Skip to Main Content

French 272: Contemporary France

Modern Language Association (MLA) Style, 9th edition

A Note About Titles

Watch out! In MLA Style, titles in English are written out in "title case" - every word is capitalized (except for small words like "a", "an", "the", etc.). However, titles in French are written in "sentence case" - only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized. 

 

English-language titles:

Book: French Cultural Studies: Criticism at the Crossroads

 

Article: "Politics at Play: Locating Human Rights, Refugees and Grassroots Humanitarianism in the Calais Jungle."

 

French-language titles:

Book: Dans la peau d'un migrant: de Peshawar à Calais, enquete sur le "cinquième monde"

 

Article: "De l’utilisation de Facebook à des fins de mobilisation par le groupe Sauvons Calais."

Example Works Cited

Journal Article

 

A journal article citation must include both the article title and the journal title. First, write the author's last name, a comma, and then the author's first name (and initial if it is available), followed by a period. Then write the full title of the article and put quotation marks around it. If the title includes a book or similar, be sure to italicize just that part. Next, the full title of the journal in which the article appears, a comma, and then the volume (vol.) and issue (no.) information, if you have it, followed by the page numbers.

 

​Zimra, Clarisse. "Disorienting the Subject in Djebar's L'amour, la fantasia." Yale French Studies, vol. 87, 1995, pp. 149-70.

 

Granatstein, Jack L. "Le Québec et le plébiscite de 1942 sur la conscription." Revue d'histoire de l'Amérique française, vol. 27, no. 1, 1973, pp. 43-62.

 

Newspaper Article

 

A newspaper article citation is similar to a journal article (above) but if it is available you should include the specific day and month of publication. If you accessed the article online, include the full URL. It is helpful to include the date you accessed the article.

 

Rochebouet, Béatrice de. "Un film inédit sur Saint-Exupéry aux enchères". Le Figaro, 30 Mar. 2010. http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/2010/03/30/03004-20100330ARTFIG00454-un-film-inedit-sur-saint-exupery-aux-encheres-.php. Accessed 4 Jan 2019.