Create an MLA Works Cited Page

How to use this guide: The following examples explain how to write sources in a works cited page and show you how to insert the source in your text.

Article
Authors last name, first name. Name of the article. Name of the magazine / journal volume (date): page number.
Type of source Sample entry in reference list

Journal Article

Dabundo, Laura. "'The Voice of the Mute': Wordsworth and the Ideology of Romantic Silences." Christianity and Literature 43.1 (1995): 21-35. In-Text: (Dabundo 27)

Magazine Article

Alpern, David M. "Has Moscow Violated SALT?" Newsweek 22 Oct. 1984: 32. In-Text: (Alpern 32)

Newspaper Article

Crossette, Barbara. "India Lodges First Charges in Arms Scandal." New York Times 23 Jan. 1990, natl. ed.: A4. In-Text: (Crossette A4) Magny, Claude-Edmonde. "Faulkner or Theological Inversion." Faulkner: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966. 66-78. In-Text: (Magny 67)

Article or Chapter in Anthology

Quoting a source within a source

If you are citing a source that is found within another source, use the abbreviation "qtd. in." For instance if you want to cite musician Miles Davis as he appears in a Nat Hentoff article, you would use the following format: (Davis, qtd. in Hentoff 34)

Short Story

141

Authors last name, first name. Name of short story. Title of the book the story was taken from. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication. Page numbers.
Type of source Short Story in an edited anthology Sample entry in reference list Hawthorne, Nathaniel. "The Minister's Black Veil." Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales. Ed. James McIntosh. New York: Norton, 1987. 97-107. In-Text: (Hawthorne 99)

Book
Authors last name, first name. Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.
Type of source Book: Single Author Sample entry in reference list Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957. In-Text: (Frye 109) Another Work: Same Author ---. The Secular Scripture. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1976. In-Text: (117) Book: Two Authors Howe, Russell Warren, and Sarah Hays Trott. City: Doubleday, 1977. In-Text: (Howe and Trott 144) The Power Peddlers. Garden

142

Books continued More than Three Authors or Editors

Sample entry in reference list Edens, Walter, et al., eds. Teaching Shakespeare. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1977. In Text: (Edens et al.)

Multivolume Work

Freedberg, S. J. Andrea del Sarto. 2 vols. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1963. In Text: (Freeberg 75)

Book: Corporate Author

National Institute for Dispute Resolution. Dispute Resolution Resource Directory. Washington: Natl. Inst. for Dispute Resolution, 1984. In Text: (National Institute for Dispute Resolution 15)

An Edition

Malory, Sir Thomas. King Arthur and his Knights. Ed. Eugene Vinaver. London: Oxford UP, 1956. In Text: (Malory 55)

Anthology

Harari, Josue, ed. Textual Strategies. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1979. In Text: (Harari 1122) Magny, Claude-Edmonde. "Faulkner or Theological Inversion." Faulkner: A Collection of Critical Essays. Ed. Robert Penn Warren. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1966. 66-78. In Text: (Magny 67)

Article or Chapter in Anthology

Second or Later Edition

Altick, Richard, and John J. Fenstermaker. The Art of Literary Research. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1993. In Text:(Altick and Fenstermaker 4)

Government publication, encyclopedia entry

143

Authors last name, first name. Title of section / exerpt. Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

Type of source Government Publication

Sample entry in reference list United States. Federal Maritime Commission. Hawaiian Trade Study: An Economic Analysis. Washington: GPO, 1978. In Text: (Federal Maritime Commission 45)

Signed Encyclopedia Entry

Foster, John S., Jr. "Nuclear War." The Encyclopaedia Americana. Intl. ed. 1998. In Text: (John 1554)

Personal interview, film, tv program, art

Type of source Personal Interview Sample entry in reference list Parsons, Gwynneth. Personal interview. 7 Sept. 2003. In Text: (Parsons) Film Inherit the Wind. Dir. Stanley Kramer. Perf. Spencer Tracy and Frederic March. United Artists, 1960. [Note: If it's the director or another individual associated with the film that you want to cite, start the entry with that person's name--here, for example, Kramer, Stanley, dir.] In Text: (Inherit the Wind) Television Program Voyage to the Galapagos. Host Alan Alda. Scientific American Frontiers. PBS. 5 Oct. 1999. In Text: (Voyage to the Galapagos) Work of art (or photograph of) Ingres, Jean Auguste Dominique. Apotheosis of Homer. Musee du Louvre, Paris. Gardners Art Through the Ages. 10th ed. By Helen Gardner. Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace, 1996. Plate 22. In-Text: (Ingres)

144

Sound Recording (CD)

Copland, Aaron. Long Time Ago: American Songs. Saint Paul Chamber Orch. Cond. Hugh Wolff. Teldec, 1994. In-Text: (Copland)

Electronic source
Entries for electronic sources include five types of information (as available): (1) author name, (2) title, (3) information about print publication, (4) information about electronic publication, and (5) access information.
Type of source Online scholarly article Sample entry in reference list Ross, Andrew. "Hacking Away at the Counterculture." Postmodern Culture 1.1 (1990): 43 pars. 3 May 2003 <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/ postmodern_culture/v001.1ross.html>. In-Text: (Ross) An entire online book Rawlins, Gregory J. Moths to the Flame. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996. MIT Press. 30 Aug 2000 <http://mitpress.mit.edu/e- books/moths/> In-Text: (Rawlins) A part of an online book Rawlins, Gregory J. Preface. Moths to the Flame. Cambridge: MIT P, 1996. MIT Press. 3 Aug. 2000 http://mitpress.mit.edu/e-books/moths/ preface.html>. In-Text: (Rawlins)

145

Online scholarly project

Suffragists Oral History Project. 1998. Library, U of California, Berkeley. 20 Jan. 2003 <http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/BANC/ROHO/ohonline/ suffragists.html>. (Note: If the site lists an editor [and some do], insert, e.g., "Ed. John P. Doe." before the first date.) In-Text: (Suffragist Oral History Project)

An entire Internet site

Electronic Beowulf. Ed. Kevin Kiernan. 2003. 5 Sept. 2003 <http://www.uky.edu/~kiernan/-eBeowulf/guide.htm>. In-Text: (Electronic Beowulf)

Article in online magazine

Fallows, James. "The Age of Murdoch." Atlantic Online Sept. 2003. 10 Oct. 2003 <http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2003/ 09/fallows.htm>. In-Text: (Fallows)

Article in online newspaper

Goldfarb, Zachary A. "Child Health Dilemma." Washington Times 31 Aug. 2003. 4 Sept. 2003 <http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030831121939-8655r.htm>. (Note: Some URLs are so long that they are time-consuming to reproduce accurately. In these cases you may provide the URL of the site's search page instead--here, for example, <http://www.washtimes.com>.) In-Text: (Goldfarb)

Article in online encyclopedia

"Drake, Sir Francis." Columbia Encyclopedia. 2002. Columbia Encyclopedia. 6 July 2003 <http://www.bartleby.com/ 65/Drake-Si.html>. In-Text: (Drake) "Macromedia, Inc." Hoover's Online. 2002. Hoover's, Inc. 4 Sept 2003 <http://www. Hoovers.com/free/co/factsheet.xhtml? COID=16658>. In-Text: (Macromedia)

Document from online database

146

A home page for a course

Todar, Kenneth. Host-Parasite Interactions. Course home page. Spring 2003. Dept. of Bacteriology, U of Wisconsin. 7 Apr. 2003 <http://bact.wisc.edu/Bact330/Bact330Homepage>. In-Text: (Todar)

An e-mail communication

Tetslaff, Melissa. E-mail to the author. 17 Sept. 2002. In-Text: (Tetslaff)

Newspaper article from online database

Young, Judith S.L. "Fadeout; Only a Few Grand Old Movie Theatres Remain to Remind Us of Their Golden Age." Newsday 3 Aug. 2003, Queens ed.: G06. Lexis-Nexis. 5 July 2003 <http://web.lexisnexis.com/> In-Text: (Young)

WWW Home Page

The Edith Wharton Society. Ed. Donna Campbell. 5 Aug. Gonzaga U. 14 Aug. 2003 <http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/faculty/campbell/ wharton/indexa.html>. In-Text: (Edith)

When no author is available

If no author is available, use a short form of the title (the shortest form that will allow you to recognize the work properly). For instance, if you were working with an article called "Thirty Reasons to Spay Your Pet," you might use the following: ("Thirty Reasons" 26) If you were working with a book with no author called Belief in the Supernatural, you might use:

(Belief 567) This guide is based on the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed. (Modern Language Society, 2003. Works Cited items are listed alphabetically at the end of the research paper. In the body of the paper these items are referred to using Parenthetical references.

147