How to Cite Short Stories in MLA

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

Last Updated: January 18, 2023 References

Short stories can be great resources for a literary essay or a paper for an English class. To cite a short story, you have to include an in-text citation, which will take the form of "(O'Connor 10)" and then create a citation in the Works Cited page, which will look like this: "O’Connor, Flannery. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’ The Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor. New York: FSG, 2000. 255-356. Print."

Sample Citations

In Text Citations for a Short Story in MLA

Method 1

Method 1 of 2:

Writing In-Text Citations

1
Put quotations around short quotes from the text. If you are using content from the short story that is 3 lines or shorter, you can place it in text in quotes. This will let the reader know you are quoting directly from the short story.^{[1]
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- For example, you may write, “In the short story 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the Misfit character notes, ‘I found out the crime don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.’”
2
Use block quotes for a quote longer than 4 lines. If you are taking lines word for word out of the story that are very long, indent them to the left in block quotes so they stand out on the page. When you use block quotes, you do not need to use quotation marks as well.^{[2]
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Trustworthy Source
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines
Go to source}
- For example, you may write, “The aftermath of the shooting is described with brutality and plainness by O’Connor:
  
  ‘She was a talker, wasn't she?’ Bobby Lee said, sliding down the ditch with a yodel.
  ’She would of been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’
  ‘Some fun!’ Bobby Lee said.
  ‘Shut up, Bobby Lee,’ The Misfit said. ‘It's no real pleasure in life.’
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3
Place the citation in parentheses at the end of the quote. The in-text citation should always appear at the end of the quoted text in parentheses. Place periods or commas after the citation, not before it.^{[3]
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- For example, you may write, “In the short story 'A Good Man is Hard to Find,' the Misfit character notes, ‘I found out the crime don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it’ (O’Connor 10).”
- Or you may write, “The aftermath of the shooting is described with brutality and plainness by O’Connor:
  
  ‘She was a talker, wasn't she?’ Bobby Lee said, sliding down the ditch with a yodel.
  ’She would of been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’
  ‘Some fun!’ Bobby Lee said.
  ‘Shut up, Bobby Lee,’ The Misfit said. ‘It's no real pleasure in life’(O'Connor 23)."
4
Include the author’s last name and the page number in the citation. Put a space, rather than a comma, between the author’s name and the page number. If there are multiple authors, separate their last names with a comma.^{[4]
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- For example, you may write a citation such as: “(O’Connor 23)” or “(Gaitskill 12).”

Method 2

Method 2 of 2:

Creating a Citation for the Works Cited Page

1
Begin the citation with the author’s last and first name. Note the author of the short story in the citation, placing a comma between their last and first name. If there are multiple authors, use "and" to separate their names.^{[5]
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- For example, you may write, “O’Connor, Flannery” or “Erdrich, Louise, and Diaz, Junot.”
2
Include the title of the short story in quotation marks. For example, you may write, "O’Connor, Flannery. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find'" or "Erdrich, Louise. ‘The Flower.’"
3
Note the title of the collection or anthology in italics. If you found the short story online, you do not need to include the title of the collection or anthology.^{[6]
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- For example, you may write, “O’Connor, Flannery. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’ The Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor.” or “Erdrich, Louise. ‘The Flower.’ The Best American Short Stories 2016.”
4
Write the editor's name, if applicable. Put “Ed.” and then note the editor of the anthology, if listed. You do not need to include the editor's name if the short story is from a short story collection.^{[7]
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- For example, you may write, “Erdrich, Louise. ‘The Flower.’ The Best American Short Stories 2016, Ed. by Junot Diaz.”
5
Include the publisher's location, name, and the year the book was published. The publisher's location should be noted by city. If you cannot find publisher information for a short story you found online, you do not need to include it.^{[8]
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- For example, you may write, “O’Connor, Flannery. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’ The Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor. New York: FSG, 2000.” Or you may write, “Erdrich, Louise. ‘The Flower.’ The Best American Short Stories 2016, Ed. by Junot Diaz, New York: Harper Collins, 2016.”
6
Include the name of the website in italics if you found the short story online. Put the name of the website in the citation so the reader knows where they can find the story online. You do not need to include a URL for the website.^{[9]
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- For example, you may write, “Gaitskill, Mary. ‘Something Better Than This.’ Fictionaut.'"
7
Cite the page numbers for the story if it is not web-based. Note the page names of the short story in the source text. If you are citing a short story from a website, you do not need to include page numbers.^{[10]
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- For example, you may write, “Erdrich, Louise. ‘The Flower.’ The Best American Short Stories 2016, Ed. by Junot Diaz, New York: Harper Collins, 2016. 324-414.”
8
Note the medium of the short story. If the short story is from a printed book, use “Print” for the medium. If the short story is from a website, use “Web” for the medium and note the date you accessed the site.^{[11]
X
Trustworthy Source
Purdue Online Writing Lab
Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines
Go to source}
- For example, you may write, “O’Connor, Flannery. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.’ The Collected Stories of Flannery O’Connor. New York: FSG, 2000. 255-356. Print.”
- Or you may write, “Gaitskill, Mary. ‘Something Better Than This.’ Fictionaut. Web. 12 December 2017.”

Community Q&A

Question

How do I cite the same author?

Tom De Backer

Top Answerer

Every time you quote a work, you must include a citation. If you quote the same work more than once, you must include a citation of that same work every time you quote it. You use page numbers in your citation to immediately direct the reader to the page where the quote can be found. You can, however, also group the citations and and link to the same single entry in your bibliography every time you quote that same work without using page numbers.