Christian

MLA LIST OF WORKS CITED

An alphabetized list of works cited, which appears at the end of your research paper, gives publication information for each of the sources you have cited in the paper. (For information about preparing the list, click here; for a sample list of works cited, click here.)

NOTE: Unless your instructor asks for them, omit sources not actually cited in the paper, even if you read them.

MLA works cited entries General guidelines for listing authors 1. Single author 2. Multiple authors 3. Corporate author 4. Unknown author 5. Two or more works by the same author Books 6. Basic format for a book 7. Author with an editor 8. Author with a translator 9. Editor 10. Work in an anthology 11. Edition other than the first 12. Multivolume work 13. Encyclopedia or dictionary entry 14. Sacred text 15. Foreword, introduction, preface, or afterword 16. Book with a title within its title 17. Book in a series 18. Republished book 19. Publisher's imprint Articles in periodicals 20. Article in a magazine 21. Article in a journal paginated by volume 22. Article in a journal paginated by issue 23. Article in a daily newspaper 24. Editorial in a newspaper 25. Letter to the editor 26. Book or film review Electronic sources 27. An entire Web site 28. Short work from a Web site 29. Online book 30. Part of an online book 31. Work from a service such as InfoTrac 32. Article in an online periodical 33. CD-ROM 34. E-mail 35. Posting to an online list, forum, or group 36. Posting to a MUD or a MOO Multimedia sources (including online versions) 37. Work of art 38. Cartoon 39. Advertisement 40. Map or chart 41. Musical composition 42. Sound recording 43. Film or video 44. Radio or television program 45. Radio or television interview 46. Live performance 47. Lecture or public address 48. Personal interview Other sources (including online versions) 49. Government publication 50. Legal source 51. Pamphlet 52. Dissertation 53. Abstract of a dissertation 54. Published proceedings of a conference 55. Published interview 56. Personal letter

General guidelines for listing authors

Alphabetize entries in the list of works cited by authors' last names (if a work has no author, alphabetize it by its title). The author's name is important because citations in the text of the paper refer to it and readers will be looking for it at the beginning of an entry in the alphabetized list.

NAME CITED IN TEXT

According to Matt Sundeen, . . .

BEGINNING OF WORKS CITED ENTRY

Sundeen, Matt.

Items 1-5 show how to begin an entry for a work with a single author, multiple authors, a corporate author, an unknown author, and multiple works by the same author. What comes after this first element of your citation will depend on the kind of source you are citing. (See items 6-56.)

NOTE: For a book, an entry in the works cited list will sometimes begin with an editor (see item 9).

1. SINGLE AUTHORFor a work with one author, begin with the author's last name, followed by a comma; then give the author's first name, followed by a period.

Tannen, Deborah.

up to directory menu

2. MULTIPLE AUTHORSFor works with two or three authors, name the authors in the order in which they are listed in the source. Reverse the name of only the first author.

Walker, Janice R., and Todd Taylor.

Wilmut, Ian, Keith Campbell, and Colin Tudge.

For a work with four or more authors, either name all of the authors or name the first author, followed by "et al." (Latin for "and others").

Sloan, Frank A., Emily M. Stout, Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein, and Lan

Liang.

Sloan, Frank A., et al.

up to directory menu

3. CORPORATE AUTHORWhen the author of a print document or Web site is a corporation, a government agency, or some other organization, begin your entry with the name of the group.

First Union.

United States. Bureau of the Census.

American Automobile Association.

NOTE: Make sure that your in-text citation also treats the organization as the author (see item 9).

up to directory menu

4. UNKNOWN AUTHORWhen the author of a work is unknown, begin with the work's title. Titles of articles and other short works, such as brief documents from Web sites, are put in quotation marks. Titles of books and other long works, such as entire Web sites, are underlined.

Article or other short work

"Media Giants."

Book or other long work

Atlas of the World.

Before concluding that the author of a Web source is unknown, check carefully (see the tip in in-text citations). Also remember that an organization may be the author (see item 3).

up to directory menu

5. TWO OR MORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHORIf your list of works cited includes two or more works by the same author, use the author's name only for the first entry. For other entries, use three hyphens followed by a period.