MLA Reference Page

MLA reference page: For a student or researcher to write a paper, they will need to seek out information from books, websites, articles, and other sources. The information from these sources, coupled with the scholar’s own knowledge, will help in formulating a paper. However, simply using information from these sources without proper citation is not accepted in academic writing.

Therefore, it is necessary to give credit to the original author of the source by including a citation anytime you use information from a source. When writing in MLA format, you are expected to have a reference page in MLA format, which should be titled Works cited at the end of your paper. All the works cited in the body of your paper must have a corresponding entry in the works cited page.

The work cited page show all the sources that were included and consulted in the paper. It is the final page of a paper.

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Example of MLA referencing

Basic MLA Reference Page Formatting Guidelines

check-mark Double line spacing with no extra space between each entry.

check-mark One-inch margin.

check-mark Each entry should have hanging indents that run over one line.

check-mark The works cited list should be arranged in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

check-mark The header should contain your last name and page number at the top right corner.

Hanging Indent

When an entry is more than one line long, the lines after the first one must be indented 0.5 inches to the right. This helps the readers know where one entry ends, and the other one begins, it is called the hanging indent.

Example

Dean, Rachel. “The Beginning Of The End: The Planet is dying.” The Washington Post, 22 May 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/2007/05/22/science/earth/ An-Executive-Mission. Accessed 30 March 2019.

Creating a hanging indent in Microsoft Word

  • Highlight the whole list.
  • Navigate to the paragraph panel on the Home tab and right-click to open the paragraph option.
  • A popup window will open and under indentation, click on special and choose “hanging” from the drop-down menu.
  • Set it to ident by 0.5 inches.

Format For The Works Cited Entries

The entries on the works cited page must contain the information necessary to aid the reader in finding the source.

Elements of MLA Reference Page

To build a reference for any source in MLA format, it must have these nine core elements in this particular order:

  • Title
  • Author
  • Container,
  • Other Contributors,
  • Version,
  • Number,
  • Publisher,
  • Date,
  • Location

Make sure you include the elements that are relevant to the source you are citing

Author

The first author’s name should begin with the last name, while the subsequent author’s name should be written in the order it was written in the source. If the source has more than two authors, name the first author followed immediately by “et al.”

Examples

Germaine, Elyris

Zetter, Iosif, and Robins, Jon

Roger, Fox et al.

Title

The title of the source should be written in full in the title case. Separate the title and the subtitle with a colon and space. Use italics for works without a container and quotation for sources with containers.

Examples

“The imaginary migration of pseudocriticism in various countries.”

An Executive Mission: Planet Saving

Container

This refers to the larger worker that the source appears in; it should be italicized.

Examples

Misunderstanding the internet

Journal of Adolescent Health

Other Contributors

If a source has other contributors like editors, translators, it should be included immediately after the container with a label describing their role.

Examples

Translated by Messer Catherine

Edited by Porter et al.

Version And Number

If the source has more than one edition, issue or volume, then it must be included in the citation

Examples

4th ed.

Vol. 10, no. 5

Publisher

In the citation of sources such as movies and books, then you are to include the name of the publisher.

Examples

Marvel

Longman

Date

You are expected to include the publication date. If there is no publication date, you are to include the most recent date given in the source

Example

2006

Nov. 2012

20 Mar. 2014

Location

For a printed source, the location is the page number on which the source appears. Use “pp.” to refer to a page range and “p” to refer to a single page number. For an online source, the location is the DOI or the URL.

Example

  1. 120-125

https://www.mesacc.edu/~paoih30491/MLA%20Citing.html

DOI:10.1177/137839749388038736.

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By Andy Xavier

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