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How to Cite a Report in MLA

Citing a report.

Report – A document containing the findings of an individual or group. Can include a technical paper, publication, issue brief, or working paper.

Report Citation Structure

Last, First M. Report Title . Publisher, date published, URL (if applicable).

Note: If the author and publisher of the report are the same, start your citation with the title of the report instead. 

First Page of Report

Report Citation Example:

Gorbunova, Yulia and Konstantin Baranov. Laws of Attrition: Crackdown on Russia’s Civil Society After Putin’s Return to the Presidency . Human Rights Watch, 2013.

Report In-text Citation Structure:

(Author Last Name(s) Page #)

Report In-text Citation Example: 

(Gorbunova and Konstantin 4)

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Sample Paper
• Works Cited
• MLA 8 Updates
• MLA 9 Updates
• View MLA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all MLA Examples

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To cite a report in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author or the organization name, title of the report, and publication year. The templates for in-text citations and works-cited-list entries of a report, along with examples, are given below:

Report created and published by the same organization

In-text citation template and example:

Use the organization’s name in both prose and parenthetical citation.

Citation in prose: Pew Research Center

Parenthetical: (Pew Research Center)

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

Title of the Chapter . Organization Name, Publication Date.

Audio and Podcasting Fact Sheet . Pew Research Center, July 2018.

Different authors and publisher

Use the below template when the author and publisher are different. For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues.” In subsequent citations, use only the surname of the first author followed by “and others” or “and colleagues.” In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the first author followed by “et al.”

Citation in prose:

First instance: Kim Parker and others . . . Or Kim Parker and colleagues

Subsequent occurrences: Parker and others . . . Or Parker and colleagues

Parenthetical:

. . . (Parker et al.)

Surname, First Name, et al. Title of the Report . Organization Name, Publication Date, URL.

Parker, Kim, et al. About Half of Lower-Income Americans Report Household Job or Wage Loss Due to COVID-19 . Pew Research Center, Apr. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/ 04 /21/about-half-of-lower-income-americans-report-household-job-or-wage-loss-due-to-covid-19/ .

To cite a government document in MLA style, you need to have basic information including the author or the organization name, title of the document, and publication year. The templates for in-text citations and works-cited-list entries of a government document, along with examples, are given below:

For citations in prose, use the first name and surname of the author in the first occurrence. In subsequent citations, use only the surname. In parenthetical citations, always use only the surname of the author.

First mention: Ferdinand Hayden . . .

Subsequent occurrences: Hayden . . .

. . . (Hayden)

Surname, First Name. Title of the Government Document . Organization Name, Publication Date.

Hayden, Ferdinand. Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of Adjacent Territories . Government Printing Office, 1872.

MLA Citation Examples

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MLA Quick Citation Guide

• In-Text Citations
• Citing Online Journal, Newspaper & Magazine Articles
• Citing E-books & Online Books
• Online (Streaming) Film, Video, & Audio

Formatting Notes

• Websites and Blogs

Online Images

Email, twitter, & online comments.

• Citing Print Resources
• Citing Art, Films, Television, & Music

Unless directed otherwise by your instructor, when using MLA 8 Style for your paper, follow these steps for formatting your citations:

• Start your works cited list on a separate page at the end of your paper
• Double space all of your citations, but don't add extra spaces between citations. Spacing should be consistent for the whole list.
• Use a hanging indent for each citation by indenting the second line and any following lines of a citation. 

The Purdue Owl site has a helpful page with more detailed information about formatting:

• MLA Works Cited Page: General Format

Due to some limitations on this guide's design, many of the examples do not use double spaces and hanging indents (they don't work well with responsive design). Any color-coded images of citations, however, do show citations with standard MLA style spacing and indents.

Websites & Blogs

• Author [if available]. Name of Site, Sponsor or Organization Publishing the Site [if available], Date of publication or last update [if available], URL [or DOI or permalink]. Date of access [optional but recommended].
• If the website has no author, begin with the title of the website.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, 2018, https://www.chicagoshakes.com/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2018.

Page from a Website

• Author [if available]. "Name of Webpage." Name of Site, Sponsor or Organization Publishing the Site [if available], Date of publication or last update [if available], URL [or DOI or permalink]. Date of access [optional but recommended].
• If there is no author, begin with the title of the website.

Examples: 

Barthell, Michael, and Amy Mitchell. "Americans’ Attitudes About the News Media Deeply Divided Along Partisan Lines." Pew Research Center, 10 May 2017, http://www.journalism.org/2017/05/10/americans-attitudes-about-the-news-media-deeply-divided-along-partisan-lines/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2017.

Heiner, Heidi Anne. "The Annotated Girl Without Hands." SurLaLune Fairy Tales, 7 July 2007, http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html. Accessed 15 Aug. 2017.

• Artist [if available]. Title of Image. Date of Composition. Name of the Website Where You Found the Image, Publisher of the website [if different from the name of the website], URL. Access Date [optional, but encouraged].
• If the artist name or username is not available, begin with the title.
• If the image has no title, provide a brief description.

"Dancing at Etsi Bravo." 2015. Inland 360, inland360.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/dancingatEtsiBravo-300x200.jpg. Accessed 8 Sept. 2017.

"Llama cake." 2018. Cake Wrecks, http://www.cakewrecks.com/display/ShowImage?imageUrl=/storage/TaraDoy.ow.EasterLlama28prettygreatbutcreepy29.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1530075541695. Accessed 28 June 2018.

Sherald, Amy. Former First Lady, Michelle Obama. 2018. National Portrait Gallery, npg.si.edu/sites/default/files/Single_michelle.jpg.  

• Use standard capitalization.

Smythe, Eleanor. "Many Thanks for Volunteering!" Received by Veronica Frank and Charles Nicholson, 4 Sept. 2016.

Zeltner, Abby. "Re: Author Signing in the CUB." Received by Linda Morris, 23 Nov. 2017.

For more about citing tweets and Twitter threads, look at the MLA Style Center's post, which includes information on how to deal with twitter threads and tweets with no text: 

• How do I cite a Twitter thread or conversation in my text and in my works-cited list? 

Short Tweet (less than 140 characters)

• Twitter handle of the tweet’s author [if real name is known, include it in parenthesis]. "entire text of tweet." Twitter, Date of tweet, URL. Access date [optional].

@viet_t_nguyen (Viet Than Nguyen). "Rather than respond to all my hate mail individually, or ignoring them, I think I'll put all those email addresses into a bcc file and send those people every one of my future op-eds regardless of whether they want them or not." Twitter, 16 May 2018, twitter.com/viet_t_nguyen/status/996991192196763648. Accessed 17 May 2018.

Long Tweet (more than 140 characters)

• Twitter handle of the tweet’s author [if real name is known, include it in parenthesis]. "beginning of tweet followed by an ellipsis. . . ." Twitter, Date of tweet, URL. Access date [optional].

@LibnOfCongress (Carla Hayden). "Access means accessibility here at @librarycongress. . . ." Twitter, 2 May 2018, https://twitter.com/LibnOfCongress/status/991666499722137600

Comment on an Online Article or Post

• Author [often this is a username]. Comment on "Title of Article or Post Being Commented on." Name of Website [if available], date, time [if available], URL. Access Date [optional but recommended]. 

millennialmania. Comment on "Being the Song." Libba Bray, 10 Oct. 2016, 11:18 a.m., https://libbabray.com/being-the-song/.

Pusher of Buttons. Comment on "Video Games May Protect Mental Health and Avert Trauma, Addiction." Ars Technica, 29 Mar. 2017, 8:48 a.m., https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/video-games-may-tidy-and-protect-mental-health-averting-trauma-addiction/?comments=1. Accessed 20 Jan. 2018.

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• Last Updated: Jun 30, 2022 12:24 PM
• URL: https://libguides.libraries.wsu.edu/QuickCiteMLA

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Polling, surveys, & public opinion: citing sources.

• Background Information
• Local Opinion Polls
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• Tracking Polls

Citing Sources

Citation management software.

Capture and organize citations from the Web, journals, library catalogs, etc.

A free, open-source program from the George Mason University.

• Citing Government Documents A guide created by the Government Information Librarian at Columbia
• Effective Writing in the Public Sector Available in hard copy in Lehman Reference, JF1525.R46 S83 2014
• Writing Public Policy: A Practical Guide to Communicating in the Policy Making Process Available in h ard copy in Lehman Reference, JF1525.C59 S64 2010

Writing Style Manuals

• APA Website For help with APA style citation try the Instructional Aids, Tutorials, and Guides   The Manual of the American Psychological Association is also available in the libraries. Call Number: BF76.7 .P83
• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing
• Chicago Style Guide Website
• For help citing sources, visit the Quick Guide to see examples of how to use Chicago-style citation.
• Turabian Style Guide Website A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers Call Number: LB2369 .T8 2007
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MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.