MLA Citations and Works Cited Pages

by April Camden and Beth Marchbanks

In-text citations (parenthetical and attributive-tag)

 What to include for in-text citations

• Author’s last name (if no introductory attributive tag is used in the sentence)
• Page or paragraph number(s) that the quote is on, or where summarized/paraphrased information can be found
  • (Unger par. 10)

MLA format focuses on who wrote the information and where a reader can find that information. For that reason, citations contain the author’s name and a specific location, such as a page number. If there is no author provided, the citation should be the title (in quotation marks). Only use the first few words if it is a long title.

Other formats focus on different aspects. APA format, for example, puts more emphasis on when the information was published than where a reader can find it, so they also include copyright year in parenthetical citation.

What is included in the parenthetical citation at the end will depend on whether you used an attributive tag, and the type of source you are using. Your first step, then, is to determine what type of source you have: print, database, or online.

Most print and database sources will have page numbers. Books obviously have page numbers, and EBSCOHost often involves downloading a PDF of the article in order to read it, though some databases only have HTML files included.

When you find a source from the internet, though, you will need to remember that if your reader navigates to the website, page numbers as they were printed off by you may not be the same. Page numbers are also useless if the reader is only viewing on a screen. MLA does not require that you give paragraph numbers, so be sure to ask your instructor if you are expected to do so.

Using page numbers

If your print or database source contains page numbers, then you will use the page numbers provided. An online source, like a webpage, will not have page numbers, so if the instructor requires it, you will need to count and number the paragraphs. For a webpage that has more than five paragraphs, this is easier if you print the web page information off. You can copy and paste the webpage information onto a document, but be sure that the paragraph breaks are in the same place as they are when viewed online. If your instructor does not require paragraph citations for no page number, the updated MLA considers this optional.

Variety in citations

There are several ways to properly introduce, integrate, and cite your sources, as you should have seen by now. Using a variety of these ways throughout your paper in order to incorporate information is a good idea to keep your paper interesting and avoid sounding monotonous.

Some examples were provided in the quoting section of the previous chapter. Following are some more examples using the same source from the quoting section, and another source from an online website so that you can see how to cite using paragraph numbers:

• “The addition of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) to gasoline became controversial after its detection in waters of the United States,” explains Fiorenza et al (773).
• In “Transportation Pollution and Global Warming,” the author states that “transportation would be a particularly good sector to target for emissions controls because it emits a lot of black carbon (most notably through diesel exhaust) and ozone-producing gases in addition to CO2” (Unger par. 10).
• One study explains that “The addition of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) to gasoline became controversial after its detection in waters of the United States” (Fiorenza et al 773).

In the first example, an attributive tag of the author is provided, so the author’s last name is not needed in the parenthetical citation. All three provide the page number the quote is found on, and use only the last name of the author when there is no page number. Notice that you do not use a comma between the last name of the author and the page number when you use page numbers. The same format would apply to a summary or paraphrase:

• Fiorenza’s research into the water contaminate methyl tertiary-butyl ether found numerous studies that showed different methods of aiding biodegradation and remediation of the chemical compound in the in the environment (776-779).
• One research study that examined various methods for ridding water of the chemical fuel additive contaminate methyl tertiary-butyl ether found that other than replacing the contaminant when pollution is too much for natural biodegradation, further interventions for remediation must be implemented (Fiorenza et al 776-779).
• Unger’s article examines different forms of pollution to determine what types of pollution are produced by what industries in an effort to find the best approaches to reducing pollution in each area.
• The online article titled “Transportation Pollution and Global Warming” examines different forms of pollution to determine what types of pollution are produced by what industries in an effort to find the best approaches to reducing pollution in each area (Unger).

These examples using two different sources are not exhaustive. Do notice that in all the quoted examples, there is wording included in the sentence that is not part of the quote. These examples also have authors. Remember that if a source you are using does not have an author, you should use the first few words of the title, in quotation marks, as your parenthetical citation, like this (“Imaginary Title” 5).

Constructing your MLA Works Cited Page

In keeping with normal MLA format, your Works Cited page should be an extension of your paper, being included as the last page(s). It is easiest to add the sources at the bottom of your paper as you use them in the text so that you don’t risk forgetting entries. This is especially important if you are uploading the file to your instructor online, as many programs (such as TurnItIn) will not allow you to upload more than one file.

To make a separate Works Cited page part of your document, insert a page break (CTRL + Enter keyboard shortcut) at the end of your conclusion. Don’t hit the enter button a bunch of times because then if you change something, then that will result in the entire formatting being thrown off. The page break prevents this from happening.

The entire document should have one-inch margins set for left, right, top, and bottom. The font should be standard 12-point (most commonly Times New Roman, Arial, or Calibri). Line spacing should be set to double-spaced with the “before” and “after” spacing at zero (in Microsoft Word, be sure you use your paragraph function to remove space after paragraph). Your header should be set at 0.5” (one-half inch from the top) and you will need to also change the font in the header to match the standard 12-point font used in your document. These margins and spacing guidelines apply to the entirety of your paper, so do a double-check to make sure.

The newest editions of the MLA guidelines set out to make constructing Works Cited entries much less difficult by creating a list of information that should be included in the entry and in what order, regardless of the type of source you are using. While this has made handbooks on the subject much shorter, there may be many times that you will be left wondering, “Is this right?” It is always your responsibility to ask your instructor what they expect or whether something should be included. The LARC tutors, for example, are great resources, but they do not supersede your instructor, and you should double-check.

Remember, it is your name on the paper, and you are ultimately responsible for the information it contains and the grade you earn.

The Works Cited entries will be left aligned using hanging indent. This means the first line should be left aligned and any lines after the first should be indented ½ inch. Examples are included for you below.

Listed below are the elements to include in your Works Cited entry. If you do not have a certain element, you will skip that section and move on to the next. However, if your source lacks basic information such as an author, title, container (publication), or publication date, you might want to reconsider whether you want to use that source.

Once you’re familiar with MLA and its order, you can apply it to virtually any type of source.

Author.
Title of source.
Title of container,
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication date,
Location.

Each of these elements is explained in further detail below, but here are a few examples using the sources from the introducing and quoting sections:

There are multiple “locations” for database entries including the database the source is housed in, the actual database collection system (EBSCOhost in the case for MACC), and the database URL permalink or DOI (Digital Object Identifier) number. MACC’s Language and Literature Department also encourages the use of access dates for any source retrieved using the internet, regardless of where or how the source is housed, so they will be used in the examples.

Fiorenza, Stephanie, et al. “MTBE in Groundwater: Status and Remediation.” Journal of  Environmental Engineering, vol. 128, no. 9, 2002, pp. 773-781. EBSCOHost, doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2002)128:9(773). Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

If you copy and paste citations from EBSCOHost database information that is provided to you, you should make sure that the entry has been appropriately updated and looks like the one above. You will also need to format the author’s names so that they are not in all-caps, italicize the publication and database, and add the access date if required by your instructor.

Here is an example from a website:

Unger, Nadine. “Transportation Pollution and Global Warming.” NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, June 2009, GISS Website Curator, Robert Schmunk, 30 Sept. 2014, http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/unger_02. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

Adding access dates is “instructor preference” under the ninth edition guidelines, so ask your instructor whether they require access dates. The MACC Language and Literature Department recommends adding access dates for all online sources.

On your Works Cited page, your entries should be listed in alphabetical order, double spaced, and hanging indented. Do not use a bulleted list, number your entries, or list them by the order that you use them in your paper.

1. Author or authors.

List the name(s) of the author(s) in the order they appear on the source. The name of the first author should be reversed, providing the last name first. If there are other authors, all other names will be presented as normal, separated by commas. The names should be followed by a period. Example:

Fiorenza, Stephanie, et al.
Gross, Ashley, and Jon Marcus.
Unger, Nadine.

For three or more authors, use “et al” following the first name. If there is no author for the source (or a corporate author that will be listed under Publisher), then you move on and provide the title of the work first.

2. Title of the work.

Unless you are using a book as a source, the title of the source should be provided with proper capitalization and punctuation, ending with a period or the included title punctuation, all inside quotation marks. Examples:

“MTBE in Groundwater: Status and Remediation.”
“Transportation Pollution and Global Warming.”

3. Title of the container,

“Container” is a term used by MLA to indicate the name or title of the original source of publication, such as the name of a journal, newspaper, or book that the article was published in. If you were going to use a chapter in a book or a page on a website, the name of the chapter or webpage would be in quotations, and then you provide the title of the container—the book or the website. The container is in italics because it is considered a longer work. Examples:

Journal Of Environmental Engineering [This is the name of the journal]
NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies [This is the name of the website]

4. Other contributors,

This element is referring to any other person(s), who is listed in the source as contributing to the work in some way, such as an editor, translator, etc. The title of the contributor is provided first, followed by the name, followed by a comma. The two full bibliography examples that were provided above do not have any other contributors, so this was skipped in those entries.

The following examples are made up, but give you an idea what they would look like:

adapted by Jane Doe
John Buck, ed.,

5. Version or Edition,

For some sources, there are multiple editions or forms released over the years, so it is important that you indicate to your audience which version or edition you are using. The Bible and textbooks come to mind. Like #4, this was skipped in the bibliography examples above because there are no other versions or editions. The following should give you an idea of what your entry should look like if you needed to include this information, followed by a comma:

Expanded edition,
New King James Version,
12th ed., [ed. is used as the abbreviation of edition]

6. Volume and/or Number,

Some sources may include a volume and number. These are used when publications are released in parts instead of all at once. Many journals are issued using volumes and some even use both, as in Fiorenza’s essay above. This information is followed by a comma:

vol. 128, no. 9, [This is from our original full example provided above]
Season 2, episode 4, [If you are using a television series]
Vol. A, [Some collections use letters instead of numbers]

7. Publisher,

A publisher is the name of the company or organization responsible for publishing, producing, or making the work available. Many times, the responsible party for information on internet webpages can be found near the top or bottom of the page, or on the homepage along with the copyright date. For books or print sources, this information is contained on the title page. Again, our original examples lacked this information, so this section was skipped. In your Works Cited entry, this information is followed by a comma:

Pearson Education Inc.,
McGraw Hill,
Penguin Classics,
Oxford University Press,
[These are companies responsible for the publication of certain textbooks or books]

DreamWorks Animation, LLC,
Twentieth Century Fox,
[These are examples of film production companies]

8. Publication date,

The publication date is important to include in your Works Cited entry because it provides the timeliness of the information. For some sources, there may be multiple dates provided, such as an original publication, an updated date, or a date of last update on a webpage. In cases of multiple dates, MLA suggests using the date most relevant to your source.

The format of the date should be provided in European style with the day, month and year. Provide the full date, or what you have, followed by a comma:

2017,
29 June 2020,

March 2022,

9. Location.

Location refers to many aspects of where to find your source. You can list more than one location, such as page numbers, a URL (website address), a DOI (digital object identifier), disc number, physical place, or other code. The location or locations you provide will be followed by a period:

pp. 773-781. Complementary Index, EBSCOhost
[These are the page numbers and the name of a database where our full bibliography source example is located, the system the database was accessed from, and the URL]

www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/unger_02/.
[This is the URL of our online webpage source example]

doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2011.07.010.
[This is a DOI example]

disc 2.
[This is how to list the disc number of your source if it contains multiple discs.]

Example Bibliography Entries

Here are some other example entries for commonly used sources:

Examples of online sources

Sometimes, you may find yourself using a video from a reputable source. These are not much different from more traditional “print” sources, but it’s still important to cite correctly and include copyright information for where you viewed the video.

Again, use the same information, but just be aware that you may have a director, producer, or editor instead of an author. As always, be wary of sources with no clear authorship from either a person or organization. If you are not working with a single clear author, but rather a corporation, publication, institution, or group, then simply begin with the title of the video or film, and include that information in the publisher section.

Netflix – The Social Dilemma documentary:

The Social Dilemma. Directed by Jeff Orlovsky. Exposure Labs, 2020. Netflix. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

[order: title (in italics since it is a longer work), director/performers (optional) publishing organization, copyright date, location you viewed it. Access date (optional)]

YouTube — John Green, “How and Why We Read” (CrashCourse):
Green, John. “How and Why We Read.” YouTube, uploaded by CrashCourse, 2012. www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSYw502dJNY. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

[order: author, title (in quotation marks since it’s a shorter work), organization, copyright date, location. Access date (optional).]

TED talk — Barry Schwartz, “The Paradox of Choice.”

Schwartz, Barry. “The Paradox of Choice.” TED: Ideas Worth Spreading, 2005. www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

[order: author, title (in quotation marks since it’s a shorter work), organization, copyright date, location (URL). Access date (optional).]

Example from a database (no author):

“Combating Fake News: Only a Third of Students Regularly Learn to Judge Reliability of Sources.” PR Newswire, 6 Nov. 2019. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgbe&AN=edsgcl.604859378&site=eds-live. Accessed 12 Dec. 2021.

Example of an article reprinted in a textbook:

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Rpt. in LAL101: Composition I Reader, Mike Barrett, ed. Pearson Learning Solutions, 2020. pp. 88-100.

The following  contains an example MLA Works Cited page, using all the entries described.

Notes: Entries are alphabetized by the first word (author or title) of entry; access dates are recommended but not required.