MLA Style: Writing & Citation

Works Cited List:

Title. Editor statement, First Name Last Name of Editor, Publisher, Year of publication.

The New Jerusalem Bible. General editor, Henry Wansbrough, Doubleday, 1985. 

In-Text Citation:

(Title of Source chapter/book title).

Example: (New Jerusalem Bible 1 Chron. 21.8).

Works Cited List:             

The Bible. Introd. and notes by Robert Carroll and Stephen Prickett, Oxford UP, 1998. Oxford World's Classics. Authorized King James Vers.

In-Text Citation:

(The Bible Rev. 21.3).

Works Cited List:

The Qur'an. Trans. by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, Oxford UP, 2005.

In-Text Citation:

(The Qur'an Joseph 12:69).

* Note: The titles of books of scripture are often abbreviated for the in-text citation. For a full list of abbreviations, consult the MLA Handbook.

* Note: The titles of books of scripture are often abbreviated for the in-text citation. For a full list of abbreviations, consult the MLA Handbook.

* Note: If the edition is based on a named version of the text, the name of the version can be recorded at the end of the entry, as "Authorized King James Vers" is above.

Name of Generic Religious Texts in the Body of Your Paper

Do not italicize or use quotation marks in your paper when referring to a generic religious text. These terms appear without italics or quotation marks when referred to in your paper:

Bible, Old Testament, Genesis, Gospels, Talmud, Qur'an (Koran), Upanishads.

Only italicize titles of individual published editions of religous texts (e.g., The Talmud of the Land of Israel: A Preliminary Translation and Explanation, The Interlinear Bible, etc.) when specifically citing them in your paper.

In-Text Citations

The titles of books of scripture are often abbreviated for the in-text citation. For a full list of abbreviations, consult the MLA Handbook.