Citing Secondary Materials (articles/books):

After you cite a work, whether you quote a passage or just refer to a point in the work, put in a parenthesis with the author and page number where the point appeared in the work:

For example: Addressing the nature of the ghost in Hamlet, Roland Mushat Frye argues that "The text of Hamlet introduces four attitudes toward ghosts, and of these the play itself excludes only one as impossible" (Frye, 15).

If you are quoting more than one work by an author, then you need to include also an abbreviation of the work's title, so that it is clear which work you are citing:

For example: (Frye, Renaissance Hamlet, 15).

Then at the end of your paper create a separate "Works Cited" page in which you list in full all the articles and books you have cited. Examples of how your give a full citation for a book and for an article are give below:

Works Cited

Frye, Roland Mushat. The Renaissance Hamlet: Issues and Responses in 1600. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Honigman, E. A. J. "The Politics of Hamlet and 'The World of the Play'." Stratford-upon-Avon Studies 5 (1964): 129-47.

For a full discussion of how to cite secondary materials and prepare a Works Cited list, see Joseph Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed. (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999), chapters 4 and 5.