Works Cited

The list of works cited is an alphabetical list of sources that you used to gather information for your paper. The Works Cited is the last page of your research paper

 

As the title indicates, every source listed should be cited within the text and vice versa, every source cited within your text must be included in the works cited list. A works cited list might contain books, articles, films, Web sites, newspaper articles, and a variety of other print and non-print sources.  A Works Cited list gives these writers proper credit for their ideas—whether facts, opinions, or quotations—by indicating where you found that information. You should be writing your Works Cited List throughout the research process. It is important to gather necessary information while you are studying a source to avoid having to retrace your steps later to locate the material again, or even worse, having the information disappear which is a definite possibility when dealing with the Internet.  Writing the works cited list before writing the paper will also make writing parenthetical references within the text much easier since you will know exactly what information to include.

 

 

Format of Works Cited Entries

Helpful Hints

  1. Use correct punctuation and spacing
  2. Double space entries
  3. Begin the first line at the margin and indent subsequent lines five spaces
  4. Place entries in alphabetical order by the author’s or editor’s  last name
  5. If no author is given, start the citation by the title
  6. Underline the names of books, magazines, newspapers, journals, web sites and databases; however, do not underline the name of a book series.  For example:  MasterPlots II: Poetry Series
  7. Give the city of publication; if there is more than one city listed, use the first city. Do not list the state
  8. Put titles of articles, essays, and poems in quotation marks
  9. Dates are written as day month year (6 Aug. 2004)
  10. Use ed for editor, trans for translator and comp for compiler
  11. Abbreviate the names of the months except for May, June and July
  12. Abbreviations for Editions:  2nd ed., 3rd ed., Rev. ed. (Revised edition), Abr. Ed. (abbreviated edition), Supp. (Supplement), Supp. II, Pt. 1 (Supplement and Part)
  13. The first letter of words in a title are capitalized
  14. Use shortened forms of the names of publishers.  Omit business abbreviations (Co., Corp., Inc., Ltd) and descriptive words such as Publishers, Press, and House.  For University Press use the abbreviation UP.
  15. Newspaper articles are usually not published on consecutive pages, give the first page number and a plus sign (6+)
  16. Underlining and italics are the same; however, MLA prefers underlining

 

Sample Works Cited

“Annie Oakley.”  Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.  CD-ROM.  1999 ed.  Microsoft.

Bloom, Harold, ed.  F. Scott Fitzgerald.  Englewood Cliffs:  Salem, 1999.

_ _ _.  “Seniors and the Term Paper.”  Time 17 Feb. 2008:  18.

Landsburg, Steven E.  “Who Shall Inherit the Earth?”  Slate 1 May 2001.  2 May 2002

         <http://www.slate.com>.

Neubauer, Carol.  “Displacement and Autobiographical Style in May Angelou.”  Black American Literature Forum 17:2 (1983):  123-9.  Literature Resource Center.  Thomson Gale.  WTHS.  20 Mar. 2007 <http://galegroup.com>.

Tolstoy, Leo.  War and Peace.  Ed.  Harold Bloom.  New York:  Albans, 1997.

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