Citing YouTube

April 10, 2008 10:29 AM

Any advice on how to cite a YouTube clip in MLA format? Suggestions for both the parenthetical reference and bibliographic citation would be much appreciated. Email here.
posted by eric1halfb to writing & language (4 comments total)

My advice would be to just follow the MLA guidelines for citing online resources. Here's a page with examples (and another).
posted by box at 10:39 AM on April 10, 2008

Three more sets of instructions: Purdue's writing lab, University of West Georgia and the MLA themselves.

If this isn't enough information, one possible next step would be to look at the most recent edition of the MLA handbook. Your local public or academic library will have a copy.
posted by box at 10:44 AM on April 10, 2008

www.easybib.com is the easiest way to create a bibliography. You can use MLA or APA format, with or without annotations.

Right now it's apparently constipated (says it's experiencing a huge "load" right now - never had that happen before) but I believe the drop-down menu allows you to choose a video you access online and then it walks you through various choices.

My son is doing this now for a National History Day project with a You Tube video and it was fairly clear-cut. It also allows you to export it to a Word doc - just be sure to save as you go along. It really is a HUGE time-saver and helps to dot your I's and cross your T's (MLA-wise).

Oh, and you don't need to purchase the premium version - you can do everything you need for a quality bibliography with the free version.
posted by caroljean63 at 10:52 AM on April 10, 2008

Great! Thanks everyone, especially caroljean63. easybib is a great resource. I find that the MLA manual is pretty impractical when it comes to citing internet sources, not to mention confusing. Thanks again for the help.
posted by eric1halfb at 12:49 PM on April 10, 2008