How do I format a Works Cited page?
How to Create a Hanging Indent
How do I list Works Cited Sources?
More than one source by the same author
LINCC (Library Internet Network for Community Colleges)
What is a Works Cited page?
The Works Cited page is the list of sources at the end of the paper. It is called by different names such as Bibliography or List of Sources in different citation systems.
How do I format a Works Cited page?
The page setup and formatting are required parts of the MLA Works Cited page. The same rules apply as for setting up any page in MLA page format.
The Works Cited page must have a title called Works Cited which is centered at the top of the page. The page must have a header in the upper right corner with your last name and page number. The page number would be a continuation of the numbering in the paper itself. The Works Cited page is simply the last page.
How to Create a Hanging Indent
The sources must be listed in a hanging indent with the first line of each source begins at the left margin and any second and subsequent line is indented. There is a tool for creating a hanging indent. Type in your sources according to the MLA format for that source and alphabetize them. Just left align and hit the Enter key at the end of each source. Then, highlight the list and click Paragraph/Special and scroll to hanging indent. Click OK.
How do I list a Works Cited source?
There is a very specific way to list sources. The PHCC library page has a file called MLA Handout which has examples for how to list a variety of sources including sources from LINCC.
The list must be alphabetical. It should not be numbered.
The general format for listing a source is:
author’s name (last name first). title of the source. publication information
The problems arise with the details.
Author
If there is a person named as an author, list last name, first name:
Carlyle, James.
See how there is a comma after the last name. See that there is a period after the first name. Sections of a Works Cited listing are separated by periods.
When there two or three authors, the first two names are separated with a comma, and the second an third names are separated with the word and. The second and third authors, if any, are listed first name first:
Carlyle, James, and Phillip P. Harper.
Carlyle, James, Phillip P. Harper, and Jane Arsenault.
If there are more than three authors named, you can either list them all or use the first listed last name and et al. which is the Latin abbreviation for and others: Carlyle, James, Phillip P. Harper, Jane Arsenault, and Thomas Chin or Carlyle et al. Whichever you choose, be consistent in the body of the paper.
If there is no person listed author, the listing starts with the title.
Title
Generally, sources are either books or articles from magazines, books, or journals. Commonly, the source may be an article or document in a website.
- If the source is a book, the title is listed in italics. Titles of long, published works are put in italics. Note that there is a period following the title.
War and Peace.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. War and Peace.
- If the title is an article or a document or page in a website (a smaller publication which is published in a larger publication), the rule is that the title has to be in quotation marks.
“Implications of Piaget’s Theory in the Learning Environment.”
Marino, Catherine. “Implications of Piaget’s Theory in the Learning Environment.”
Important note about capitalization in titles: In MLA style, the first letter of important words in the title are capitalized even when they are not capitalized in the source itself. Important words are all words except for articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (but, or, yet, for, and, nor, so), and one-syllable prepositions (of, at, on) unless any of these words begin the title.
See that the period at the end comes before the end (closing) quotation mark.
If there is no person named as an author, shorten long titles to the first noun when referring to the source in the paper itself: (“Implications“).
Then, the title of the longer publication in which the source appears follow and must be listed in italics:
Marino, Catherine. “Implications of Piaget’s Theory in the in the Learning Environment.”
Social Behavior.
Publication Information
Publication information consists of volume, issue, date and/or year, publisher, city of publication, year of copyright, name of website, creator/owner of website, name of database, name of subscription service, school or library, city and state of school or library, and date of access. The problem is that not all publication information should be listed for all sources. Which information should be included and how to list that information depend upon the source.
In the MLA style manual and the excerpts of it in the handouts on the PHCC library page called, there is a table of contents at the beginning showing where the sample formats for different types of information can be found. The trick here is to determine what type of source you have in order to look up the proper format.
See the Table of Contents to locate the type of source you have. As previously explained, while the general format is author, title, publication information, how that publication information is listed depends on what type of publication it is. Examine the various types of sources so that you can be familiar enough to find what you are looking for. Sometimes, we need to search the Internet to for a website for the publication to determine what it is.
Remember that not all types of publications ask for all the publication information available. You should only include what the sample indicates. Also, note that the words volume and issue or any abbreviations are not used. When a volume and issue are called for, say for volume 344, issue 5, it’s listed as 344:5. The word pages or any abbreviation is similarly not used except when there are no page numbers listed. In that case n. pag. is typed instead of the actual page numbers.
Placement of periods and commas are critical. Sections of the listing are separated by periods. Note that when there is a period or a comma next to an end quotation mark, the period or comma goes before the end quotation mark. Names of long, published works such as magazines, journals, newspapers, books, websites, and databases go in italics. If you accessed the hard copy, list Print after the publication information. If you accessed through the Internet, list Web, even though the source was originally printed in hard copy.
The last section of a listing of a source obtained through the Internet is the date of access listing in military style. This is necessary for Internet sources since sites change.
Say that the source we are working with is found in volume 35, issue 4, published in 2009, on pages 153-72 and you accessed it through the database Academic Search Complete in our LINCC system. Here is how the completed listing would look:
Marino, Catherine. “Implications of Piaget’s Theory in the Learning Environment.” Social Behavior 35.4 (2009): 153-72. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Jan. 2009.
More than one source by the same author
When there is more than one source from the same author, do not repeat the author’s name. Use three dashes, a period, and two spaces in place of the author: – – – .
LINCC
A note about sources from LINCC (pronounced link):
LINCC stands for Library Internet Network for Community Colleges. LINCC is not a database. It includes access to databases supplied through subscription services such as EBSCO and Gale. EBSCO and Gale are not databases and should not be included as the name for a database.
A list of databases and subscription services from the LINCC site is included in the LINCC system.
Many courses will require using this valuable resource for academic research. LINCC sources are from scholarly journals, newspapers, magazines, and other copyrighted, reviewed, and professionally prepared sources which are different from the Internet where anybody can and does post anything. Some sources on the Internet seem as though they have good information such as Wikipedia, but that is a wiki where people who are not professionals in the field can post information. By its own disclosure, some pages are in a state of development and have not been reviewed for accuracy or presentation of all sides on a scholarly debate.
Students are subscribed to LINCC as part of their student fees. There is a direct access link in your myPHSC courses on the left sidebar on the Modules page under Electronic Resources Library. You may have to scroll down to find it.
To access the LINCC Electronic Databases if the direct link on the myPHCC home page does not work:
- Go to: http://www.phsc.edu/library/
- Click Electronic resources (databases, journals).
- Be sure that PHSC is listed in the drop-down menu. Follow instructions from there.
- Click Databases by Subject.
- Expand the appropriate category. Click on the selected Database title.
- Click Connect to Database.
If you cannot access the LINCC system, call or email the PHSC library.