How to Cite a Textbook in MLA

A textbook in MLA 9 uses the same core template as any book: Author last name, First name. Title of Textbook. Edition, Publisher, Year. The tricky parts are edition numbers, edited volumes, and chapters written by different authors.

The MLA 9 core template

MLA 9 works from nine core elements. For a standard textbook, you'll use five of them:

1. Author.
2. Title of source.
3. Edition.
4. Publisher.
5. Publication year.

You don't need a URL, DOI, or database name for a physical textbook. If you're reading a digital copy through your library, add the platform (like ProQuest Ebook Central) and the DOI or permalink at the end.

Works Cited entry, single author

Format the author as Last, First. Italicize the title. List the edition as "2nd ed." or "Rev. ed." Skip the edition line entirely if it's the first edition.

Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management. 15th ed., Pearson, 2016.

In-text citation

Use author and page number in parentheses. No comma between them.

(Kotler 142)

If you name the author in your sentence, just put the page number: "Kotler argues that positioning drives price (142)."

Edited textbooks

Lots of intro courses assign anthologies, readers, or coursepacks with an editor instead of a single author. Put the editor's name first and add "editor" after it.

Gilyard, Keith, editor. African American Literature. 2nd ed., Penguin Academics, 2014.

Two editors? List both, keep the label singular for the first slot and swap in "editors."

Lunsford, Andrea A., and John J. Ruszkiewicz, editors. Everything's an Argument. 8th ed., Bedford/St. Martin's, 2019.

Three or more editors: use the first name followed by "et al."

Citing a chapter or reading inside a textbook

This is the case students miss most. When you quote one essay, story, or chapter from an edited textbook, the chapter author goes first and the textbook becomes the container.

Format: Chapter Author. "Chapter Title." Textbook Title, edited by Editor Name, Edition, Publisher, Year, pp. XX-XX.

Tan, Amy. "Mother Tongue." The Norton Reader, edited by Melissa A. Goldthwaite et al., 15th ed., W. W. Norton, 2020, pp. 362-368.

In-text, cite the chapter author, not the editor: (Tan 365).

Multi-volume textbooks

Some science and history textbooks come in two or more volumes. If you only used one volume, say which one.

Stewart, James. Calculus: Early Transcendentals. 8th ed., vol. 2, Cengage Learning, 2016.

If you cite from multiple volumes across your paper, add the volume number in the in-text citation instead: (Stewart 2: 415).

Editions matter

Textbook publishers push new editions every 2 to 4 years, and page numbers shift. Cite the exact edition you read. If your instructor lets you use an older edition, cite that one, not the current one on the publisher's website. A citation for the 8th edition when you read the 10th is a factual error your reader can't verify.

Also: "edition" and "printing" aren't the same. A 2019 printing of the 5th edition is still cited as "5th ed., 2019."

Ebooks and digital textbooks

If you read the textbook through a service like VitalSource, RedShelf, or Perlego, treat the platform as a second container.

Mankiw, N. Gregory. Principles of Economics. 9th ed., Cengage Learning, 2020. VitalSource, bookshelf.vitalsource.com.

Ebooks often don't have stable page numbers. Cite the chapter and section heading instead: (Mankiw, ch. 4, sec. 2).

Custom coursepacks and OER

Custom coursepacks assembled by your professor are usually cited by treating the professor as the editor and the university or copy shop as the publisher.

Rivera, Ana, editor. Introduction to Sociology: SOC 101 Reader. University of Michigan, 2023.

For open educational resources like OpenStax:

Lumen Learning, and OpenStax. Introduction to Psychology. OpenStax, 2020, openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e.

Quick checklist before you submit

• Author last name, first name, ending with a period.
• Title in italics with title case.
• Edition abbreviated ("2nd ed.", not "Second Edition").
• Publisher name shortened (drop "Inc.", "Co.", "Publishers").
• Year only, no month.
• Chapter titles in quotation marks when citing part of an edited book.
• Page range with "pp." for chapters, en dash between numbers (pp. 44-59).

Get any of these wrong and you'll lose easy points. It's the kind of thing graders scan for first.

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