MLA Citation Reference
Name ______Date ______
MLA Citation Reference
Works Cited Page
All entries in your Works Cited page must be references to sources you use in your main text.
❏Your Works Cited page should be on its own separate page, following your actual paper.
❏Label and center Works Cited at the top of the page. Do not bold, underline, or italicize these words, put them in quotation marks, or change the size.
❏All entries should be double spaced, and do not skip an additional line between entries.
❏If your entry contains more than one line, the second and subsequent lines need to incorporate a hanging indent (tab the line once).
❏Entries must be in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.
❏All entries must end with a period.
❏All entries should be in one cohesive font and size (usually Times New Roman, 12).
❏Do not use bullet points, numbers, dashes, etc. to organize entries.
❏When listing author’s names, write them Last name, First name. Any middle initials or middle names will follow the first name (ex: Smith, Winston B.)
❏If an entry has more than one author, the second author follows First name, last name format.
❏If a work has no known author, go onto the next piece of information you know (most likely the title of the article).
❏When typing a URL, do not include the “
❏When typing dates, use the format: date month year. Example: Accessed 1 January 2018.
Citing a book:
Last name, first name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication date.
Orwell, George. 1984. Secker and Warburg, 1949.
Citing a website:
Last name, first name. “Title of Article.” Name of Website. Publication date, URL. Date of access.
Holmes, Lindsey. “So THAT’S Why You Feel Sick After Taking Vitamins.” The Huffington Post. 9 January
2018,
section=us_healthy-living. Accessed 11 January 2018.
In-Text Citations
You must be able to connect all parenthetical citations to a citation on your Works Cited page. Think of the in-text citation as a clue to finding the complete citation later.
❏You must use parenthetical citations throughout your papers when referring to the works of others.
❏The citation goes at the very end of the sentence you are quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing from another source.
❏The author’s last name can either appear in the sentence you are quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, or in the parentheses at the end of the sentence.
❏The page number should only appear in the parentheses.
❏If the author and page numbers are known, include both in the parenthetical citation. Only include the author’s last name. A comma is not needed to separate the last name and page number.
❏When typing page numbers, you may always use actual numbers, as opposed to writing them out.
❏If you are citing an article you do not have to include page numbers.
❏A period always goes after your closing parentheses.
❏If there is no known author, put the next piece of known information inside parentheses: usually this is the title of the article.
❏If the work has more than one author, mention both within the parentheses separated by the word “and.”
❏When citing a quote, the proper order of punctuation is “...... ”(Last name page #).
❏Example: “There is no subject in the world greater than English” (Fierst 1).
Example:
To further show how Winston has hope Big Brother will be overthrown, he states, “if there is hope, it lies in the proles” (Orwell 61).
or
Orwell further shows how Winston has hope Big Brother will be overthrown by stating, “if there is hope, it lies in the proles” (61).