How to Make a Works Cited in MLA
The format of the Modern Language Association for structuring academic papers is one of the most commonly used formats among college students. A student wishing to make it to graduation must master the art of piecing together a works cited page that abides by MLA guidelines. The works cited page is a list of every source that the writer made direct reference to in his paper.
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Instructions
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Set the margins of your paper to an inch all around. Microsoft Word 2007 users may accomplish this by clicking "Page Layout" and then "Margins."
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Type "Works Cited" at the top of a new page and press "Cntrl+E" on your keyboard to center the text. You only want those two words centered, so press "Enter" on your keyboard and then press "Ctrl+E" again.
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Compile a list of the authors of any sources you used in your paper, the titles of their works and the title of the larger book or publication their works appear in if you found it inside of a larger work. Find the publication company, publication date, and city and state of publication for those works. If citing a smaller article from a larger book or publication, note the pages that the article appears on and note the date of access if citing a website. Lastly, note the medium, such as print, web, or video of each source.
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Perform an online search for "Current MLA guidelines for writing a Works Cited page" since the guidelines for how to compile a works cited page change virtually every year and the format also differs depending on which type of source you are citing. Order the information individually for each source according to the most recent MLA guidelines. The standard for books and journal articles tends to look something like: Author's last name, Author's first name. "Title of article or book section." Name of publication or book (in italics). Place of publication: Publishing company, year of publication, starting page number, ending page number and medium of publication.
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Order each individual citation in alphabetical order. For each citation that fills more than one line of text, indent the second line of text and any subsequent lines of text one inch from the left.
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Tips & Warnings
As is the case with all other aspects of MLA documents, your works cited page should be double-spaced. It is not necessary to put more than one space between each citation. Pressing "Enter" after completing the previous citation is all that is necessary.
Do not follow the guidelines set forth on a site published several years ago and never use the same format you used to cite a website when preparing the citation for a journal article or book.
References
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