Skip to Main Content
Douglas College Library About Us Articles & Databases Research Guides Services Faculty News Events Learning Centre

MLA (9th ed.) Citation Style: Containers

Containers

Containers

A container is a work that contains another work (p. 134-7). Some examples include:

  • a journal/magazine/newspaper is the container of an article published in it
  • a website or database can be the container of a post, comment, review, song or audio file, image, ebook, etc
  • a vinyl album or CD is the container of a song
  • TV series, podcasts, and radio programs are the containers of individual episodes
  • Blackboard (or other Learning Management Systems) is a container if something (lecture, PowerPoint slides, video) is published on it
  • Facebook is the container of a users' comments or posts

If a work is self-contained (e.g. a print version of a novel or the original theatrical release of a film), the Title of Container element is omitted (p.135).

Sometimes the source that you are citing has two containers. For example, for articles found in a database, the first container is the name of the journal. The second container is the database where you found the article. 

One Container Example

Author: Miller, Laura

Title of source: "The Evolutionary Argument for Dr. Seuss."

Container 1

 Salon

18 May 2009

 www.salon.com/2009/05/18/evocriticism/.

One Container Citation Example

Miller, Laura. “The Evolutionary Argument for Dr. Seuss.” Salon, 18 May 2009, www.salon.com/2009/05/18/evocriticism/.

Two Container Example

Lorensen, Jutta.

“Between Image and Word, Color, and Time: Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.”

Container 1

African American Review,

vol. 40, no. 3,

2006,

pp. 571-86.

Container 2

Academic Search Complete

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=24093790&site=ehost-live.

Two Container Citation Example

Lorensen, Jutta. “Between Image and Word, Color, and Time: Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.” African American Review, vol. 40, no. 3, 2006, pp. 571-86. Academic Search Complete, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=24093790&site=ehost-live.