General Guidelines for the MLA Works-Cited List

bookshlf2b.gif (3419 bytes) GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR THE MLA WORKS CITED LIST
AND PARENTHETICAL NOTES

Basic Rules for the Works Cited List

Use one–inch left and right margins and leave a one–inch margin at the bottom of each page.
Put your last name and the page number on each page, one–half inch from the top of your paper and one inch from the right side of your paper. Then double space and continue with your Works Cited list.
Double space throughout the entire Works Cited list. Do not single space any line.
Begin each citation at the left margin.
Indent the second and all subsequent lines in each citation five spaces. This is called a hanging indentation.
Alphabetize each citation by the author’s last name. If the author’s name is unknown, then alphabetize by the first word in the title other than a definite or an indefinite article (i.e., "a," "an," or "the").
If you have two or more works by the same author give the author’s full name for the first citation and use ---. for each additional work by the same author. List the works in alphabetical order by title (excluding "a," "an," or "the").
Use one–inch left and right margins and leave a one–inch margin at the bottom of each page.
Put your last name and the page number on each page, one–half inch from the top of your paper and one inch from the right side of your paper. Then double space and continue with your Works Cited list.
Double space throughout the entire Works Cited list. Do not single space any line.
Begin each citation at the left marginIndent the second and all subsequent lines in each citation five spaces. This is called a hanging indentation. each citation by the author’s last name. If the author’s name is unknown, then alphabetize by the first word in the title other than a definite or an indefinite article (i.e., "a," "an," or "the").If you have two or more works by the same author give the author’s full name for the first citation and use ---. for each addititional work by the same author. List the works in alphabetical order by title (excluding "a," "an," or "the").

Example:

Rabkin, Eric S. The Fantastic in Literature. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1976.

---. A Study of Utopias in Science Fiction. Austin: U of Texas P, 1993.

Truncate names of publishers. The MLA Handbook has a list of shortened publishers’ names on pages 219-20. James Lester’s Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide has a list on pages 208–09.
University Press is always abbreviated UP.
Examples:

Oxford UP (Oxford University Press)
U of Chicago P (University of Chicago Press)
UP of Florida (University Press of Florida)

Place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Place colons and semicolons outside quotation marks.
Indicate a range of page numbers as follows: 1-99; 11-12; 98-103; 112-19; 247-55; 288-301; 987-1115; 1235-39; 2753-815.
When an article begins on one page or with a range of pages and is continued elsewhere in the publication, indicate this as follows: 21-28+; or, 87+.

Basic Rules for Parenthetical Notes:

MLA requires that you cite a source whenever you:

use an original idea derived from a source, whether quoted or paraphrased
summarize original ideas by a source
use factual information that is not common knowledge [Common knowledge is information that recurs in source after source (five or more)].
use any exact wording copied from a source.

Indicate the beginning and end of quotations and paraphrases.

Example:

Dunham argues convincingly that the theorem is a creative unit analogous to the novel or the symphony (5).

If necessary, use both the authority’s name and the page number inside the parenthetical citation.

Example:

This point of the theorem as a creative unit has been argued successfully (Dunham 5).

Cite every borrowed sentence.
Introduce sources that have no author listed with a general reference to the magazine, report, or other authority and then within the in-text citation use an abbreviated title of the work.

Example:

According to U.S. News and World Report men and women who own their businesses have very different definitions of success as well as different management styles ("Entrepreneurs" 13).

The full title is: "Entrepreneurs and the Gender Gap." U. S. News and World Report 1 Aug. 1994: 13.

Cite corporate authors when a company, corporation, or committee publishes a work.
Cite more than one author of a work. For two or three, cite all names:

Example:

(Ferguson, Fulbright, and Battle 324-25).

For more than three authors use the abbreviation et al., which means "and others":

Example:

(Duke et al. 344-55).

For more information about academic writing see The Writing Center from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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