How to Work with Works Cited Page in MLA Style
Works Cited is the name for a page of references at the end of academic work in MLA citation style. Other names for it in different styles are Bibliography or Reference List. All the works listed in Works Cited should correspond to those cited within the paper. In-text citations are used there, and in this list, you should give more detailed information about the sources. The Works Cited page should follow the format of the main text - it should be left-aligned, double-spaced, and have 1-inch margins. Therefore, it should follow these rules:
- The title of this page (Works Cited) should be in the center, written in plain text without any underlines, bolds, or italics.
- There is no extra space between entries that need to be left-aligned and double-spaced.
- Create a header for your whole paper, including this page, with your last name and number of the page; this header should be located in the top right corner.
- All the entries have to be alphabetized by the first letters of the authors’ last names.
- When the entry is more than one line, use a hanging indent of 0.5 inches.
Important Recommendation about the Format
Recommendations for the MLA citation style used for Works Cited
- When you indicate page numbers, skip the first figure of the page number for more efficiency. For example, if the article you have used in your paper is on pages 346 through 394 of a journal, skip the first ‘3’, and write pp. 346-94 (connected with a hyphen). If it is one page, use p.24 but not pp.24.
- The article may have been initially published in a printed form, but you have taken it online, so indicate the online database in italics but not the information about the printed source or subscription.
- If the source is only online, include the location of it on the Net. It can be a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) or a URL (delete ‘https://’ from it). The DOI and URL are the last elements in a row, so end them with a period.
- All the entries on the Works Cited page finish with a period, too.
How to Make a Hanging Indent
The indent should be 0.5 inches. You use it when the entry consists of more than one line. It is helpful if a reader wants to find where one entry ends and the other starts in the list.
You can create the indent in Microsoft by highlighting the whole list and then opening the Paragraph tab with a right click. Choose Hanging from a drop-down menu in the Indentation Special tab, and set the size of the indent (0.5 inches = 1.27 cm).
You can do almost the same thing in Google Docs, but the steps will differ a bit. After you highlight the whole list, click on Format, then find Align and indent, and pick out Indentation options. You will also see the drop-down menu, so pick out Hanging and set the same parameters for the indent (0.5 inches = 1.27 cm).
What Else Should You Consider in the Works Cited Page Formatting?
Some changes to MLA were introduced in 2021. They include:
- Online apps and databases can be cited only if they are the only containers for the works you use in your paper. For example , Google Books cannot be cited as a source because almost all the papers and books published there have their counterparts in a printed version. The same should be considered about the Dropbox app. Even if you find a PDF file there and use it, this paper is likely to be published somewhere else. As for such a popular database as JSTOR, it is usually cited.
- Cite the author of a book or video by their pseudonym or stage name that is widely known to the audience. For example, never cite the author of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” as Samuel Clemens (the real name) because he became famous as Mark Twain.
- Write annotations in annotated bibliographies not more than one paragraph and place them at the end of a source entry. Use a one-inch indentation and formulate the content in complete sentences.
- Capitalization is used for every meaningful word in the title (prepositions, conjunctions, or articles are not capitalized): The Art of Military Affair.
- You do not use underlining in MLA entries. Use italics for larger works or containers and quotation marks for the titles of shorter sources.
How to Make Works Cited Entries
The key elements of any entry in the MLA Works Cited page are:
- ✔️ author
- ✔️ Title of the Source
- ✔️ Title of the Container
- ✔️ other contributors
- ✔️ version
- ✔️ number
- ✔️ publisher
- ✔️ publication date
- ✔️ location
There are nine such elements all in all, but you need to use only those of them that are relevant to the source you are citing.
Book
Here, you need to use the author’s name, the italicized title, the publisher, and the year of publication.
ExampleCook, Claire Kehrward. Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing. Houghton Muflin, 1985.
You will need to include other contributors (for example, editors or translators) and the edition number or volume, and you have to cite them too.
Chapter of the Book
If you take your source from the book, which is a collection of chapters written by different authors, cite the author and title of the work you have used. As for the container, it is italicized and includes the information about the whole book, its editors (if any), and the page range where this chapter is found.
ExamplesBarzun, Jacques. “Behind the Blue Pencil: Censorship or Creeping Creativity?” On Writing, Editing, and Publishing. U of Chicago P, 1986, pp.120-126.
Such a format is also appropriate for anthologies of plays, poems, or stories.
Hooker, Jeremy. “Strawberry Field”. Cut of the Light: Poems 1965-2005, edited by Jeremy Hooker, Enitharmon Press, 2006, p. 251.
Articles from Journals
Journals usually have numbers for their volumes and issues. However, you do not need to indicate a publisher here. If you have found the article in some database, the name of this database should be used as the second container. You also need to indicate the DOI for a consistent link to the article.
ExampleStafford-Clark, David. “The Roots of Prejudice.” Patterns of Prejudice, vol. 1, no. 1, Informa UK Limited, Jan.1967, pp. 4-5. Crossref, https://doi: 10.1080/0031322x.1967.9968637.
If you cannot find DOI, use the URL or permanent link instead. When you are using the URL, omit ‘https://’. This addition, however, is always used with DOI.
ExampleBoyle, Rebecca. “Toward a Grand Unified Theory of Snowflakes.” Quanta Magazine, December 19, 2019. www.quantamagazine.org/toward-a-grand-unified-theory-of-snowflakes.20121219/
Website
When you need to cite a website, or it can be an online media like a magazine or newspaper, you may not see the publisher, so you compose this entry with the URL without the prefix ‘https://’. If there is no date of publication, include the date when you accessed the article.
ExampleMatheson, Andrienne, “MLA Website Citation Examples.” Bibliography, 10 Aug. 2020, www.bibliography.com/mla/mla-website-citation-examples/.
How to Cite Authors
There are also some important rules concerning citing authors’ names. Usually, they are inverted. However, when there are two authors, the second name is not inverted. When there are three and more names, you write only the name of the first author and then add ‘et al’ (meaning ‘and others’ in Latin). If the author is an organization, we write the name of this organization instead of the individual person’s name.
Williams, Paul
Williams, Paul and Enthony Harris
Williams, Paul, et al.
Charity Box.
You may encounter a source that does not have the name of the author. Use the title of the source instead. When you make an in-text citation of this source, use the reduced title.
“Examples of Race and Ethnicity.” Your Dictionary, 27 June 2020,
www.examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-races-and-ethnicity.html.
(Examples of Race)
Never use titles, such as Sir, Dr., or St, or degrees (MA or PhD) with names. Though, you can include ‘Jr/’ or ‘II’ if needed. For example, if you cite the work by PhD Robert Jones Presley, Jr., your citation will look the following - Presley, Robert Jones, Jr.
If there are more than one works by the same author in your list, use the alphabetical order for the titles. Don’t write the author’s name every time, but use three hyphens instead.
Lawrence, James. A Thorough Look at the Theory of Numbers. [...]
- - -. Some Views on the Figures and Their Meaning. [...]
When this author appears individually for one work and as an editor of the collection or a member of the group, list their individual work first.
Morris, Andrew. The Rules of Survival.
Morris, Andrew, and Susan Peterson. The Psychological Aspects of Victimization.
If there is no author in some source, you include it by its title into the overall alphabetical list.
Dowles, Kristopher. [...]
Don’t Give Up [...]
Dwyton, Peter [...]
Citing Sources and Containers
When a source is a part of a larger book or collection, its title is always in quotation marks. They may be chapters, articles in periodicals, pages of websites. The container (the name of the entire book or periodical) is italicized.
ExampleDworkin, Ronald W. “Science, Faith, and Alternative Medicine.” Policy Review, vol. 108, no. 2, 2001, pp. 3-19.
When you cite the title of a self-contained source, it is italicized.
ExampleBowman-Kruhm, Mary. Coping with Discrimination and Prejudice. New York, The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 1999.
Final Thoughts
Now, you have a more detailed idea of how to cope with the Works Cited page in MLA citation style format. Be attentive to the alphabetical order. You need to know how to place the sources correctly. Mind the punctuation of your entries as well. It is always important.
If you feel confused about the Works Cited list creation, you can use the online Citation Generator. This reliable software can help you be on the safe side.