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MLA 9author–date

How to cite a book chapter in MLA 9

Short answer

How do you cite a book chapter in MLA 9?

You need chapter author(s), year, chapter title, book editor(s), book title, page range, publisher. The reference list entry looks like this:

Moon, Jennifer. "Reflection in Higher Education Learning." Handbook of Reflective Practice, Routledge, 2013, pp. 45-62.

The matching in-text citation is (Moon 45).

Step by step

Building the reference

Do it automatically

  1. Gather the details

    You need: Chapter author(s), Year, Chapter title, Book editor(s), Book title, Page range, Publisher. Take them from the source itself, not from a database record, which is often incomplete.

  2. Order the elements

    MLA 9 is an author–date style, so the author and year come first. Follow the pattern in the example below exactly, including its punctuation.

  3. Add the in-text citation

    Every reference needs a matching in-text citation. In MLA 9 that is (Moon 45). Missing or mismatched in-text citations are penalised more often than formatting slips.

  4. Check against your own guide

    Institutional variants exist, particularly in Harvard. Where your department's published guide differs from any generator, the department's guide wins.

What you need

Details to collect

  • Chapter author(s)
  • Year
  • Chapter title
  • Book editor(s)
  • Book title
  • Page range
  • Publisher

Watch out

Mistakes this pairing invites

  • Citing the book's editor as the chapter's author.
  • Omitting the chapter page range, which most styles require.
  • Treating an edited collection as a single-author book.
  • The list is called 'Works Cited', not 'Bibliography' or 'References'.
  • In-text citations give a page number, not a year.

Compare

The same book chapter in all eight styles

  • Harvard

    Moon, J. (2013) 'Reflection in higher education learning', in Handbook of Reflective Practice. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 45-62.

  • APA 7

    Moon, J. (2013). Reflection in higher education learning. In Handbook of Reflective Practice (2nd ed.) (pp. 45-62). Routledge.

  • MLA 9

    This page

    Moon, Jennifer. "Reflection in Higher Education Learning." Handbook of Reflective Practice, Routledge, 2013, pp. 45-62.

  • Chicago 17

    Moon, Jennifer. "Reflection in Higher Education Learning." In Handbook of Reflective Practice, 45-62. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.

  • Vancouver

    Moon J. Reflection in higher education learning. 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge; 2013. p. 45-62.

  • OSCOLA

    Jennifer Moon, 'Reflection in Higher Education Learning' in Handbook of Reflective Practice (Routledge 2013)

  • IEEE

    J. Moon, Reflection in Higher Education Learning, 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.

  • AMA 11

    Moon J. Reflection in higher education learning. 2nd ed. Routledge; 2013.

Frequently asked questions

How do you cite a book chapter in MLA 9?
Moon, Jennifer. "Reflection in Higher Education Learning." Handbook of Reflective Practice, Routledge, 2013, pp. 45-62. — that is the reference list entry. The matching in-text citation is (Moon 45). You need chapter author(s), year, chapter title, book editor(s), book title, page range, publisher.
What details do I need to cite a book chapter?
Chapter author(s), Year, Chapter title, Book editor(s), Book title, Page range, Publisher. If a detail is genuinely unavailable, most styles have a defined substitute — for example 'n.d.' or 'no date' where no publication year exists — rather than simply omitting the element.
What is the in-text citation for a book chapter in MLA 9?
(Moon 45). It appears in parentheses at the point the source is used, not only at the end of the paragraph.