bedguide10e

Listing Sources in MLA Style

See a sample Works Cited page.

At the end of your paper, list the sources from which you have actually cited material. Center the title “Works Cited” at the top of a new, double-spaced page. Alphabetize entries by authors’ last names or, for works with no author, by title. When an entry exceeds one line, indent the following lines one-half inch. (Use your software menu — Format-Paragraph-Indentation — to set this special “hanging” indentation.)

Listing sources correctly depends on following patterns and paying attention to details such as capitalization and punctuation. The basic MLA pattern places a period after each of an entry’s main parts such as author, title, publication details, and medium. MLA style simplifies many details:

Abbreviate months and scholarly terms.
List only the first city, and no state, to locate a publisher.
List only the first name (without initials) of a publishing company.
Drop “Inc.,” “Co.,” and “Press” from the company name, and abbreviate “University Press” as “UP.”
Use the most recent copyright date for a book.
Add the medium of publication, reception, or delivery such as Print, Web, Television, Radio, CD, DVD, Film, Performance, Lecture.
Omit the URL (uniform resource locator), or Internet address, unless the source would otherwise be hard to find or your assignment requests it.

Keep in mind these two key questions, which are used to organize the sample entries that follow:

Who wrote it?

What type of source is it?

As you prepare your own entries, begin with the author: first things first. The various author formats apply no matter what your source. Then, from the following examples, select the format for the rest of the entry depending on the type of work you have used — article, book, Web page, or other material. Match your entry to the example, supplying the same information in the same order with the same punctuation and other features.