How to Cite a Short Work from a Website in MLA

INSTRUCTOR: How to cite a short work from a Web site in MLA style.

Say you are researching for a paper about near-death experiences, and you read online about how time can feel slower during danger. But because you’re reading online, it’s hard to identify what type of source you have and which elements you need for a citation.

What you’ve found is a short work from a Web site. A short work is an article, poem, internal Web page, or other brief document that appears online.

Notice that this doesn’t include scholarly journal articles read online or found in an online database.

The source you found is a brief article on the NPR Web site, so it qualifies as a short work.

To cite a short work from a Web site in MLA style, you’ll need to gather 5 elements: the author, the title of the article, the name of the Web site on which it appears, the date it was published, and the Web address for the article.

You’ll usually find the author just under the article’s title. Author names are often listed in a different font or style. Here, they are given in all capital letters, although you shouldn’t do that in your citation. Always present the author with his or her last name first. If there is more than one author, as here, those subsequent names should be presented with their first name first. Be sure to list authors in the order they appear in the source.

Next, add the title of the article. It will almost always be near the top of the page.

Now list the title of the Web site. It will usually be at the very top of the page. Sometimes it’s a logo or contained in a logo, as it is here. If the title is an abbreviation, that’s what you should use.

You’ll need to find the date the article was published or last updated. It’s often listed near the author names, as it is here. This NPR source was published on August 17, 2010, so this is what you write in your citation, with the day first, followed by an abbreviation of the month, and then the year.

Finally, provide the Web address of the article to your citation. Some Web sites provide permalinks or static URLs to articles. MLA prefers you use this type of Web address in your citation because it is less likely to change over time, making it easier for your reader to find the article you’ve cited. However, many sites don’t label permalinks, and some don’t provide them at all. Consult your instructor, use your best judgment, and when in doubt, copy the Web address directly from your browsers address bar. When you add it to your citation, don’t include http, https, or the colon and two forward slashes.

Let’s talk about a couple of scenarios common to Web pages so that you can cite them with confidence.

Many pages on the Web are published without an author listed. If you can’t find the author, begin your citation with the title of the article instead.

You might also find a page without a date of publication.

If no date of publication is listed, instead provide the date you accessed the page. Write “Accessed” followed by the day, abbreviated month, and year you last accessed the page.

Once you’ve found all the elements for your citation, double check your punctuation. There should be comma after the first author listed and a period after the last author listed. The title of the article should be in quotes, with a period inside the quotes.

The name of the Web site should be in italic font and followed by a comma. The publication date should be formatted day-month-year, with the month abbreviated to the first 3 letters and followed by a period, unless it is September, in which case you abbreviate the month to 4 letters. The date should be followed by a comma, and the Web address should be followed by a period.

When you add this citation to your works cited entry, be sure to indent each line except for the very first one. This is called a hanging indent.

And that’s how you cite a short work from a Web site in MLA style.