Historical document (MLA)

Works cited entries

MLA-220

Jefferson, Thomas. First Inaugural Address. 1801. The American Reader: Words That Moved a Nation, edited by Diane Ravitch, 2nd ed., William Morrow, 2000, pp. 79-82.

Constitution of the United States. 1787. The Charters of Freedom, US National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/.

Magna Carta. 1215. Britannia History, www.britannia.com/history/docs/magna2.html.

Explain

  • Some historical documents, such as the US Constitution, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and well-known documents without specific titles, are neither italicized nor put in quotation marks, as in the first and last examples.
  • Give the original date following the document title, if known.

NOTE: When a URL must be divided at the end of a line, break it before a period or a hyphen or after any other mark of punctuation. Do not insert a hyphen at the end of the line.

General guidelines for the MLA works cited list

Directory to MLA works cited models

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Work from a database (article, book)

Short work from a website

Selection from an anthology or a collection