MLA Citation Style Vocabulary Flashcards (Online Resources, Books, and Films)

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering MLA citation basics for online resources, e-books, edited books, chapters, and films.

MLA style

A humanities-focused citation system that prescribes how to credit sources and format papers to avoid plagiarism.

Works Cited page

The end-of-paper MLA bibliography listing all sources cited, arranged alphabetically by the author's last name.

In-text citation

A brief parenthetical reference within the paper that points to a full entry in Works Cited.

URL

Uniform Resource Locator; the web address used to locate an online source in a citation.

DOI

Digital Object Identifier; a persistent, unique identifier for electronic content.

E-book

A digital book; MLA citations may note 'E-book ed.' to indicate the electronic edition.

Editor

A person who compiles or edits a work; MLA uses 'edited by' to indicate editors.

Chapter in an edited book

A chapter written by a named author within a larger edited volume; cited with chapter author, chapter title, editors, book title, publisher, year, and pages.

Film citation (MLA)

A citation format for films that includes title, director, performers, production company, year, and platform if applicable.

Online resource

Any source accessed via the internet; MLA requires appropriate publication details plus a URL or DOI.

Access date

The date you retrieved an online source, often included when no publication date is clear.

Publication date

The date a source was published or released; MLA citations list this date when available.

Edited by

Phrase used in citations to attribute editors of a work within a larger volume.

Container

In MLA, a larger work that contains the source (e.g., a website or database) referenced by the citation.

Alphabetical order

Arrangement of Works Cited entries by the author's last name.

Accessed

Indicates the date an online resource was accessed; commonly used with URLs.

Publisher

The organization or company that published the work; MLA citations include the publisher's name.