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Writing and Citing: MLA 9th Edition: Images, Figures, and Tables

MLA 9th Edition

Illustrative Material

Visual Illustrative Material:

Images/photographs, maps, graphs, or charts should be cited in a format below and labeled as a figure when used in an assignment.

See Figure Example box for formatting information.

Basic Image Format:

Artist's Last Name, First. "Title of digital image."  Date, Website, Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, URL (no https://).

Example:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration. "Apollo 14 Launch." 31 Jan. 1971, Flickr, flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/9460207364/in/album-72157650354621478.

Image Without Author:

“Title of the digital image.” Date, Website, Publisher, URL (no https://).

Example:

"Orange grove - Clewiston, Florida." 1920, Florida Memoryfloridamemory.com/items/show/138653.

Image With No Author, Title, or Date:

Image description. Title of the website, URL (no https://).

Example:

Photograph of person washing hands. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cdc.gov.

Note: You still need to cite the image even if you are missing much of the information. Please try to find images that do provide this information. 

Google Images:

Go to the original location (website) of the image and cite in one of the above formats.

For more about citing images found in online search engines check out MLA Style Center.

Basic Image Format:

(Fig. #) or (Last Name)

Example:

(Fig. 1) or (Warner)

Image Without Author:

(Fig. #) or ("Title of Image")

Example:

(Fig. 2) or ("Orange grove - Clewiston, Florida.")

Image With No Author, Title, or Date:

(Fig. #)

Example:

(Fig. 3)

Additional Resources

For additional assistance and examples on citations, click the links below!

Figure Example

Figure Format:

Below is an example on formatting images and/ or figures:

Ginger Stanley in the grip of the Gill-Man for promo still at Silver Springs.

Fig. 1. Ginger Stanley in the grip of the Gill-Man (Mozert).

Note: If you just include a brief caption, then the reference entry is needed on the works cited page.


OR

Fig. 1. Mozert, Bruce. "Ginger Stanley in the grip of the Gill-Man for promo still at Silver Springs." 1955, Flickr, flickr.com/photos/floridamemory/48992462533/.

Note: If you include the full citation in the caption of the photo AND the image is not cited in-text, no reference entry is needed on the works cited page.
Note: Figures must be numbered in succession throughout the assignment.

Tables

Table Format:

At the top of the table: Tables inserted into an assignment should have a label (Table X) and a brief description of the table if it was not included in the table.

At the bottom of the table: Directly below your table should include the caption, which includes the citation of the source (example: table from website, journal article, etc).

Note: If the table is not cited in-text, there is no need for a reference entry on the works cited page. If the table is cited in the assignment, an in-text citation (Table 1) is needed as well as the reference entry on the works cited page.
Note: Tables must be numbered in succession throughout the assignment.

 

Example:

Table 1

Tuition costs of colleges and universities

Source: "Tuition costs of colleges and universities." Fast Facts, U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2019, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=76.