Using MLA newspaper citations properly makes it easy for readers to navigate your academic paper. In this guide, we will look at the use of MLA newspaper citations. We will also offer some examples of how you should use this citation method.
Definition: MLA newspaper citation
- MLA newspaper citation has two components: in-text and the works cited entry.
- Whenever you quote or paraphrase an article, you should cite the author and page number.
- The works cited section is included at the end of the paper. It offers a full reference for all sources cited.1
MLA newspaper citation: Printed copies
Although many newspapers are published online, lots of articles can only be accessed on the print versions. To cite these articles, you must use the following format:1
MLA Format: | Last Name of Author, First Name. “Title of Article: Subtitle.” Newspaper Name, Publication Date, Number of the Page. |
MLA Works Cited Entry: | Smith, Bill. “Three Shot on Chicago Street Ramp.” Chicago Times, 18 Aug. 1992, p. B6. |
MLA In-Text Citation: | (Bill, B6) |
If the name of the author isn’t included in the article, you can start the MLA newspaper citation with the heading of the news story. You can also write in-text citations for MLA newspaper stories that don’t have listed authors. In this case, you will only use the starting words of the title. These words should be in quotation marks. For example, “Three Shot”.
Another thing to note is that you won’t need to include the page number in cases where the article only covers a single page.1
MLA newspaper citation: Online articles
You will usually not need to include the page number when citing online articles since these publications aren’t normally organized in pages. Again, if the article does not have a listed author, the in-text citation will only contain the starting words of the article title. For example, the story above could be cited as (“Indigenous Peoples’.”)1
You can also refer to online newspapers when writing your dissertation. In this case, you should follow this format for MLA newspaper citation:1
MLA Format: | Last Name of Author, First Name of Author. "Title of News Story: Subtitle." Name of Site, Date of Publication, URL. Day Month Year that site was visited. |
MLA Reference List Entry: | Smith, Bob. “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” NBC New York, 10 Oct. 2022, https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/indigenous-peoples-day-sukkot-columbus-day-what-holiday-is-today/3900636/. Accessed 13 Oct. 2022. |
MLA In-Text Citation: | (Bob) |
FAQs
For MLA newspaper citation, you should include the name of the author, the article title, the newspaper name, the date of publication, and the page number.1
If the author isn’t listed, you should add the title of the article at the start of the citation.1
This section should use double spaces and must have a hanging indent.1
You should arrange the entries in alphabetical order by the first term in each entry.2
Sources
1 Columbia College. “MLA Citation Guide (9th Edition): Newspaper Article.” January 6, 2023. https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/MLA9/newspapers.
2 IRSC Libraries. “MLA Style Guide, 8th & 9th Editions: Formatting Your Works Cited List.” September 15, 2022. https://irsc.libguides.com/mla/workscitedlist.