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Citing Works Used in MLA Style

When writing an academic paper for a college or university course, you must be able to cite sources properly; that way you are giving credit where it is due, avoiding plagiarism and giving your professor a way to fact check your information. There are a few different styles for works cited pages; these include Chicago Manual Style, or CMS, American Psychology Association style, or APA, and the Modern Language Association style, or MLA. MLA is the most commonly used style in the humanities, such as English, Art and History courses.

Instructions

    • 1

      Title your works cited page "Works Cited" rather than "References" or "Bibliography." This is the title used in MLA style.

    • 2

      Assemble the texts you used as references in your academic paper. You must even cite works that you have paraphrased within your work. Type up a list of authors arranged in alphabetical order by last name. For example, if you cited three authors in your paper your Works Cited page would start out like this:

      Freud, Sigmund.

      James, Henry.

      Silver, John.

    • 3

      Add the name of the work from which your reference came from, with quotations around it, and the name of the anthology or journal that work came from, if necessary, in italics. Your Works Cited will now look like this:

      Freud, Sigmund. "The Interpretation of Dreams."

      Henry, James. "The Turn of the Screw."

      Silver, John. "A Note on the Freudian Reading of 'The Turn of the Screw.'" American Literature (Italicized).

    • 4

      Add the city the work was published in, followed by a colon, then the name of the publishing company and the date it was published. It will look like this:

      Freud, Sigmund. "The Interpretation of Dreams." New York: Sterling, 2010.

      Henry, James. "The Turn of the Screw." New York: Signet Classics, 2007.

      Silver, John. "A Note on the Freudian Reading of 'The Turn of the Screw.'" American Literature (Italicized). Duke University Press, 1957.

    • 5

      Include the page numbers for the quotes from the works you include in your paper. Your final Works Cited entries will look like this:

      Freud. Sigmund. "The Interpretation of Dreams." New York: Sterling, 2010. 114-116.

      Henry, James. "The Turn of the Screw." New York: Signet Classics, 2007. 23-27.

      Silver, John. "A Note on the Freudian Reading of 'The Turn of the Screw.'" American Literature (Italicized). Duke University Press, 1957. 9-12.

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