How to Cite an Audio Clip in MLA Format
- 1). Begin the citation with the artist, author or the composer's name. Put the name in the order of last name, first name, middle initial. Put a period followed the artist's name. Do not bold or italicize the name. If the audio clip is an interview, put the name of the interviewee(s) in the same order. Skip this step if it is not possible to locate the information of the artist. For example, if the author's name is Mary A Smith, you would write "Smith, Mary A."
- 2). Write the title of the audio clip, sound recording, radio program or podcast after the artist's name. Write in title fonts - capitalize the first letter of each word. End the title with a period, exclamation mark or question mark as appropriate. Put the entire title in quotation marks. For example, if you were citing a podcast you can cite the title like this: “[Title].”
- 3). Put the narrator's name after the title. Use "Narr." as an abbreviation for narrator. Then, write the narrator's name in the order of first name last name. Place a period at the end of the narrator's name. For example, if the narrator of podcast you are citing is John Doe, you would put “[Title].” Narr. John Doe.
- 4). Write the name of the program in which the audio clip is taken from in italics. Follow the name with a period. Then, write the sponsor, publisher, recording publication of the program in title fonts followed by a comma and the date of publication. Following the previous example, you would put [Name of Program.] in italics, then [Sponsor,] [Date].
- 5). Include the medium in which a work was published, produced or delivered at the end of the citation. Capitalize the medium. Do not italicize, boldface or put it in quotation marks. Place a period at the end of the citation. Typical audio clips are in the medium of "Radio," "Television," "CD," "Audiocassette," "Web," "Film,” “Lecture” and “MP3 file.” Since the podcast has been downloaded, it is treated as an MP3 file. The full citation should look like [Artist's Last Name, First Name, Middle Initial.] ["Title."] Narr. [Narrator's First Name Last Name.] [Name of Program.] [Sponsor,] [Date.] [Medium.]
