MLA Works Cited Page: Format Basics Purdue OWL® (2023)

In keeping with MLA style, you should have a works cited page at the end of your research paper. All entries on the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in the main text.

ground rules

• Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same 1 inch margins and the same last name and page number as the rest of the work.
• Label the Works Cited page (do not italicize or enclose the words "Works Cited" in quotation marks) and center the words "Works Cited" at the top of the page.
  • Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be flush with the left margin.
• For all citations, include double spaces, but do not omit spaces between entries.
• Indent the second and following lines of quotations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent.
• Efficiently list source page numbers when needed. When referencing a journal article that appeared on pages 225-250, list the page numbers on your Works Cited page as pages 225-50 (Note: MLA style dictates that you read the first few sentences omit repeating digits In our example: the digit in the hundreds place is repeated in between225 J250, so he omits the 2 from 250 in the quote: pp. 225-50). If the excerpt spans multiple pages, use "pp".Note that the MLA style uses a dash over a page span.
• If only one side of a print source is used, mark it with the abbreviation "p". before the page number (e.g. p. 157). If a page jump is used, mark it with the abbreviation "pp" before the page number (e.g. pp. 157-68).
• When citing an article or publication that originally appeared in print but that you retrieved from an online database, you should italicize the name of the online database. You do not need to provide any subscription information other than the database name.
• For online sources, you must provide a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scientific databases use a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). Use a DOI in your citation if you can; Otherwise, use a URL. Remove "http://" from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element of a citation and must be followed by a period.
• All cited works end with a period.

New additional ground rules for MLA 2021

New in MLA 2021:

• applications and databasesThey should only be cited if they are containers for the specific works you are citing, e.g. B. when they are the publishing platforms for the Works in their entirety, and not an intermediary redirecting your access to a source published elsewhere, e.g. B. another platform . For example himphilosophy booksThe app must be specified as a container when using one of its many jobs, as the app contains all of them. However, a PDF article is saved in theLetter boxThe app is published elsewhere, so the app should not be specified as a container.
• When it is important for your readers to know the name of an author/personpseudonym, stage name or various other names,then you should always quote the best-known form of the author's/personal name. For example, since the author ofAlice in WonderlandHe is better known by his pseudonym, quoteLewis Carrollcontradiction toCharles Dodson(However, Name).
• Forannotated bibliographies, Annotations should be added at the end of a source/entry, indented 1 inch from the beginning of the entry. Annotations can be written as succinct phrases or complete sentences and are usually no longer than one paragraph.

Large and lower case

• Capitalize every word in the titles of articles, books, etc., but do not capitalize articles (that, a), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle:Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, Nothing left to lose.
• Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, journals) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles).

List of author names

Entries are listed alphabetically by author's surname (or editor's name for entire edited collections). Authors' names are written last name first, then first name, and then middle name or middle initial if appropriate:

Burke, Kenneth

Levy, David M.

WallaceDavid Foster

NOList titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA, DDS, etc.) by name. A book listing an author named "John Bigbrain, PhD" appears simply as "Bigbrain, John". However, add suffixes like "Jr." or "II." All together, a work by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. may be cited as "King, Martin Luther, Jr." Here the suffix after the first or middle name and a comma.

More than one work by one author

If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, sort the entries alphabetically by title, using three hyphens after the first for each entry instead of the author's name:

Burke, Kenneth.A grammar of motives. [...]

---.A rhetoric of motives. [...]

If an author or editor is listed in a collection as the sole author of a text and the first author of a group, list single-author entries first:

Heller, Steven, Ed.The training of an electronics designer.

Heller, Steven, and Karen Pomeroy.Design Skills: Understand graphic design.

Work without a known author

Arrange works without a named author alphabetically; Use an abbreviated version of the title in parentheses in your work. In this case, Boring Postcards USA has no known author:

Baudrillard, Jean.exercises and simulations[...]

Bored USA postcards[...]

Burke, Kenneth.A rhetoric of motives. [...]

Work of an author with a pseudonym or artistic name

New to the 9th edition of the MLA, there are now steps for citing the work of an author or authors using a pseudonym, artist name, or other name.

If the person you are quoting is well known, cite the most common form of the author's name. There for exampleLewis Carrollesnot just a pseudonymCharles Dodson, but also the most common form of the author's name, quote the first name as opposed to the second.

If the author's real name is less well known than her pen name, cite the author's pen name in square brackets after her real name citation: "Christie, Agatha [Mary Westmacott]."

Authors who have published multiple works under many names may only be cited under one form of the author's name. If the form of the name you wish to quote differs from that which appears in the author's work, place it in square brackets after an italic letter. published as: „Irving, Washington [published as Knickerbocker, Diedrich].

Another acceptable option, in cases where there are only two forms of the author's name, is to cite both forms of the author's name as separate entries, along with cross-references in square brackets: "Eliot, George [See alsoEvans, MariaAna].