MLA Style Works Cited Page
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TLC / College of the Canyons
This handout provides instructions on using the 8th edition of MLA style to create a Works Cited page. The Works
Cited page is an alphabetized list of all the sources you used to complete your assignment. It shows that you did
not plagiarize your work and helps readers locate the sources you used.
The Philosophy Behind the 8th Edition
The 8th edition of MLA style is versatile. To create a citation for any kind of source, identify the core elements
(listed below).
The Core Elements:
Core Element:
1. Author.
2. Title of source.
3. Title of container,
4. Other contributors,
5. Version,
6. Number,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date,
9. Location.
Explanation:
The author is the person primarily responsible for producing the work. Begin your
citation with the author’s name. Use last name, first name (for the first author
only).
Provide the title in full exactly as it is found in the source. Follow standard
capitalization rules for titles.
If the source is part of a larger whole, that larger whole is the container (a magazine
might be a container for an article, for example). The container is crucial for locating
the source; in other words, readers need the name of the container in order to
access your information. The title of the container is usually italicized. It is followed
by a comma because the following information describes the container.
A source may have more than one container. For example, a journal article from an
online database will have two containers (the journal and the database). If there is
more than one container, complete steps 3-9 for the first container. Then, repeat
steps 3-9 for the second container.
This section gives you the opportunity to give credit to the other people (aside from
the author) who participated in creating the source. Name these contributors if
their participation is important to your research. Editors of scholarly
editions/anthologies and translators should always be recorded.
Precede the name with a description of the role, such as: Edited by or Translated by
If the source indicates that is a version released in more than one form (like an
edition of a book), identify the version in your citation.
The source may be part of a numbered sequence; provide that number to help
readers locate your source.
The publisher is the organization primarily responsible for producing a source or
making it available to the public.
Provide the date your source was published. If the date was published on more
than one date, use the date most meaningful for your use of the source. Write as
much of the date as is available (day / month / year).
The location helps your readers find where a text is located.
 Print sources (for articles in an anthology, for example): Use p. for a single
page or pp. for a range of pages.
 Online work: Use the URL if your instructor requires it.
Updated August 2016
Student Resources by The Learning Center, College of the Canyons is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
MLA Style Works Cited Page
45
TLC / College of the Canyons
One Last Note about the Core Elements: You may not have information for all nine steps of the core elements.
For example, not every work has other contributors (element 4). Skip any element that does not pertain to the
source you are citing.
Sample Citations:
Book with a Single Author:
Ng, Celeste. Everything I Never Told You. Penguin Books, 2014.
Work in an Anthology (like an article or story in a textbook):
Foer, Jonathan Safran. “Against Meat.” They Say, I Say with Readings, edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy
Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2015, pp. 448-461.
Online Article:
Newkirk, Vann. “America’s Health Segregation Problem.” The Atlantic, The Atlantic Monthly Group,
18 May 2016, 9:00 a.m., http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/americas-healthsegregation-problem/483219/.
Journal Article from Online Database:
Cimino, Megan, et al. “Satellite Data Identify Decadal Trends in the Quality of Pygoscelis Penguin
Chick-Rearing Habitat.” Global Change Biology, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 136-148.
Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1111/gcb.12016.
To Format Your Works Cited Page:
 One inch margins on all four sides
 12-point professional font (Times New Roman, Calibri, etc.)
 Provide a header that includes your last name and page number.
 Title the page Works Cited; do not use bold, underline, italics, or “quotation marks.”
 List all entries in alphabetical order. Do not number entries or use bullet points.
 Double space; do not include extra space between entries.
 Use hanging indentation (indent all lines after the first line of an entry).
Online Resources:
MLA’s Official Website:
Practice Template for Using the Core Elements:
Updated August 2016
Student Resources by The Learning Center, College of the Canyons is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.