The Online Writing Lab of Roane State Community College

MLA: Works Cited

Part of the documentation process involved in writing a research paper is discussed in the RSCC OWL's Using Sources: MLA. That portion deals with in-text citations. There is also, however, end-text documentation--the Works Cited page.

The information below is intended to offer new researchers some pointers for frequent trouble spots. Further information regarding MLA style is located in The MLA Style Manual, by Walter S. Achtert and Joseph Gibaldi and published by the Modern Language Association of America. Your college writing handbook also discusses MLA style, and includes several sample research papers. See also MLA Style Works Cited Entries.

Consider your Works Cited page as a real, honest-to-goodness page--part of your essay. It should have your name on it, and it should be numbered..
Listings are alphabetical by last name. However, in the case when an author is used more than once (such as Kinnell, p. 617), alphabetize by title (notice that "Milk" comes before "Poetry"). Ignore articles such as "a," "an," and "the."
Adhere to punctuation and capitalization standards exactly.
Notice that the Works Cited page is compiled by using the sample bibliographical entries. If you cannot find an example by using the sample essay's Works Cited page, you should refer to this section.

Entries differ in format. There are entries for books (with one or more authors), works in an anthology (a work which contains readings from a number of authors), translations, works in a series (an example would be if you used one book in a Time/Life series), magazines, journals, newspapers, encyclopedias, pamphlets, dissertations and theses, radio and television programs, records, and even interviews. If you find a source that is not mentioned in your handbook, chances are it is available in The MLA Style Manual. A copy of this book is located in the Writing Center.

Each entry shows an example of how it is to be set up for your Works Cited page.

Make your Works Cited page as you go along, on 3 x 5 notecards. When you get ready to write your Works Cited page, simply alphabetize the notecards.
Make sure that if you photocopy source material that you write down all the bibliographical information you will need right then! You will frequently find that although page numbers are shown on the photocopy, the author's name, the publisher, or other information will not be there. Journal and magazine formats differ from each other. Some journals come out quarterly, while magazines may be more likely to be monthly. You must have the issue number or volume number, the month or time of year (spring, fall, winter, summer) in addition to the page number. Make sure you write down any Web addresses (URLs) right away, and find the full information you need. You may have to return to the home page to find the author's name, for instance.
You will probably have to hunt for some information in your documentation. Author's names, for example, are not always at the beginning of an article. Sometimes they are at the end. Sometimes, too, you'll find that the article is an editorial, in which case you cite it as one.
In your handbook, note the acceptable abbreviations which are used in documentation.
It is very important that documentation be correct. As you may find when you get into research, an incorrect page number given by a sloppy researcher can cause you to hunt for hours for something which should have taken minutes to find.

Updated August 2002.

Back to RSCC OWL