work cited definition essay

Works-Cited-List Entries

Works cited: a quick guide, core elements.

Each entry in the list of works cited is composed of facts common to most works—the MLA core elements. They are assembled in a specific order.

The concept of containers is crucial to MLA style. When the source being documented forms part of a larger whole, the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source. For example, a short story may be contained in an anthology. The short story is the source, and the anthology is the container.

Practice Template

Learn how to use the MLA practice template to create entries in the list of works cited.

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Works Cited | Examples for your Works Cited Page

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Inhaltsverzeichnis

• 1 Works Cited: Definition
• 3 Example in MS Word
• 4 APA format
• 5 Works Cited in MLA Style
• 6 Primary and Secondary Sources
• 7 In a Nutshell

Works Cited: Definition

The works cited page shows the sources you have used in your research. This page is included at the end of your study, and it includes the sources used for the following types of data:

• Facts and data that is not common knowledge
• Words and theories that someone else came up with
• Direct quotes from other authors

Why is a works cited section important?

The works cited section of your research paper should clearly indicate the sources you used to get ideas and content for your research paper, thesis or dissertation . It also allows you to acknowledge and appreciate the works of other researchers and avoid plagiarism. However, the works cited and bibliography are not to be confused with one another.

Do all references have to be cited in the text?

You should include an in-text citation when you’re referring to, summarising or quoting another author. It’s important that the in-text reference also appears in the bibliography at the end of the paper. This helps you avoid accidentally plagiarizing other people’s work. Plus, the references also serve as a guide for readers of your thesis or research paper.

Does citing sources allow you to quote authors directly?

Yes, you can quote words from authors as long as you show the source in the works cited page. This allows you to adequately convey thoughts or ideas about the subject area you are discussing in your paper. This can also be done in the format of any of the numerous referencing and citation styles .

What information should be cited?

The works cited page should show unique findings, data, statistics, ideas, theories, and quotes which have been picked from a primary or secondary source. This especially includes the sources from extra reading that you may have done on your research topic . If you are unsure as to whether you should cite a source for certain information, it’s always better to be safe than sorry. That source would have a place either on a works cited page, or a bibliography.

What happens when you fail to show the works cited?

There are various consequences for failing to include a source in the works cited section, or even in a bibliography. You risk being accused of plagiarism . Some professors will penalize you for the mistake if it’s minor, but in some severe cases, you may be forced to leave your institution if there’s substantial evidence that you have plagiarised your thesis.

Is there a difference between a bibliography and the works cited page?

Yes, there is a difference between these two sections. In a bibliography , every single source that has been used by the author, whether it was cited directly in the text or not needs to be concluded. Even if it was used for some extra reading, it needs to be included. However, the works cited page simply shows the sources the author used directly in the creation of the academic paper.

Can you add a subtitle to the reference?

Yes, you can add a subtitle to make a reference in your term paper or essay. You will simply have to place a colon between the title and subtitle. However, if the subtitle is intended to standalone, it should be written in italics.

Example in MS Word

Here is a works cited page example that used internet sources and print sources:

There are different formats of the works cited page. One of these formats is referred to as APA or America Psychology Association. Works cited in APA citation style should show the names of the author, the title of the source, and the town or city. The works cited section should also indicate the type of source that was used to get the information. This could be the internet, a print source, or even a database. Here are some examples of works cited in APA format:

Wynne, T. (2015). The art of building an empire. Sommerville: MA, Candlewick Press. Micheal, J.W. (2014). 101 Tips Success. https://michaelljohnson.com. Mary, Beth, (2002). Effect of Financial Technology on the Economy. London University Press, Volume 3 (Issue 10), pp. 10. Leonard W. R. & Crawford M. H. (Eds.). (2002). Human biology of pastoral populations. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press. Editor Surname, A. (Ed.). (YEAR). Book title: Subtitle (# ed.). Retrieved from http://url_of_ebook_database.

Works Cited in MLA Style

In MLA format, the works cited section should show the author of the work, the titles of the works cited, and the publication information. The structure of the works cited will vary based on the type of source of the works cited. For example, print works cited are shown differently from online works cited.

In MLA format, the works cited page will include the following information in this order: Last name, first name. “Title of the Source.” Title of the container, other contributors, the version, numbers, publisher, date of publication, location.

Here are two examples of works cited in MLA format:

Johnson, Mike. “Fruit Flies.” SIU Press, vol 12, no. 3, 2011, pp. 13 to 67. Davies, Larisa Maclean, et al. “Teaching Australian Literature.” English in Australia , vol 12, no. 3, 2010, pp. 21. ERIC, https://gov.au.literature.

You should note that the names of the author are followed by a period. If the source has two authors, place them in the order listed in the source. The first author is listed with the last name then the first name, and the second one is listed in standard form. For the second author, there is no comma between the names.

If the source has more than two authors, you will only list the first author who appears on the source. The name should be in reverse order, and it should be followed by the phrase ‘et al.’ It is also possible to include someone other than the author of the works cited, but you have to indicate the reason why you are including them in the paper.

Primary and Secondary Sources

In research, you can get your data from primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are those which contain an author’s original thoughts and ideas while secondary ones are those which use data from another source. Secondary sources interpret primary sources and are usually in the form of articles, television documentaries, biographies, essays, and critiques.

Primary works cited are typically written by professionals in specific fields, and they can be in the form of diaries, artwork, and speeches. Primary sources of data are cited just like secondary sources. You will include the author or authors, the title of the works cited, the year of publication, and the city of publication. The references can be shown separately or altogether.

In a Nutshell

Here are some key points you should remember about the works cited page:

• It is added at the end of the research paper
• There are different formats used for the citation page. These include APA and MLA
• You should refer to the latest guidelines of the various formats to understand the current acceptable standards
• If you fail to cite a source you used for your research, you can be penalized for plagiarism
• If you are in doubt on whether a particular source should be cited or not, you should go ahead and include it in the list of references
• Titles and subtitles that are shown in their entirety in the works cited section should be written in italics

Discover more useful articles:

How to use transition words effective in your thesis:

What are thesis topics? We will give you some information:

In this article we show you referencing & citation styles:

How does Harvard Referencing in your thesis work:

YourDictonary . “Examples of Works Cited Pages”: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-works-cited-pages.html. Last accessed  9 th  Oct 2019

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Creating an MLA Works cited page

General formatting information for your works cited section.

Beginning on a new page at the end of your paper, list alphabetically by author every work you have cited, using the basic forms illustrated below. Title the page Works Cited (not Bibliography), and list only those sources you actually cited in your paper. Continue the page numbering from the body of your paper and make sure that you still have 1–inch margins at the top, bottom, and sides of your page. Double-space the entire list. Indent entries as shown in the models below with what’s called a “hanging indent”: that means the first line of an entry begins at the left margin, and the second and subsequent lines should be indented half an inch from the left margin. Most word-processing programs will format hanging indents easily (look under the paragraph formatting options).

Introduction to the 8th Edition

In 2016, MLA substantially changed the way it approaches works cited entries. Each media type used to have its own citation guidelines. Writers would follow the specific instructions for how to cite a book, a translated poem in an anthology, a newspaper article located through a database, a YouTube clip embedded in an online journal, etc. However, as media options and publication formats continued to expand, MLA saw the need to revise this approach. Since a book chapter can appear on a blog or a blog post can appear in a book, how can writers account for these different formats?

MLA’s solution to this problem has been to create a more universal approach to works cited entries. No matter the medium, citations include the specifically ordered and punctuated elements outlined in the following table.

Elements of a Works Cited Entry

• Last name, First name
• Italicized If Independent ; “Put in Quotations Marks if Not.”
• Often Italicized,
• Name preceded by role title (for example: edited by, translated by, etc),
• i.e. 2nd ed., revised ed., director’s cut, etc.,
• vol. #, no. #,
• Name of Entity Responsible for Producing Source,
• i.e. 14 Feb. 2014; May-June 2016; 2017,
• i.e. pp. 53-79; Chazen Museum of Art; https://www.wiscience.wisc.edu/ (If possible, use a DOI (digital object identifier) instead of a url.)
• Optionally included when citing a web source.

If the source doesn’t include one of these elements, just skip over that one and move to the next. Include a single space after a comma or period.

The third category—”container”—refers to the larger entity that contains the source. This might be a journal, a website, a television series, etc. Sometimes a source can also appear nested in more than one container. A poem, for example, might appear in an edited collection that has been uploaded to a database. A television episode fits in a larger series which may be contained by Netflix. When a source is in a larger container, provide information about the smaller one (i.e. the edited collection or the TV series), then provide information for elements 3–10 for the larger container. For example, the works cited entry detailed below is for a chapter from an economics textbook, entitled Econometrics, that is contained on UW–Madison’s Social Science Computing Cooperative website.

Example of a Works Cited Entry

Hansen, Bruce E. “The Algebra of Least Squares.” Econometrics, University of Wisconsin Department of Economics, 2017, pp. 59-87. Social Science Computing Cooperative, UW–Madison, http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~bhansen/econometrics/Econometrics.pdf.

Here is the breakdown of these elements:

• Hansen, Bruce E.
• “The Algebra of Least Squares.”
• Econometrics,
• Other Contributors,
• University of Wisconsin Department of Economics
• Title of source.
• Social Science Computing Cooperative,
• Other contributors,
• UW-Madison,
• Publication date,
• http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~bhansen/econometrics/Econometrics.pdf.
• (This could be included, but this site is fairly stable, so the access date wasn’t deemed to be important.)

One of the benefits of this system is that it can be applied to any source. Whether you’re citing a book, a journal article, a tweet, or an online comic, this system will guide you through how to construct your citation.

A Few Notes

• Books are considered to be self-contained, so if you’re citing an entire book, items 2 and 3 get joined. After the author’s name, italicize the title, then include a period and move on items 4–9.
• No matter what your last item of information is for a given citation, end the citation with a period.
• Also, if it is appropriate to include an access date for an online source, put a period after the full url in addition to one after the access date information.
• It is particularly important to include access dates for online sources when citing a source that is subject to change (like a homepage). If the source you are working with is more stable (like a database), it’s not as critical to let your readers know when you accessed that material.

For more information about any of this, be sure to consult the 2016 MLA Handbook itself.

Works Cited page entry: Article

Article from a scholarly journal, with page numbers, read online from the journal’s website.

Shih, Shu-Mei. “Comparative Racialization: An Introduction.” PMLA , vol. 123, no. 5, 2008, pp. 1347-62. Modern Language Association , doi:10.1632/pmla.2008.123.5.1347.

Author last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, pp. numbers. Publisher , doi

PMLA provides DOI numbers, so this is used in this citation preceded by “doi:” instead of the url address. Also, given the enduring stability of PMLA’s page, no access date has been included, but it could be if the writer preferred.

Article from a scholarly journal, with multiple authors, without page numbers, read online from the journal’s website

Bravo, Juan I., Gabriel L. Lozano, and Jo Handelsman. “Draft Genome Sequence of Flavobacterium johnsoniae CI04, an Isolate from the Soybean Rhizosphere.” Genome Announcements , vol. 5, no. 4, 2017, doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01535-16.

First author last name, First name, Middle initial., Second author first name Middle initial. Last name, and Third author First name Last name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, doi

Article from a scholarly journal, no page numbers, read through an online database

Mieszkowski, Jan. “Derrida, Hegel, and the Language of Finitude.” Postmodern Culture , vol. 15, no. 3, 2005. Project MUSE, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/186557.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication. Database , url. 

Article from a scholarly journal, with page numbers, read through an online database

Sherrard-Johnson, Cherene. “‘A Plea for Color’: Nella Larsen’s Iconography of the Mulatta.” American Literature , vol. 76, no. 4, 2004, pp. 833-69. Project MUSE , https://muse.jhu.edu/article/176820.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, pp. numbers. Database , url. 

Valenza, Robin. “How Literature Becomes Knowledge: A Case Study.” ELH , vol. 76, no. 1, 2009, pp. 215-45. Project MUSE . https://muse.jhu.edu/article/260309.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, pp. numbers. Database , url.

Article from a scholarly journal, by three or more authors, print version

Doggart, Julia, et al. “Minding the Gap: Realizing Our Ideal Community Writing Assistance Program.” The Community Literacy Journal , vol. 2, no. 1, 2007, pp. 71-80.

First author Last name, First name, et al. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, pp. numbers. 

Raval, Amish N., et al. “Cellular Therapies for Heart Disease: Unveiling the Ethical and Public Policy Challenges.” Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology , vol. 45, no. 4, 2008, pp. 593–601.

[The Latin abbreviation “et al.” stands for “and others,” and MLA says that you should use it when citing a source with three or more authors.]

Article from a webtext, published in a web-only scholarly journal

Butler, Janine. “Where Access Meets Multimodality: The Case of ASL Music Videos.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy , vol. 21, no. 1, 2016, http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/21.1/topoi/butler/index.html. Accessed 7 June 2017.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, url. Date of access.

Balthazor, Ron, and Elizabeth Davis. “Infrastructure and Pedagogy: An Ecological Portfolio.” Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy , vol. 20, no. 1, 2015, http://kairos.technorhetoric.net/20.1/coverweb/balthazor-davis/index.html. Accessed 7 June 2017.

First author Last name, First name and Second author First name Last name. “Article title.” Journal name , vol. number, issue number, date of publication, url. Date of access.

Article from a magazine, print version

Oaklander, Mandy. “Bounce Back.” Time , vol. 185, no. 20, 1 June 2015, pp. 36-42.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Magazine name , vol. number, issue number, month and year of publication, pp. numbers. 

Article from a magazine, read through an online database

Rowen, Ben. “A Resort for the Apocalypse.” The Atlantic , vol. 319, no. 2, Mar. 2017, pp. 30-31. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,uid&db =aph&AN=120967144&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Magazine name , vol. number, issue number, month and year of publication, pp. numbers. Database name , url. 

Article from a newspaper, read through an online database

Walsh, Nora. “For Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th, Tours, Exhibitions and Tattoos.” New York Times , 27 May 2017, international ed. ProQuest , https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/docview/1903523834/fulltext/71B144CD12054C76PQ/2?accountid=465.

Author Last name, First name. “Article title.” Newspaper name , day month and year of publication, edition. Database name , url. 

Works Cited page entry: Short Story

Short story in an edited anthology.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Tales , edited by James McIntosh, Norton, 1987, pp. 97–107.

Author Last name, First name. “Short story title.” Anthology title , edited by Editor name, Publisher, year of publication, pp. numbers. 

Works Cited page entry: Book

Book, written by one author, print version.

Bordwell, David. Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging . U California P, 2005.

Britland, Karen. Drama at the Courts of Queen Maria Henrietta . Cambridge UP, 2006.

Card, Claudia. The Atrocity Paradigm : A Theory of Evil . Oxford UP, 2005.

Cronon, William. Nature’s Metropolis . Norton, 1991.

Mallon, Florencia E. Courage Tastes of Blood: The Mapuche Community of Nicholás Ailío and the Chilean State , 1906–2001. Duke UP, 2005.

Author Last name, First name. Book title . Publisher, year of publication. 

Book, written by more than one author, print version

Bartlett, Lesley, and Frances Vavrus. Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach . Taylor & Francis, 2016.

First author Last name, First name, and Second author First name Last name. Book title . Publisher, year of publication. 

Flanigan, William H., et al. Political Behavior of the American Electorate . CQ Press, 2015.

First author last name, First name Middle initial., et al. Book title . Publisher, year of publication. 

Book, an edited anthology, print version

Olaniyan, Tejumola, and Ato Quayson, editors. African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and Theory . Blackwell, 2007.

First editor Last name, First name, and Second editor first name Last name, editors. Anthology title . Publisher, year of publication. 

Book, edited, revised edition, print version

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself . Edited by William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely, revised ed., Norton, 1996.

Author Last name, First name. Book title . Edited by first editor First name Middle initial. Last name and Second editor First name Middle initial. Last name, edition., publisher, year of publication. 

A play in an edited collection, print version

Shakespeare, William. The Comedy of Errors: A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare . Edited by Standish Henning, The Modern Language Association of America, 2011, pp. 1–254.

Author Last name, First name. Play title . Edited by editor First name Last name, publisher, year of publication, pp. numbers. 

[Page numbers are included in this entry to draw attention to the play itself since this edition includes an additional 400 pages of scholarly essays and historical information.]

Bordwell, David. Foreword. Awake in the Dark: Forty Years of Reviews, Essays, and Interviews , by Roger Ebert, U of Chicago P, 2006, pp. xiii–xviii.

Foreward author Last name, First name. Title of work in which foreward appears , by author of work, publisher, year of publication, pp. numbers. 

Chapter in an edited anthology, print version

Amodia, David, and Patricia G. Devine. “Changing Prejudice: The Effects of Persuasion on Implicit and Explicit Forms of Race Bias.” Persuasion: Psychological Insights and Perspectives , edited by T.C. Brock and C. Greens, 2nd ed., SAGE Publications, 2005, pp. 249–80.

Chapter first author Last name, First name, and Second author First name Middle initial. Last name. “Chapter title.” Anthology title , edited by first editor First initial. Middle initial. Last name and Second editor first initial. Last name, edition number, publisher, year of publication, pp. numbers.

Hawhee, Debra, and Christa Olson. “Pan–Historiography: The Challenges of Writing History across Time and Space.” Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric , edited by Michelle Ballif, Southern Illinois University Press, 2013, pp. 90–105.

Chapter first author Last name, First name, and Second author First name Last name. “Chapter title.” Anthology title, edited by editor First name Last name, publisher, date of publication, page #s. 

Shimabukuro, Mira Chieko. “Relocating Authority: Coauthor(iz)ing a Japanese American Ethos of Resistance under Mass Incarceration.” Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric , edited by LuMing Mao and Morris Young, Utah State UP, 2008, pp. 127–52.

Author Last name, First name Middle name. “Chapter title.” Anthology title , edited by first editor First name Last name and second editor First name Last name, Publisher, year of publication, pp. numbers. 

Works Cited page entry: Electronic source

Since MLA’s 8th edition does not substantially differentiate between a source that is read in print as opposed to online, see our information about citing articles for examples about citing electronic sources from periodicals.

Non-periodical web publication, with no author and no date of publication

“New Media @ the Center.” The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison . U of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center, 2012, http://www.writing.wisc.edu/[email protected]. Accessed 8 March 2017.

“Title of publication.” Title of the containing website . Publisher of the site, year of publication. Url. Accessed date. 

The syntax for a non-periodical web publication is: author (if no author, start with the title); title of the section or page, in quotation marks; title of the containing Web site as a whole, italicized; version or edition used (if none is specified, omit); publisher or sponsor of the site (if none is mentioned, then just skip this); date of publication (if none is listed, just skip this); use a comma between the publisher or sponsor and the date; the source’s url address; date of access.

Non–periodical scholarly web publication, no date of publication

Stahmer, Carl, editor. “The Shelley Chronology.” Romantic Circles . University of Maryland, https://www.rc.umd.edu/reference/chronologies/shelcron. Accessed 26 March 2017.

Editor Last name, First name, editor. “Title of publication.” Title of the containing website . Publisher, Url. Accessed date. 

Non–periodical web publication, web publication, corporate author

Rhetoric Society of America. “Welcome to the website of the Rhetoric Society of America and Greetings from Gregory Clark, President of RSA!” RSA , Rhetoric Society of America, 2017, http://www.rhetoricsociety.org/aws/RSA/pt/sp/home_page. Accessed 27 March 2017.

Name of Corporate Author. “Title of publication.” Title of the containing website , Publisher of the website, year of publication, url. Accessed date 

The syntax for this entry is: corporate author; title, in quotation marks; title of the overall Web site, in italics; publisher or sponsor of the site; date of publication; the source’s url address; date of access.

Since the material on homepages is subject to change, it is particularly important to include an access date for this source.

E-mail message

Blank, Rebecca. “Re: A request and an invitation for Department Chairs and Unit Leaders.” Received by Brad Hughes, 30 August 2016.

Sender Last name, First name. “Email subject line.” Received by recipient First name Last name, day month and year email was sent and received. 

@UW-Madison. “Scientists at @UWCIMSS used a supercomputer to recreate the EF-5 El Reno tornado that swept through Oklahoma 6 years ago today. #okwx.” Twitter, 24 May 2017, 2:23 p.m., https://twitter.com/UWMadison/status/867461007 362359296.

@Twitter Handle. “Entire tweet word-for-word.” Twitter, day month year of tweet, time of tweet, url. 

When including tweets in the works cited page, alphabetize them according to what comes after the “@” symbol.

Include the full tweet in quotation marks as the title.

Works Cited page entry: Government publication, encyclopedia entry

Government publication.

National Endowment for the Humanities. What We Do . NEH, March 2017, https://www.neh.gov/files/whatwedo.pdf.

Name of Government entity. Title of publication . Publisher, date of publication, url. 

This is treated as a source written by a corporate author.

Signed encyclopedia entry

Neander, Karen. “Teleological Theories of Mental Content.” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy , edited by Edward N. Zalta, spring ed., 2012, https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2012/entries/content-teleological/.

Author Last name, First name. “Entry title.” Title of encyclopedia , edited by editor First name Middle initial. Last name, ed., year of publication, url. 

Works Cited page entry: Personal interview, film, tv program, and others

An interview you conducted.

Brandt, Deborah. Personal Interview. 28 May 2008.

Interviewee Last name, First name. Personal Interview. Day month year of interview. 

A published interview, read through an online database

García, Cristina. Interview by Ylce Irizarry. Contemporary Literature , vol. 48, no. 2, 2007, pp. 174-94. EBSCOhost. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/ehost/pdfviewer /pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=f95943f6-5364-49e7-8b83-7341edc4b434%40sessionmgr104. Accessed 26 March 2017.

Interviewee Last name, First name. Interview by interviewer First name Last name. Journal title , vol. number, issue number, year of publication, pp. numbers. Database name. Url. Accessed day month and year. 

Film or DVD

Sense and Sensibility . Directed by Ang Lee, performances by Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, and Kate Winslet, Sony, 1999.

Title of film . Directed by director First name Last name, performances by first actor First name Last name, second actor First name Last name, and third actor First name Last name, Production company, year of release. 

You only need to include performers’ names if that information is relevant to your work. If your paper focuses on the director, begin this entry with the director, i.e., Lee, Ang, director. Sense and Sensibility . . . . If your primary interest is an actor, begin the entry with the actor’s name, i.e., Thompson, Emma, perf. Sense and Sensibility . . . .

Television broadcast

“Arctic Ghost Ship.” NOVA . PBS, WPT, Madison, 10 May 2017.

“Title of episode.” Television series name . Broadcasting network, Broadcasting station, City, day month year of broadcast. 

PBS is the network that broadcast this show; WPT is the Wisconsin PBS affiliate in Madison on which you watched this show.

Media accessed through streaming network

“Self Help.” The Walking Dead , season 5, episode 5, AMC, 9 Nov. 2014. Netflix , https://www.netflix.com/watch/80010531?trackId=14170286&tctx=1%2C4%2C04bba31e-60a0-4889-b36e-b708006e5d05-911831.

“Title of episode.” Title of television series , season number, episode number, Broadcasting channel, date month year of release. Name of streaming service used to access episode , url. 

Gleizes, Albert. The Schoolboy . 1924, gouache or glue tempera on canvas. U of Wisconsin Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI.

Artist Last name, First name. Title of piece. Year of composition, medium. Name of institution housing art piece, City, State initials. 

Address, lecture, reading, or conference presentation

Desmond, Matthew. “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City.” 1 Nov. 2016, Memorial Union Theater, Madison, WI.

Lecturer Last name, First name. “Title of lecture.” Day month year lecture is given, Location of lecture, City, State initials. 

Modern Language Association Documentation

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MLA Table of Contents

Orientation to MLA

Creating an MLA works cited page

Using MLA in–text citations

Abbreviating references to your sources

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook (9 th ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

The following overview should help you better understand how to cite sources using MLA  9 th edition, including how to format the Works Cited page and in-text citations.

Please use the example at the bottom of this page to cite the Purdue OWL in MLA. See also our MLA vidcast series on the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel .

Creating a Works Cited list using the ninth edition

MLA is a style of documentation that may be applied to many different types of writing. Since texts have become increasingly digital, and the same document may often be found in several different sources, following a set of rigid rules no longer suffices.

Thus, the current system is based on a few guiding principles, rather than an extensive list of specific rules. While the handbook still describes how to cite sources, it is organized according to the process of documentation, rather than by the sources themselves. This gives writers a flexible method that is near-universally applicable.

Once you are familiar with the method, you can use it to document any type of source, for any type of paper, in any field.

Here is an overview of the process:

When deciding how to cite your source, start by consulting the list of core elements. These are the general pieces of information that MLA suggests including in each Works Cited entry. In your citation, the elements should be listed in the following order:

• Title of source.
• Title of container,
• Other contributors,
• Publication date,

Each element should be followed by the corresponding punctuation mark shown above. Earlier editions of the handbook included the place of publication and required different punctuation (such as journal editions in parentheses and colons after issue numbers) depending on the type of source. In the current version, punctuation is simpler (only commas and periods separate the elements), and information about the source is kept to the basics.

Begin the entry with the author’s last name, followed by a comma and the rest of the name, as presented in the work. End this element with a period.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. Routledge, 1994.

Title of source

The title of the source should follow the author’s name. Depending upon the type of source, it should be listed in italics or quotation marks.

A book should be in italics:

Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House . MacMurray, 1999.

An individual webpage should be in quotation marks. The name of the parent website, which MLA treats as a "container," should follow in italics:

Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html.*

A periodical (journal, magazine, newspaper) article should be in quotation marks:

Bagchi, Alaknanda. "Conflicting Nationalisms: The Voice of the Subaltern in Mahasweta Devi's Bashai Tudu." Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature , vol. 15, no. 1, 1996, pp. 41-50.

A song or piece of music on an album should be in quotation marks. The name of the album should then follow in italics:

Beyoncé. "Pray You Catch Me." Lemonade, Parkwood Entertainment, 2016, www.beyonce.com/album/lemonade-visual-album/.

*The MLA handbook recommends including URLs when citing online sources. For more information, see the “Optional Elements” section below.

Title of container

The eighth edition of the MLA handbook introduced what are referred to as "containers," which are the larger wholes in which the source is located. For example, if you want to cite a poem that is listed in a collection of poems, the individual poem is the source, while the larger collection is the container. The title of the container is usually italicized and followed by a comma, since the information that follows next describes the container.

Kincaid, Jamaica. "Girl." The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, Vintage, 1994, pp. 306-07.

The container may also be a television series, which is made up of episodes.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation, created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, performance by Amy Poehler, season 2, episode 21, Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2010.

The container may also be a website, which contains articles, postings, and other works.

Wise, DeWanda. “Why TV Shows Make Me Feel Less Alone.”  NAMI,  31 May 2019,  www.nami.org/Blogs/NAMI-Blog/May-2019/How-TV-Shows-Make-Me-Feel-Less-Alone . Accessed 3 June 2019.

In some cases, a container might be within a larger container. You might have read a book of short stories on Google Books , or watched a television series on Netflix . You might have found the electronic version of a journal on JSTOR. It is important to cite these containers within containers so that your readers can find the exact source that you used.

“94 Meetings.” Parks and Recreation , season 2, episode 21, NBC , 29 Apr. 2010. Netflix, www.netflix.com/watch/70152031?trackId=200256157&tctx=0%2C20%2C0974d361-27cd-44de-9c2a-2d9d868b9f64-12120962.

Langhamer, Claire. “Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England.” Historical Journal , vol. 50, no. 1, 2007, pp. 173-96. ProQuest, doi:10.1017/S0018246X06005966. Accessed 27 May 2009.

Other contributors

In addition to the author, there may be other contributors to the source who should be credited, such as editors, illustrators, translators, etc. If their contributions are relevant to your research, or necessary to identify the source, include their names in your documentation.

Foucault, Michel. Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. Translated by Richard Howard , Vintage-Random House, 1988.

Woolf, Virginia. Jacob’s Room . Annotated and with an introduction by Vara Neverow, Harcourt, Inc., 2008.

If a source is listed as an edition or version of a work, include it in your citation.

The Bible . Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Crowley, Sharon, and Debra Hawhee. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students. 3rd ed., Pearson, 2004.

If a source is part of a numbered sequence, such as a multi-volume book or journal with both volume and issue numbers, those numbers must be listed in your citation.

Dolby, Nadine. “Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions.” Social Work and Society: The International Online-Only Journal, vol. 6, no. 2, 2008, www.socwork.net/sws/article/view/60/362. Accessed 20 May 2009.

Quintilian. Institutio Oratoria. Translated by H. E. Butler, vol. 2, Loeb-Harvard UP, 1980.

The publisher produces or distributes the source to the public. If there is more than one publisher, and they are all are relevant to your research, list them in your citation, separated by a forward slash (/).

Klee, Paul. Twittering Machine. 1922. Museum of Modern Art, New York. The Artchive, www.artchive.com/artchive/K/klee/twittering_machine.jpg.html. Accessed May 2006.

Women's Health: Problems of the Digestive System . American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2006.

Daniels, Greg and Michael Schur, creators. Parks and Recreation . Deedle-Dee Productions and Universal Media Studios, 2015.

Note : The publisher’s name need not be included in the following sources: periodicals, works published by their author or editor, websites whose titles are the same name as their publisher, websites that make works available but do not actually publish them (such as  YouTube ,  WordPress , or  JSTOR ).

Publication date

The same source may have been published on more than one date, such as an online version of an original source. For example, a television series might have aired on a broadcast network on one date, but released on  Netflix  on a different date. When the source has more than one date, it is sufficient to use the date that is most relevant to your writing. If you’re unsure about which date to use, go with the date of the source’s original publication.

In the following example, Mutant Enemy is the primary production company, and “Hush” was released in 1999. Below is a general citation for this television episode:

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer , created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, Mutant Enemy, 1999 .

However, if you are discussing, for example, the historical context in which the episode originally aired, you should cite the full date. Because you are specifying the date of airing, you would then use WB Television Network (rather than Mutant Enemy), because it was the network (rather than the production company) that aired the episode on the date you’re citing.

“Hush.” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, created by Joss Whedon, performance by Sarah Michelle Gellar, season 4, episode 10, WB Television Network, 14 Dec. 1999 .

You should be as specific as possible in identifying a work’s location.

An essay in a book or an article in a journal should include page numbers.

Adiche, Chimamanda Ngozi. “On Monday of Last Week.” The Thing around Your Neck, Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, pp. 74-94 .

The location of an online work should include a URL.  Remove any "http://" or "https://" tag from the beginning of the URL.

Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases , vol. 6, no. 6, 2000, pp. 595-600, wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/6/00-0607_article. Accessed 8 Feb. 2009.

When citing a physical object that you experienced firsthand, identify the place of location.

Matisse, Henri. The Swimming Pool. 1952, Museum of Modern Art, New York .

Optional elements

The ninth edition is designed to be as streamlined as possible. The author should include any information that helps readers easily identify the source, without including unnecessary information that may be distracting. The following is a list of optional elements that can be included in a documented source at the writer’s discretion.

Date of original publication:

If a source has been published on more than one date, the writer may want to include both dates if it will provide the reader with necessary or helpful information.

Erdrich, Louise. Love Medicine. 1984. Perennial-Harper, 1993.

City of publication:

The seventh edition handbook required the city in which a publisher is located, but the eighth edition states that this is only necessary in particular instances, such as in a work published before 1900. Since pre-1900 works were usually associated with the city in which they were published, your documentation may substitute the city name for the publisher’s name.

Thoreau, Henry David. Excursions . Boston, 1863.

Date of access:

When you cite an online source, the MLA Handbook recommends including a date of access on which you accessed the material, since an online work may change or move at any time.

Bernstein, Mark. "10 Tips on Writing the Living Web." A List Apart: For People Who Make Websites, 16 Aug. 2002, alistapart.com/article/writeliving. Accessed 4 May 2009.

As mentioned above, while the MLA handbook recommends including URLs when you cite online sources, you should always check with your instructor or editor and include URLs at their discretion.

A DOI, or digital object identifier, is a series of digits and letters that leads to the location of an online source. Articles in journals are often assigned DOIs to ensure that the source is locatable, even if the URL changes. If your source is listed with a DOI, use that instead of a URL.

Alonso, Alvaro, and Julio A. Camargo. "Toxicity of Nitrite to Three Species of Freshwater Invertebrates." Environmental Toxicology , vol. 21, no. 1, 3 Feb. 2006, pp. 90-94. Wiley Online Library, doi: 10.1002/tox.20155.

Creating in-text citations using the previous (eighth) edition

Although the MLA handbook is currently in its ninth edition, some information about citing in the text using the older (eighth) edition is being retained. The in-text citation is a brief reference within your text that indicates the source you consulted. It should properly attribute any ideas, paraphrases, or direct quotations to your source, and should direct readers to the entry in the Works Cited list. For the most part, an in-text citation is the  author’s name and the page number (or just the page number, if the author is named in the sentence) in parentheses :

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

Again, your goal is to attribute your source and provide a reference without interrupting your text. Your readers should be able to follow the flow of your argument without becoming distracted by extra information.

How to Cite the Purdue OWL in MLA

Entire Website

The Purdue OWL . Purdue U Writing Lab, 2019.

Individual Resources

Contributors' names. "Title of Resource." The Purdue OWL , Purdue U Writing Lab, Last edited date.

The new OWL no longer lists most pages' authors or publication dates. Thus, in most cases, citations will begin with the title of the resource, rather than the developer's name.

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL, Purdue U Writing Lab. Accessed 18 Jun. 2018.

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Writers often consult other work when crafting a piece of writing, like websites, scholarly journal articles, and documentaries. No matter where a writer draws their ideas from or what type of paper they are writing, they must cite any source they use while crafting their paper. Citing a source means giving a source credit. When a writer cites, they record…

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Writers often consult other work when crafting a piece of writing, like websites, scholarly journal articles, and documentaries. No matter where a writer draws their ideas from or what type of paper they are writing, they must cite any source they use while crafting their paper. Citing a source means giving a source credit. When a writer cites, they record information about a source, such as the author's name, the title, and the publication date. Doing this ensures writers avoid stealing other people’s ideas. One way writers can give credit to the sources they use is by writing a Works Cited page at the end of their paper.

Works Cited Definition

A Works Cited page is a list of sources a writer uses while writing a text. The Works Cited page goes at the end of the paper. In it, the writer lists information about all the sources that they directly referenced within the body of the text and arranges the sources alphabetically by authors’ last names.

• A Works Cited page is a list of sources at the end of a paper that notes all the sources a writer used while writing a text.

Purpose of Works Cited

The purpose of a Works Cited page is for a writer to give credit to the sources they used when writing a text. Providing credit helps writers avoid plagiarism , which is when a person passes off another person's works as their own. Plagiarism disrespects the creators of other sources and can cause a writer to lose their academic credibility. To come across as a trustworthy source of information, writers have to be honest about which ideas were their own and which ones they drew from other sources.

When writers list the resources they use, they also allow readers to go and check for themselves if the evidence is credible. Credible sources come from reliable people and are often vetted by scholars. Allowing readers to confirm that the sources are reliable helps to enhance writers' academic integrity and can help strengthen their claims.

Works Cited pages can also be useful for readers who want to read more about a subject. When writers provide readers with other credible sources related to a topic, they help readers with further research. Works Cited pages ensure the information about the other sources is clear and straightforward.

The phrase "Works Cited" is often confused with "bibliography." These two concepts are similar but have distinct differences. In a bibliography, a writer lists all the sources they have used in writing a paper, not just the ones they directly referenced in the text. For instance, if a book informed the writer's perspective on a topic, but they did not directly reference material from it in their essay, they would list it in a bibliography but not a Works Cited page.

Works Cited MLA

MLA is the Modern Language Association’s guidelines for formatting citations. This style is typically the required formatting guide for writers in the humanities and arts. However, this is not always the case, so writers should always confirm the required formatting guide for the text they are writing.

The MLA guidelines require writers to cite all references to other sources in the body of the text with in-text citations and also list detailed information about those sources on a Works Cited page at the end of the paper. This makes it easy for readers to see a citation at the end of a piece of evidence and then flip to the end of the paper to find out more information about the source.

MLA and other referencing styles like APA , Chicago, and Harvard update their guidelines periodically, so writers should always double-check that they are following the most updated version. The Association published the first MLA style sheet in 1951, and today the organization is on its ninth edition!

Formatting a Works Cited Page in MLA

To format a Works Cited page according to MLA guidelines, writers should follow the following steps:

Use one-inch margins

Use an easy-to-read font such as Times New Roman or Arial, size 12

Click paragraph, spacing, double

Center the title “Works Cited” as the first line

Put the writer’s full name and page number in the upper right-hand corner

Put a hanging indent on all citations so that the first line is not indented, but all the other lines are. To do this, select the citations, click paragraph, indent, and hanging.

Organize all citations alphabetically

Writing Citations in MLA

The format for citations varies based on the type of source. The chart below demonstrates how to cite different sources according to MLA guidelines.

Journals often have more than one author. If a journal article has two authors, note them both in the order they appear. If a journal article has 3 or more authors, include the first author’s surname, first name, and then “,et al.”

Works Cited Example

The following example demonstrates what an MLA Works Cited list might look like for an essay about Toni Morrison's book Song of Solomon (1977).

MLA Work Cited Example

Note how the author included the access date for journal articles. Including this information for journal articles is not required, but many writers choose to do so.

Works Cited MLA vs Works Cited APA

APA is the American Psychological Association's guidelines for formatting citations. Writers in the social sciences and behavioral sciences often use APA. Like MLA , APA also requires a page at the end to cite the sources. However, in APA this page is called "References," and it looks slightly different from MLA. The following chart demonstrates how to format a Reference page for APA.

Formatting a Reference Page According to APA :

To format a Works Cited page according to APA guidelines, writers should follow the following steps:

For the font, use 12-point Times New Roman

Center the title “References” as the first line

Put the page number in the upper right-hand corner

Put a hanging indent on all citations so that the first line is not indented, but all the other lines are. To do this, select the citations, click paragraph, indent, and hanging

Organize all citations alphabetically.

Writing Citations in APA

The following chart demonstrates to cite different types of sources according to MLA guidelines. Note: I would add an example column as you did for MLA.

Note how the above citations differ from the citations in MLA. For instance, the year of publication for sources goes earlier in all citations.

APA Work Cited Example

The following example demonstrates what a Works Cited page in APA format would look like.

There are several websites that assist writers in formatting Works Cited pages. Using a search engine to search for citation tools can streamline the process of organizing references. To use these tools, writers insert information about the source they are citing, and the tool produces citations according to the selected style. While this process is quick and useful, it is important to check the final citations they produce against the style guide's rules.

Works Cited - Key Takeaways

• The purpose of a Works Cited page is to avoid plagiarism and provide readers with other relevant sources.
• MLA is the Modern Language Association's guide for formatting citations, and it requires a Works Cited page.
• A Works Cited page should be double-spaced, 12-point font, with hanging indents for all sources, arranged in alphabetical order by authors' last names.
• An MLA Works Cited page is similar to APA 's guidelines for citations, but the latter calls the page "References" and formats information in the citations in a different order.

Frequently Asked Questions about Works Cited

--> what is the purpose of works cited in a research paper.

The purpose of a works cited page is for a writer to give credit to the sources they used when writing a text.

--> What is the meaning of Works Cited?

A Works Cited page is a list of sources at the end of a paper that notes all the sources a writer used while writing a text.  

--> How to do a Works Cited page?

Writers should format citations for sources according to MLA guidelines and arrange them alphabetically on the last page of their paper in double-spaced, 12-point font. 

--> What is an example of Works Cited?

A Work Cited list is a list of sources a writer used in a paper. An example of a citation on a Work Cited page is:  Johnson, James  How to Cite.  London. Smith Publication, 2021. 

--> What is the difference between Works Cited APA and Works Cited MLA?

In APA the list of citations at the end of a paper is called References. APA also formats citations differently, with information like the date of publication in a different place than in MLA citations.  

Final Works Cited Quiz

Works cited quiz - teste dein wissen.

What is APA format?

Show answer

APA is the American Psychological Association's guide to formatting papers and citing sources.

Show question

Which of the following citations is in APA format?

Rodrigues R. I. (2021). Testing the psychometric properties of a short skills inventory for students looking for their first job.  BMC psychology ,  9 (1), 159. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-021-00662-y

Recent research shows that homework creates stress for students (Richard et al., 2016, Gilbert 2014). 

Which of the following is not a requirement for APA formatting?

Single-spaced text

How long should an abstract in APA format be?

Approximately 150-250 words. 

What does APA stand for?

American Psychological Association

Where does the word plagiarism come from?

The latin word plagiarius, meaning kidnapper. 

How should a writer write an in-text citation for a source without a date in APA?

(Author's last name, n.d.)

True or False: APA format is not used for in-text citations. 

False. APA requires in-text citations and a reference list. 

True or False. APA reference lists are chronological in terms of when they were mentioned in the paper.

False. Citations must be alphabetized in APA reference lists. 

What does MLA stand for?

Modern Language Association 

Does MLA follow author-date or author-page format?

Author-page

True or False: MLA works cited pages have to be in alphabetical order.

True. MLA works cited pages are in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Which of the following is not a requirement of MLA?

Single spacing

Which of the following is a difference between MLA and APA?

APA follows author-date format and MLA follows author-page

What does DOI stand for?

Digital Object Identifier 

Which of the following is an MLA in-text citation?

(Hemingway 14).

Which of the following is a correct MLA citation?

Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises . New York, Scribner, 1954

Which of the following is a feature of an MLA works cited list?

Hanging indents 

What is  plagiarism ?  

Stealing another’s work and pretending it is one’s own 

When did the Harvard style originate?

The late 19th century

True or False. APA is the same thing as Harvard. 

False. APA is the American Psychological Association’s referencing guide that is used in the behavioral sciences.  

Which of the following is properly cited according to the Harvard citation style?  

Fitzgerald, F. S. (1995). The great Gatsby . New York, Scribner Paperback Fiction.

Of what group of universities is Harvard a member?

The Ivy League.

Which of the following is a proper in-text citation?

(Smith, 2018, p. 150). 

What is Harvard style used for?

Citing references in academic works.  

True or False. Harvard reference lists are organized by the order they appear in the paper.  

False. Harvard reference lists are organized alphabetically by authors’ last names.  

True or False. Harvard style requires both in-text citations and a reference list.  

What does "p." mean in citations?

Page number (where the information was found)

What is a Works Cited page?

A   Works Cited  page is a list of sources at the end of a paper that notes all the sources a writer used while writing a text.  

Modern Language Association

True or False. A Works Cited page is the same as a bibliography.  

False. A bibliography features all of the sources a writer used when conducting research for a text. A Works Cited list only lists the sources a writer referenced in the body of the text.  

What is the purpose of a Works Cited page?

The purpose of a Works Cited page is for a writer to give credit to the sources they used when writing a text.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is when a person passes off another person's work as their own.  

What size font should a writer use when writing a Works Cited?

What is the difference between APA and MLA citation lists?

APA calls the list at the end "References," and has information in different places.  

Which of the following is properly formatted according to MLA guidelines?

Johnson, James, et al. "New Citation Research" Journal of Citation Research. vol. 2, no. 4 pp 40-50. 

What is a hanging indent?

When the first line of a citation is not indented but the following lines are indented.  

What spacing should writers use for a Works Cited Page?

What is a primary source?

A source that provides a firsthand account of a topic

Which of the following is a primary source?

True or False. Writers can list primary sources and secondary sources in the same list.  

False. Writers need to have a separate list for primary and secondary sources.

What does MHRA stand for?

Modern Humanities Research Association  

What is a footnote?

A footnote is a form of citation in which a writer places a superscript at the end of the sentence and a corresponding subscript at the bottom of the page with the citation.  

What are the two main requirements of MHRA referencing?

Footnotes and a bibliography  

A hanging indent a format style for a piece of text in which the first line is not indented but the ones below it are.

True or False. In a bibliography, writers need to put “p.” before the page range of an academic journal.  

False. Writers only need to put the numbers such as 54-65.  

Which of the following is appropriate for a footnote citation in MHRA?  

Thompson, p. 80  

What is a main difference between MHRA and MLA?

MLA requires parenthetical in-text citations and MHRA requires footnotes .

In APA, what size paper should it be?

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How to Write a Works Cited Page

Last Updated: February 23, 2023

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. This article has been viewed 224,072 times.

If you’re writing in MLA format, the Works Cited page is the final piece to the puzzle that is your paper. [1] X Research source A Works Cited page is a complete list of the works that you cite in your paper, and it’s different than a Bibliography, which includes any works you used to write your paper, whether you cite them or not. A References page is similar to Works Cited, but is used in the APA format. Once you’re sure that Works Cited is the format you need, making sure that your Works Cited page is up to par can have a huge impact on both on the professionalism of your work as well as your final grade.

Collecting Necessary Information

• Published date
• Publisher location
• Medium (Print, web, film, DVD, etc.)
• Page numbers/Act, or section and line numbers

• Chicago Manual of Style refers to the Works Cited page as a Reference page using the author-date system.
• There is a difference between a bibliography and a Works Cited page. A bibliography includes any sources that you used while researching and preparing your paper, even if you don’t reference them in your writing. A Works Cited page only includes sources that are directly referenced.

• One-inch margins all around.
• Label the page “Works Cited”, and center it on the top line.
• All citations should be double-spaced, with no extra lines between entries.
• Indent all lines after the first of an entry by 0.5 inches (1.3 cm).

• Not all instructors in the arts follow MLA guidelines for formatting, so make sure that you know how your instructor would like the Works Cited page formatted.

Writing the Works Cited Page

• If the book has more than one author, only the first listed author goes last name first. Subsequent authors are listed as First Name Last Name.
• Periodicals : Author(s). “Article Title.” Periodical Title Day Month Year: Pages. Medium.
• MLA no longer requires URLs in Works Cited. Check with your instructor for specifics for your project.
• If no publisher is available, use the abbreviation “np”
• If no date is available, use the abbreviation “nd”
• Interview : Interviewee. Personal interview. Day Month Year.

FREE MLA online

• Type ISBN, title, or key words your book to begin MLA to search and automated citation;
• Verify the information that the ISBN id number brings up.
• Click to add a citation of a chapter title, add page numbers, etc.

Sample Works Cited Page

Community Q&A

Video . By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.

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• ↑ https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/wrd/back-matter/creating-a-works-cited-page/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_basic_format.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
• ↑ https://irsc.libguides.com/mla/workscitedlist

About This Article

To write a works cited page using MLA style, list each work in alphabetical order with each entry on a new line. For a book, cite the author’s last name and first name, book’s title in italics, city of publication, publisher, year of publication, and medium. If you’re citing a periodical, provide the author, article’s title in quotes, periodical title in italics, publication date, relevant pages, and medium. Before you finalize your paper, check to see that the citations and footnotes are clearly marked and correspond correctly to your works cited page. For tips from our English reviewer on how to collect the information you need to write your works cited page, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Citing a Dictionary Entry in MLA Style | Format & Examples

Published on July 1, 2021 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on November 10, 2022.

In MLA style , a Works Cited entry for a dictionary entry usually starts with the title of the entry—since dictionaries usually don’t list authors .

The example below shows how to cite an entry in an online dictionary. If the page displays the year when the specific entry was last updated, use that year after the dictionary name. Otherwise, include an access date after the URL instead, as in this example.

You can easily cite a dictionary entry with the help of our free MLA Citation Generator.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

Table of contents, parts of speech and definition numbers, citing a print dictionary, citing a dictionary entry with an author, frequently asked questions about mla citations.

Some words are spelled the same but have different meanings and functions. To distinguish between them in your Works Cited list, MLA recommends you include the part of speech and (if available) the definition number of the entry you are citing.

Part of speech

A part of speech identifies the grammatical role a word plays. There are eight parts of speech in English: noun , pronoun , verb , adjective , adverb , preposition , conjunction , and interjection. Dictionaries usually identify the part of speech next to the word.

MLA recommends abbreviating the part of speech, and presenting it in italics. Check the table below for the correct abbreviation of each part of speech.

The part of speech should always be included when available, even if it’s the only one listed for the word you’re citing.

Definition number

If there are multiple identical words that function as the same part of speech but have different meanings, they will usually be numbered to distinguish between them. Look for a number that appears next to the part of speech, not the numbering within the entry itself.

For example, here’s an entry from the Merriam-Webster online dictionary .

If available, include the definition number in parentheses after the part of speech.

If there’s no definition number, you can omit this part.

In-text citations

In the in-text citation, the title should be shortened to just the word itself—omit the part of speech and definition number here.

However, if you need to direct the reader to a specific sense of the word, you can do this using the numbering within the specific entry you’re citing. Use the abbreviation “def.” for “definition” and give the numbering that identifies the specific sense you’re citing.

However, the word lock can also refer to “an enclosure . . . with gates at each end used in raising or lowering boats” (“Lock,” def. 2.a ).

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To cite an entry from a dictionary you accessed in print, omit the URL and add the edition, the publisher, and the page number of the entry.

Note that page numbers are not included in the in-text citation, since most dictionary entries appear on a single page. The numbering within the entry is a more useful locator and should be used instead.

Some specialist dictionaries do list authors—either a single overall author or editor, or an overall editor in combination with individual authors for the different entries. Specialist dictionaries may not list parts of speech or definition numbers; omit them if not included.

To cite a dictionary with a single author or editor, just include their name at the start of your Works Cited entry, followed by “editor” if that’s how they’re identified on the title page.

When the dictionary lists different authors for individual entries, list the author of the entry you cite first, then include the editor of the dictionary later. The example below comes from an online specialist dictionary.

In most standard dictionaries , no author is given for either the overall dictionary or the individual entries, so no author should be listed in your MLA citations.

Instead, start your Works Cited entry and your MLA in-text citation with the title of the entry you’re citing (i.e. the word that’s being defined), in quotation marks.

If you cite a specialist dictionary that does list an author and/or overall editor, these should be listed in the same way as they would for other citations of books or book chapters .

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title . Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation .

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

• Rajaram  argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
• The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

The fastest and most accurate way to create MLA citations is by using Scribbr’s MLA Citation Generator .

Search by book title, page URL, or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2022, November 09). Citing a Dictionary Entry in MLA Style | Format & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved October 4, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/dictionary-entry-citation/

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