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A Quick MLA format date guide to spelling out dates in essays

A Quick MLA format date guide to spelling out dates in essays

Filed Under: Education

Are you trying to analyze how to structure dates in MLA format? This may be stressful for students who have never previously dealt with a style handbook. Here, essay writing services can come to your rescue. The writers have the expertise to work with distinct writing styles, including MLA. However, this handbook is here to explain the basics of times and dates in MLA style.

In entries cited by MLA Works, publication dates are in day-month-year order. If the month has five or more letters, abbreviate it to the first three.

Sometimes it is sufficient to include the year (e.g., when citing a book), but if the source has a more specific publication date, you should usually include it (e.g., when citing a newspaper article or web page). Sometimes you can even include the time of publication in addition to the date (for example, when citing an online comment with a timestamp).

  • 2017 г.
  • Spring 2017
  • March 2017.
  • March 5, 2017.
  • March 5, 2017, 1:15 pm.

Do not use ordinal numbers (e.g. “5th”) or commas in the date in the list of works cited. Do not put a 0 in front of a date consisting of a single digit (e.g., “05”), even if it appears in your source, paperwritingservice.com.

Page Contents

  • Abbreviation of months
  • Levels of detail for MAP dates
  • When to include an access date

Abbreviation of months

All months with five or more letters in their name are abbreviated in the works cited records. Abbreviate to the first three letters followed by a period.

Note that months are not abbreviated in the main text or title, but only in the works cited list.

Levels of detail for MAP dates

When citing in MLA date format always gives the year of publication, but some types of sources give more specific publication dates. For example, journals typically provide the month or season of publication, while newspapers and online articles provide a specific date. As a general rule, specify the level of detail of your source.

The level of detail can sometimes vary depending on why you are citing the source. For example, for an episode of a television series, you usually just give the year, but you can also give the day and month if you are discussing the context in which the series was released.

The table below shows the level of detail usually provided for each type of source. If you have less detail for your source than is shown here, simply provide the maximum detail available (for example, only the year for a web page that has only one year).

When to include an access date

For online sources, MLA recommends that you include an access date for

  1. A source with an unspecified publication date.
  2. A source that is continually updated
  3. A source that may have been deleted since you used it.

At the end of the “Works Cited” entry, write “Available” and then enter the day, month, and year you accessed the source:

But only use access dates for online sources. You should not add an access date, for example, for a printed book with no publication date.

Date ranges

When citing an entire source published over a long period of time (e.g., a television series, a book published in several volumes, an event that took place over several days), you should provide a range of dates, not just a single date.

Use a short dash (-) with no spaces to specify the date range.

Do not repeat the same elements in both dates. For example, if a date range is specified for a single month, do not repeat the month. In a range consisting only of years, you can omit the first two digits of the second year if they are the same as the first year.

  • 2009-15.
  • December 15, 2019-January 22, 2020.
  • March 19-21, 2021.
  • April 27-May 4, 2018.

When citing a publication that is still in progress, leave a space after the short dash to indicate this.

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About Lena Burkut

Lena Burkut is the Content Strategy Editor, SEO Strategist, life influencer, and the owner of Bulk Quotes Now. He loves to write about love, life, and happiness.

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