Creating a Works Cited page

Works Cited page - format

  • Separate page

  • Title - Works Cited centered on the first line

  • Citations in alphabetical order

  • Hanging indent used for each citation

  • Maintain same font and font size as used in essay (usually 12 pt font, Times New Roman)

  • Follow capitalization guide

  • Use italics for titles of longer works (title of books, Websites) and "quotation marks" around titles of shorter works (poems, short stories)

Annotated Bibliography

The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to encourage you to critically evaluate your sources to determine how they will support your thesis AND to ensure you have considered the reliability of the source for your paper.

The annotated bibliography includes 2 parts:

  • The citation

  • The annotation, which includes the summary and evaluation of the source. This follows directly after the source and is written in paragraph form.

The basics: creating a citation

In order to accommodate the expanding number digital sources and formats, MLA 8th edition has moved away from citation formats for specific source types (e.g., a book, a magazine article, a web page, etc.).

Instead, MLA 8 requires writers to identify sources based on nine key properties, or Core Elements. The idea is that these nine features are common across different platforms and can be combined to identify any source type.

The writer's job is to identify these elements and use them to create citations. This new approach requires students to recognize what these elements look like in different contexts.

You may not use all the elements for every source. If there is more than one container, repeat steps 4-9 as needed .

Core Elements

Your responsibility is to include all the elements you can find in the order listed below. If the element isn't available, then you don't have to include it. The elements are:

1. Author. -->The author(s) of the work. For multiple authors, list their names in the same order they appear in the work. MLA Style uses each author's full name in the following order: authorlastname, authorfirstname. If there are two authors, invert the second author's name so it is authorfirstname, authorlastname. If there are three or more authors, use the first author's name and "et al." For example:

One author:

Thompson, Andrea.

Two authors:

Goderich, Felicia, and Merida Oakman.

Three authors or more:

Kerich, David, et al.

2. Title of source. -->Title of the work. Subtitles are included after the main title.

3. Title of container, -->This is the name of the journal, website, newspaper, etc. that contains the work,

4. Other contributors, -->This refers to other people who were involved with the work, such as an editor or narrator,

5. Version, --> Use this when your source states indications it is a different version from the original, e.g., revised edition, 8th edition, director's cut,

6. Number, -->This element is used to refer to volume numbers in books, volume and/or issue numbers in journals, seasons and episodes in television shows, etc.,

7. Publisher, -->The publisher is the organization responsible for making the source available to the public.

The publisher may be omitted for periodicals, a website whose title is the same as the publisher, or if the website does not produce the content (eg. YouTube).

8. Publication date, -->This is the date when the source was published,

9. Location. --> This refers to the location of your source within its container, for example, the page numbers of an essay, the URL of a page or post from a website, or the page numbers of an article from a journal. .

Works Cited entry examples:

  • Book

Davis, James R. Don't Wake Me Up: Sleep Deprivation in the 21st Century. Oxford UP, 2015.

  • Article from a database

Visit MLA's Works Cited: A Quick Guide for a breakdown of how to cite articles from databases.

Chan, Evan, et al. "Postmodernism and Hong King Cinema." Postmodern Culture, vol.10 no. 3, 2012, pp. 44-78. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1345/acd.2003.0087.

Always include the DOI instead of the URL if possible. If you are including a URL, include the permanent URL, not the URL found in your browser.

  • Online Video

Visit MLA's Works Cited: A Quick Guide for a breakdown of how to cite online videos.

NC Libraries. "The Why, Where, and When of Citing." YouTube, 14 May 2015, https://youtu.be/4sMLdrwVzvo.

  • Webpage

Davidson, Joshua. "Riesling in the Niagara Region." Ontario Wine for Consumers, 23 June 2015, onwine.com/rieslingniagara/.

  • Digital image

If the digital image does not have a title, include a description of the image. Do not place this information in quotation marks or italics.

Author. Photograph description. Title of Website, Title of Publisher, Publication date, URL.

    • Song

Singer’s Last Name, Singer’s First Name (or Title of the Band). “Title of the Song.” Title of the Album, album’s ed., Publisher, Year of publication, track number. Website or Database Name, URL (remove http:// or https://).

    • Interviews and emails

Generally, we cite the person being interviewed.

Last name of interviewee, First. Interview. 1 May 2022.

Columbia College guide has some very useful examples. Click link to access.

NoodleTools:

  • Citations generators will help you create your Works Cited page however, you are responsible to ensure they are formatting the page correctly. Some of the free versions are out of date, do not cite correctly, or do not cite using the most commonly used citation styles.

NoodleTools is a citation generator provided to you through the school. Most universities will provide their students access to RefWorks or a comparable product.

For more information about citations: