South Hadley High School Lyman Memorial Library

Core Elements of a Citation

The entries in a Works Cited page, according to the MLA, are made up of "core elements." In order, these are:

Author: The work's primary creator(s).
Title of Source: The work's title.
Title of Container: The location containing the work, i.e. a website, database, or periodical.
Contributor: A key contributor to the work besides the primary author(s).
Version: Included if the work has been produced in more than one form, i.e. a second edition.
Number: Included if the work is part of a sequence, i.e. a numbered volume or issue.
Publisher: The entity responsible for distributing the work, i.e. a publishing house.
Publication Date: The date when the work was published.
Location: Included mainly for the URLs of online sources and page ranges of works contained in other works (Modern Language Association of America 105).

If any of the above is missing from the work, it should be skipped in the citation. The rules for prose apply to these entries for capitalization and styling (i.e. italics).

Basic Formatting Details

Entries are alphabetized by the last name of the author (or, if there is no credited author, the title). The author's last name goes first, followed by a comma, followed by the rest of the name as presented by the work, i.e. Author, First Name.
Two authors are listed as they are presented in the work, with the first's name written as above, followed by "and," followed by the second author's name as presented, i.e. Author, First, and Second Author. For three or more authors, use the first author's name written as above followed by a comma and et al ("and others") in italics, i.e. Author, First, et al.
Titles are written as they are found in the work, in standardized title case, and in italics or quotation marks depending on the type of work - usually quotation marks for an article contained in another work, i.e. "Title of Source." (periods go inside quotation marks) and italics for a book, i.e. Title of Source.
The title of the container follows the same rules and is usually italicized and followed by a comma, i.e. Title of Container,
The names of contributors are preceded by their role, i.e. adapted by Contributor Name.
Versions are written in numerals, and "revised" (rev.) and "edition" (ed.) are both abbreviated, i.e. Rev. ed. or 2nd ed.
Numbers are, again, written in numerals, preceded by a label (usually abbreviated) showing what type of division it is, i.e. vol. 2, no. 3.
Publisher names are written as they appear in the work with proper capitalization, i.e. Publisher Name.
Publication dates are written in day-month-year order if included in the work with the month abbreviated, i.e. 7 Dec. 2022.
For locations with pages, include the entire page range for the contained work preceded by "pp." , i.e. pp. 100-11. URLs should be copied in full from your browser.

Sample Citations of Common Sources

Database article: Selin, Henrik, and Stacy D. VanDeveer. “Political Science and Prediction: What’s Next for U.S. Climate Change Policy?” The Review of Policy Research, vol. 24, no. 1, Jan. 2007, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A163422168/GIC?u=mlin_w_shhs&sid=bookmark-GIC&xid=6a10499f. Gale in Context: Global Issues.
Webpage: “Climate Change.” United States Environmental Protection Agency, 1 Dec. 2022, www.epa.gov/climate-change.
News article online: Shao, Elena. “Renewables Will Overtake Coal by Early 2025, Energy Agency Says.” The New York Times, 6 Dec. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/12/06/climate/iea-renewable-energy-coal.html.
Book: Klein, Naomi, and Rebecca Stefoff. How to Change Everything: The Young Human’s Guide to Protecting the Planet and Each Other. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021.
Book chapter: “Climate Change.” Today’s Social Issues: Democrats and Republicans, ABC-CLIO, 2016, pp. 51–61.

Work Cited

Modern Language Association of America. MLA Handbook. 9th ed., The Modern Language Association of America, 2016.

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