Formatting the Works Cited Page (MLA)

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jennifer Janechek - IBM Quantum

Entries

The entries should be alphabetized based on the author’s last name. According to MLA guidelines, author names come first in an entry, then titles, then the publication information (city of publication, publisher, and date of publication), and then the type of media—the details for different types of sources vary, but this is the general structure followed. Note that if the city is not “well-known” and there is more than one city with that name, unlike New York and London, then the state or territory should be included after the city, e.g., “Roswell, GA: 2006.” If no name is provided for a given source, the title of the work/webpage will take the place of the author’s last name and should still be placed in its proper alphabetical location. Also note that “university” and “press” are always abbreviated “U” and “P” in Works Cited entries.

Here are some guidelines for commonly used sources:

Single-Authored Book

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Type of media.

Example:

Bratlinger, Patrick. Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism, 1830–1914. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1988. Print.

Book with Multiple Authors

Last Name, First Name (of first author listed), and First Name Last Name (of second author, etc.). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Type of media.

Example:

Sabherhagen, Fred, and James V. Hart. Bram Stoker’s Dracula: A Francis Ford Coppola Film. New York: Signet, 1992. Print.

Article or Chapter in an Edited Collection (or Textbook)

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Title of Book. Ed. First Name Last Name (of Editor). Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication. Page Range of Article. Type of Media.

Example:

Vieregge, Quentin. “Writing as Process.” Negotiating Writing Spaces. Ed. Jennifer Yirinec and Lauren Cutlip. Plymouth, MI: Hayden-McNeil, 2011. 57–59. Print.

Article in a Print Journal

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Title of Journal. Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): Page Range of Article. Print.

Example:

Rogers, Pat. “Crusoe’s Home.” Essays in Criticism 24.4 (Oct. 1974): 375–90. Print.

Journal Article Accessed Using an Electronic Database

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): Page Range of Article. Database. Web. Date of Access.

Example:

Lamont, Rose C. “Coma versus Comma: John Donne’s Holy Sonnets in Edson’s WIT.” The Massachusetts Review 40.4 (Winter 1999–2000): 569–75. JSTOR. Web. 30 April 2012.

Article Accessed from an Online Journal

Last Name, First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Name Volume #.Issue # (Date of publication): n.pag. Web. Date of Access.

Example:

Haynsworth, Leslie. “All the Detective’s Men: Binary Coding of Masculine Identity in the Sherlock Holmes Stories.” Victorians Institute Journal 38 (2010): n.pag. Web. 16 May 2012.

Article from a Webpage

Last Name, First Name (if given). “Title of Webpage.” Website Title. Publisher of website (often found at the bottom of the page), date of last update. Web. Date of Access. See (URL is only necessary if you think your reader won’t easily be able to locate the webpage).

Example:

“Opening Night: Wit Starring Cynthia Nixon.” Broadway.com. Broadway.com, Inc., 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

Entire Website

Website Title. Publisher of website, date of last update. Date of Access. See (URL is only necessary if you think your reader won’t easily be able to locate the webpage).

Example:

Broadway.com. Broadway.com, Inc., 2012. Web. 12 Feb. 2012.

For information about how to format the Works Cited entries for different sources, consult The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). Or, consult the Purdue OWL: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/06/.