MLA Citation Style 9th Edition: Supplemental Elements

Supplemental elements may be included if they are relevant to the source and/or your use of the source. Some supplemental elements are placed at the end of the Works Cited entry, while others are placed near a relevant core element (usually after the Title of Source).  Please consult sections 5.105-.5.118 (pages 208-216) of the MLA Handbook 9th ed. 

Supplemental elements include:

• Date of Original Publication (MLA 5.108)
  • Provide the date of original publication if it helps reader to find out the work's date of creation or relation to other works. Put the date of original publication immediately after the source's title.
  • Example: 
    Spielberg, Stephen, director. Close encounters of the third kind. 1977. Director's cut, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2007.


• Section of a work labeled generically such as the introduction, preface, foreword, afterword, etc. that you want to emphasize. (MLA 5.109)
  • Example: Obama, Barack. Preface. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama, The Crown Publishing Group, 2020.
  • For a section that has a unique title and a generic label, include the generic label only if you think it will be helpful for your readers.
  • Example:.

    • Levitt, Steven D. “An Explanatory Note.” Preface. Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, William Morrow, 2009.

      can be cited as:

    • Levitt, Steven D. “An Explanatory Note.” Freakonomics : a Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, William Morrow, 2009.

• City of Publication (MLA 5.67): 
  • only provide city of publication if the source is associated with its city of publication (especially pre-1900 books), the name of city helps to identify different versions of source (e.g., British ed. vs U.S. ed.), or to help locate an unfamiliar publisher (e.g., a locally published newspaper) . 
  • Example (a book): Tupper, Frederick. The Shaksperean mob. London, 1938.
  • Example (a local newspaper):  The Daily Journal [San Mateo]
• Total Number of Volumes (MLA 5.117):
  • Example:
    

    Twain, Mark. The adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mississippi ed., 1923. Mark Twain's works, vol. 1, Harper & brothers, 1923-1924. 22 vols.

• Series Name and Number (MLA 5.115):
  • Not italicized or in quotations.
  • Example: A Song of Ice and Fire 3.
  • Example of book series: 

Soumerai, Eve Nussbaum., and Carol D. Schulz. Daily Life During the Holocaust . Greenwood Press, 1998. Daily Life Through History.

• Unexpected Type of Work/Medium of Publication (MLA 5.112)
  • Transcript. 
    • Example: 

      Invisibilia. Hosted by Alix Spiegel and Lulu Miller, National Public Radio, 17 June 2016. Transcript.

  • Address.
    • Example:

      Brown, Edmund G., Jr. State of the State Address. 21 Jan, 2016, California State Capitol, Sacramento. Address. 

• Dissertations and Theses (MLA 5.113)
  • Add the degree and the type of thesis or dissertations at the end of the citation.
    • Example:

       Taylor, Susannah. Effacing and Obscuring Autonomy: the Effects of Structural Violence on the Transition to Adulthood of Street Involved Youth. 2017. U  of Ottawa, PhD dissertation. 

• Information about a Prior Publication (MLA 5.108):
  • Originally published in Harper's Magazine, Jan. 2007, pp. 2-10.


• Including the Number and Session of Congress for bills, reports, or resolutions from the United States Congress (MLA 5.118)
  • 107th Congress, 2nd Session, House Report 203.


• Date of Access (MLA 5.111): 
  • MLA Handbook suggests including date of access for online works (day, month, and year.
  • Example: Accessed 30 June 2021.