When a work is published without an author's name,
begin the works-cited-list entry with the title of the work
. Do not use Anonymous in place of an author's name: “English Language Arts Standards.” Common Core State Standards Initiative, 2017, www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/.
When a work has no identified author, cite
in text the first few words of the article title using double quotation marks
, “headline-style” capitalization, and the year.
Treat the Initials
as Representing a First and Last Name
In this case, use the initials in your prose or in your in-text citation and invert the initials in the works-cited-list entry. List the entry under the last initial.
To cite works by these people,
provide the full name without abbreviation
, because abbreviating the given name would render the name unintelligible. So for example, a work by Sukarno, the first president of Indonesia, would be cited as such: Reference list: Sukarno.
When there is no author, the author is unknown, or the author is not the first element listed in the corresponding Works Cited citation,
use the first element listed in the citation in the in-text citation instead
. In most causes this will be the title. After this include the page reference.
When no author is listed, you may
omit the author information
from the MLA citation for the website and begin, instead, with the title (Handbook 108). “Title of Web Page.” Title of Website, Publisher, date published in day month year format, URL.
Citing web pages with no author or date
Use
a shortened version of the title in your in-text citation
. The shortened title must match the first words of your Works Cited entry. “Title of Article.” Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.
Formatting Author information:
Always list the author's surname before listing his or her initials
. You only need to provide initials for the first and middle names, but do include initials for all middle names provided by the source. Include a comma after every last name and in-between different authors' names.
If the surname is hyphenated, include both names and the hyphen in the reference list entry and in-text citation
. If the surname has two parts separated by a space and no hyphen, include both names in the reference list entry and in-text citation.
In-text citations include
the last name of the author followed by a page number enclosed in parentheses
. “Here's a direct quote” (Smith 8). If the author's name is not given, then use the first word or words of the title. Follow the same formatting that was used in the Works Cited list, such as quotation marks.
MLA
uses the author's last name and the page number as reference. APA uses the author's last name and the year of publication. If a direct quote is used, APA requires author's name, year, and page number.
In-text
citations should list the first author's name, followed by “et al.” in every citation
. You can read more about a few different aspects of referencing sources in APA format if you have book references, article references, and electronic sources.
How do you cite a website with no last name?
Cite in
text the first few words of the reference list entry
(usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title or abbreviated title.: (“All 33 Chile Miners,” 2010). Note: Use the full title of the web page if it is short for the parenthetical citation.
Unknown Author
If the work does not have an author,
cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses
. Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks.
If a document was authored by “Anonymous”, instead of the author's last name, cite “Anonymous” in the citation (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, p. 265). For example, (Anonymous, 2015, p. 42).
Remember that for an in-text (parenthetical) citation of a book with no author, provide the name of the work in the signal phrase and the page number in parentheses. You may also use a shortened version of the title of the book accompanied by the page number.
| Format [Description of page]. (n.d.). Website Name. URL | Reference list [Article about APA citations]. (n.d.). Scribbr. https://www.scribbr.com/category/apa-style/ | In-text citation ([Article about APA citations], n.d.) |
|---|
When citing Does the last name go first?
References usually consist of four parts: author, year of publication, title, and publication information. References are alphabetized by the authors' surnames. APA style, unlike some other citation styles, only uses
the surname and first
and middle initials of the author in the full reference.
If a source has no author,
start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title
. Use a shortened version of the title in your in-text citation.
If the name of an author, editor, or creator is listed in the middle of the citation (such as with the “Book with An Editor and an Author” example), then
the first and middle initial are first, followed by the last name
. (F. M. Last, Ed.).
Where does middle name go in citation?
Add a comma after the author's last name
, and then add the author's initials for the author's first and middle name (if the middle name or middle initial is provided). After each initial, add a period. If there is a middle initial, add a space between the initials.
How do you initialize a hyphenated last name?
If two or more initials are used as an abbreviation for an entire name, no periods are needed. Kennedy and Johnson soon became known as JFK and LBJ. The compilers go on to state clearly:
Initials standing for a hyphenated given name should also be hyphenated
.
How do you abbreviate a hyphenated last name?
“When given names are hyphenated,
retain the hyphen and include a period after each initial by no space
(e.g., Xu, A. -J., for Ai-Jun Xu)” (APA, 2020, p. 286).
1.4 If there are two authors, the surnames of both should be given:
e.g. Matthews and Jones (1992)
have proposed that… e.g. A recent study (Matthews and Jones 1992) proposes that… In the reference list at the end of your text you will include ALL of the authors' names (see Section 3.3), not just the first author.
Multiple Works
To cite two or more works by the same author(s),
give the author name(s) in the first entry
only. In the entries for subsequent works, in place of the author name(s), type three hyphens (—) followed by a period, and then the title and the rest of the citation as per the rules in this section.
How do you cite a chapter from a book?
The basic format for citing a book chapter in MLA format is:
Author(s) of Chapter
. “Title of Chapter: Subtitle of Chapter.” Title of Book, edited by Editor of Book, Publisher, Publication Date, page numbers.
Is last name the surname?
In the Anglophonic world, a surname is commonly referred to as the
last name
because it is usually placed at the end of a person's full name, after any given name.
How do you cite the year in a last name?
Name-Year: In-text citations appear in brackets, and consist of
the author(s) last name
, as well as the document's year of publication (e.g. Smith 2008). The end reference list appears in alphabetical order by author last name.
Do I use first or last name for in-text citation?
This general rule in-text citation or in the reference list is to
start with the author's surname or family name
. In Western names, the surname is the last name element. However, Chinese names, the surname is the first element. In some other Asian names, there are no surname elements.
Use the word “and” between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in parentheses. In subsequent citations, only use
the first author's last name followed by “et al.” in
the signal phrase or in parentheses. In et al., et should not be followed by a period.
| Format Last name, Initials. (n.d.). Page title. Site Name. Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL | In-text citation (University of Amsterdam, n.d.) |
|---|
For references with the same author and year, the references are
arranged alphabetically by title (ignoring “A” or “The”)
. Lower case letters (a, b, c) are added immediately after the year within parentheses.
NOTE: The in-text citation for works with three or more authors is
shortened to the first author's name followed by et al. and the year
. References: Author Surname, First Initial.
Citing Works With Three or More Authors
Include
only the last name of the first author, followed by “et al.”
and the year published in all narrative and parenthetical citations APA. Note: The reference entry should list the names of up to 20 authors.
What would an in-text citation include when the author of a source is unknown? It would include
the first few words of the Reference list entry of that work and the year
. It would only include the word anonymous if the work's author is stated as anonymous.
How do you cite no date in MLA?
If no date is provided, skip that information. It's recommended that
you add the date you accessed the work at the end of the citation
. Access date is given by putting the word “Accessed” followed by the Day Month (Shortened) Year the work was accessed/viewed.
