Writing a Works Cited

Writing a Works Cited

What is a works cited?

o  A Works Cited is an alphabetical list of the sources - books, magazines, newspapers, CD-ROMs, Internet, interviews, etc. - that we have used to prepare a piece of work.

Why do we write works cited?

o  To acknowledge our sources.
o  To give our readers information to identify and consult our sources.
o  To make sure our information is accurate.

What if we don't include a works cited?

o  We may be accused of plagiarism (that is, stealing another person's ideas or writing).
o  If so, we may lose some or all of the marks for an assignment or a course.

Works Cited Entries:

1. Books

o  Name of author(s) (surname, first name)

o  Title

o  City of publication

o  Publisher

o  Date of publication

o  Medium of Publication

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

A.  One author

Ruiz, Ramón Eduardo. Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People. New York: Norton, 1992.
Book.

B.  Two authors

Applewhite, Harriet B., and Darline G. Levy. Women and Politics in the Age of the Democratic Revolution.
Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 1990. Book.

C.  Three or more authors

The abbreviation et al. means “and others.” Use et al. instead of listing all the authors.

Beringer, Richard E., et al. Why the South Lost the Civil War. Athens: U of Georgia
Press, 1986. Book.

2. Article in a Magazine or Newspaper

o  Name of author(s)

o  “Title of article”

o  Title of the Periodical

o  Day Month Year

o  page number(s)

o  Medium of Publication

Author(s). “Title of Article.” Title of Periodical Day Month Year: pages. Medium of publication.

Smith, Shelley. “Baseball’s Forgotten Pioneers.” Sports Illustrated 30 Mar. 1992: 72. Print.

3. Newspaper Articles

Blumenthal, Ralph. “Satchmo with His Tape Recorder Running.” New York Times 3 August 1999: E1.
Print.

If no author is listed, start with the article’s title. When an article continues on a different, nonconsecutive page, use a plus sign (+) after the number on which it began (example: 78+).

“Kozyrev’s Mission to Washington.” Boston Globe 14 June 1992: 78+.

4. Internet Important Note on the Use of URLs in MLA: MLA no longer requires the use of URLs in MLA citations. Because Web addresses are not static (i.e., they change often) and because documents sometimes appear in multiple places on the Web (e.g., on multiple databases), MLA explains that most readers can find electronic sources via title or author searches in Internet Search Engines.

For instructors or editors who still wish to require the use of URLs, MLA suggests that the URL appear in
angle brackets after the date of access. Break URLs only after slashes.

o  Author and/or editor names (if available)

o  Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)

o  Title of the Website, project, or book in italics

o  Any version numbers available, including revisions, posting dates, volumes, or issue numbers

o  Publisher information, including the publisher name and publishing date

o  Medium of publication

o  Date you accessed the material

o  URL (if required, or for your own personal reference; MLA does not require a URL)

Aristotle. “Poetics.” The Internet Classics Archive. Vol. 1. Web Atomic and Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 4 Nov. 2008. ‹http://classics.mit.edu/›.

Source: “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” Online Writing Lab. 2 Owl Purdue University, 9 May 2012. Web.
11 Feb. 2014. <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/>.

Points to Remember

1. Be in the habit of writing down the works cited details as soon as you decide that a resource will be useful.

2. If there are 3 or more authors, their names should be cited in the order in which they appear on the title page.

3. For clarity indent the second line of a reference in order to make the author's name or title clear. Make the
indenting consistent throughout (example: 1 tab).

4. If the publisher and the place of publication are not known use n.pub. or n.p. (no publisher).

5. In general, references are listed in alphabetical order.

6. Two or More Books by the Same Author: List works alphabetically by title. (Remember to ignore
articles like A, An, and The.) Provide the author’s name in last name, first name format for the first
entry only. For each subsequent entry by the same author, use three hyphens and a period.

Palmer, William J. Dickens and New Historicism. New York: St. Martin's, 1997. Print.

---. The Films of the Eighties: A Social History. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993. Print.

Useful websites for MLA Citations:

“MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” Online Writing Lab. 2 Owl Purdue University, 9 May 2012. Web.
11 Feb. 2014. <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/>.

Son of Citation Machine. MLA 7th Edition, 2000-2010. Web. 11 Feb. 2014. http://citationmachine.net/
iPad/index.php?micromode=mla>.