Guideline to Cite an E-Book in the MLA Style

Do you have to write an essay or a research paper for college? Then the chances are high that you will need a few tips on citing the resource materials in MLA style. MLA is the most common style used for citing sources within the liberal arts and humanities.  

Quite often, you will need to cite research sources that you have accessed in eBook form. The MLA citation style of an eBook will be slightly different than a book in print form.  To cite your sources appropriately in MLA, you must start by consulting the list of core elements. The Modern Language Association suggests you cite an eBook in the following order:

The full name of the author(s), Title of the chapter or section, Title of the e-book, translated by or edited by First name Last name, vol. number, Publisher, Year of publication, page number(s). Title of the web site or database, URL.

Each of the sections follows some specific guidelines for citation. Today we are going to give you a step by step guidance to cite eBooks in MLA format. Go through this blog meticulously to tackle each of the aforementioned sections with confidence.

1. Write the name of the author

You must begin the citation with the author’s last name. In case of multiple author’s, list the details in “first-middle-last name” order for each subsequent author and separate their names with commas. You must write the names in the same order as they are listed on the title page of the eBook.

So, in case of multiple authors the names must be written in the following manner:

 McGill, Ivan, John Kurt Glenn, and Alice Brockbank

2.  Include the title of the source

The title of the source must be written in italics and capitalised with “eBook” written after the title. If a specific format like Nook or Kindle is available, you will have to mention that instead of the generic “eBook”

Dukan, Pierre. The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever. New York: Crown Archetype, 2011. Amazon. Web. 19 December 2012.

3. Mention other contributors

There are several other contributors to the source as well, who must be duly credit in your paper like the editors, illustrators, translators, etc. If the contributors were relevant to your research or are necessary to identify the source, you will need to include their names in your document.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard, Vintage-Random House. eBook. 1988.

4. Mention the version of the eBook

Make sure you mention the edition of the article or book you have referred from.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

5. Include the issue number

In case the source is a multi-volume book or a journal with both issue numbers and volume numbers, you must list those numbers in your citation.

Quintilian. Institution Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

6. Write the name of the publisher

You will need to include the names of each of the publishers that were relevant to your research.

McGill, Ivan, John Kurt Glenn, and Alice Brockbank. The Action Learning Handbook: Powerful Techniques for Education. Kindle ed. , Rutledge Falmer, 2014.

A quick note: In case there is more than one publisher of the same book separate the lists with a slash (/). You will not have to cite sources like periodicals, websites whose titles are the same as their publisher, the online websites where you can view several pieces of work, but they do not actually publish them (e.g. WordPress, YouTube, or JSTOR)

7. Include the publication date

Citing the publication date becomes a little tricky as many a times there is more than one date for a source. You can use the one that is relevant for your research or go with the source’s original publication date.

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Kindle ed. , MacMurray, 1999

8. Specify the location

If you have accessed the eBook from a website and not used a software like Kindle or Amazon to read it, you will need to mention the specific URL of the website. You should also include the date on which you accessed the book in day-month-year format.

Cohen, Daniel. Our Modern Times: The New Nature of Capitalism in the Information Age. MIT Press, 2013. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). https://akin.css.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=694388&site=eds-live&scope=site. Accessed 15 April. 2018."

Make sure to follow these steps meticulously to cite your research papers and assignments in MLA format and never lose your grades to plagiarism ever again.