How to Make a Works Cited Page in MLA Style

MLA Style provides rules for organizing your bibliography.

Commonly referred to as a bibliography, the Modern Language Association (MLA) calls the list of sources used in a research paper the Works Cited page. MLA Style requires each entry in the Works Cited list to correspond to abbreviated in-text citations used to point out where and from whom you borrowed quoted or paraphrased items. Not only does the MLA guide the appearance of the full-length citations, it provides rules for construction of the Works Cited page itself.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

1. Include your MLA Style Works Cited page at the end of your document. Order the entries alphabetically by the first author's last name. If the author is an organization, use the name of the organization in place of a person's last name. If the author is unknown, begin the citation with the title of the reference.

2. Cite books with one author as follows. Italicize the name of the book. Omit articles, abbreviations (e.g., inc. and co.) and words such as "publisher" or "press" from the names of publishing houses. At the end of the citation, indicate the medium used to access the source.

   Yzerman, Mark. Skating in Circles. New York: Putnam, 2006. Print.

3. Use three dashes in lieu of the author's name to cite multiple works by the same author.

   ---. Skating in Circles: A Sequel. New York: McMillian, 2009. Print.

4. List all authors for citations with two or three authors. In such cases, list the second and third author's names in first name, last name order. For works with more than three authors, use "et al." after the first author's name in place of the remaining authors.

5. Follow the same author listing guidelines when you cite scholarly journal articles and other sources. In the case of a journal article, italicize the name of the journal. After the name of the journal, include the volume and issue number, year of publication, page numbers and the medium used to access the source.

   Villa, Bob. "The Impact of Woodworking on Stress." The Journal of Anxiety

   Disorders 15.1 (2010): 342-349. Print.

Tips & Warnings

• For all Works Cited entries, double space the text and indent the second and all subsequent lines five spaces to form a hanging indent.

• MLA produces two publications--"MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers" amd the "MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing." Refer to the latest edition of each to learn how to cite all types of sources in MLA Style.

References

• Cornell University Library: MLA Citation Style