Formatting a Works Cited Page
Page Layout
The Works Cited page is the last page of the document. Nothing but the heading 'Works Cited' and the list of your sources should be on it. Use a 12-point font (Times Roman is recommended), one inch margins all around, and double spacing.
Include Sources You've Used
Each source that you've quoted, paraphrased or summarized in your paper should appear as an entry in the Works Cited page. A quote is any material (written or spoken) you've copied word for word, and a paraphrase is material you've borrowed but have put in your own words. Paraphrases are generally similar in length to the original. Summaries are condensed versions of longer works such as a full article or book, and are usually one or two paragraphs long. If you haven't used a source in your paper, it doesn't belong in your Works Cited page.
- Put your sources in alphabetical order by the last name first. If the work has more than one author, all names after the first appear in the normal way (first name followed by the last name - see the example below).
- For works with an unnamed author (common with Web articles), enter the title and alphabetize it according to the first word that doesn't begin with an 'A', 'An' or 'The.'
- Capitalize all words in a title except articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, so, yet), prepositions (with, into, etc.), unless they're the first word in the title.
- Place quotation marks around titles of brief works and articles, including brief Web articles.
- Italicize titles of longer works, such as books and the titles of websites.
- Enter the city where the work was published (not the state) and add a colon.
- Enter the publisher's name followed by a comma, the year of publication, followed by a period.
- Enter the medium (print, Web, film, video, etc.).
- Enter the 'date of access' if it's from the Web.
For example:
Warren, James. First Fiction. New York: Farrar, 2013. Print.
- Works with more than one author
Adams, Mark, Joan Smith, Lyle Olson. The Last Word. Chicago: Penguin, 2013. Print.
White, Samuel. 'Science of Tomorrow.' WebScience. Web. 30 Oct 2012.
Hanging Indents
For each source in the list, MLA style requires the second (and any that follow) to be indented five spaces; this is known as a 'hanging indent.' To create hanging indents in a Microsoft Word document, go to the Paragraph group, click on 'line spacing options', then 'special', then 'hanging.'
URLs
MLA doesn't require URLs on the Work Cited page. However, if your instructor asks you to provide them, they should appear at the end of the entry. You can break extra-long URLs after a slash, and enclose it in angle brackets: < > . Be sure to remove link features and underlining.
Learning Outcomes
Once you are done, you should be able to:
- Explain what a Works Cited page is
- Describe the layout of a Works Cited page for MLA format
- Recall the layout for entries on a Works Cited page
