liffey Press,
1971) 31-33.


A book by two or three authors (list the authors, with and before the final name)


2
Claire Smith, P. F. Harris, and Rita G. Hicks, Practical Nursing (Toronto: Danforth,
1990) 117-119.


A book by four or more authors (name the first author, adding et al. to indicate and others)


3
Peter Black et al., Understanding Shakespeare, 2nd ed. (London: Tower Press, 1955) 77.


An essay, short story, poem, or other work in an anthology (writer is named first, editor later)

4
Richard T. Clark, The Thin Green Line, Essays on Ecology, ed. Joan Fraser (Seattle:
Northwest Press, 1999) 201-203.


Magazine article (article title first, then name of magazine, then date or month of the issue)


5
Mary Blake, Siberian Spring, National Geographic Apr. 1999: 78-79.


Encyclopedia article in which the author is named (no page numbers are given)


6
David Gordon Tucker, Sonar, Encyclopaedia Britannica : Macropaedia, 15th ed.


Encyclopedia article in which no author is named (footnote begins with the article heading)


7
Plastics, Encyclopedia Americana, 1988 ed.


Newspaper article (if newspaper name does not include city, include it in square brackets)


8
Catherine Milroy, Liberal Blues, The Globe and Mail [Toronto], 15 Oct. 1998: D8.


Pamphlet (if no individual is named as author, begin with the title)


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London Landmarks (Toronto: Travel Quest, 1996), 5.