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MLA Style:  Works Cited list

UON Library guide to MLA referencing style 8th edition for UON students

Works Cited list - Core elements

 

MLA features parenthetical in-text citations, and a corresponding alphabetical works-cited list at the end of the document. The works-cited list provides the full details of the sources cited in the text of your paper. 

 

Core elements and structure of a works-cited entry

MLA 8th introduces a new model for reference entries in the works-cited list. In the new model:

  • The reference lists the MLA core elements regardless of the nature of the source, such as book or journal article. 
  • If an element cannot be found or does not apply to the source being cited, omit that element from the reference.
  • End the reference with a period.

The MLA Core elements, punctuation and order are listed below:

  1. Author/s.
  2. Title of the source.
  3. Title of container,
  4. Other contributor/s,
  5. Version,
  6. Numbers,
  7. Publisher,
  8. Publication date,
  9. Location.

Note: Elements 3-9 may be repeated if there is more than one container in the reference.

Works Cited list: General rules

 

  • The works-cited list starts on a new page and is organised in alphabetical order by author or title if there is no author. Ignore the leading words "A","An", and "The" when alphabetising by title.
  • Each entry should have a hanging indent, with or without a blank line between each entry.
  • Each entry must correspond to a work cited in the text, and vice versa.
  • Authors’ full names are used with the first author's name inverted (last name first), e.g. Smith, Adam, and Dan Jones. …
  • Use “and” when citing two authors, do not use “&”, e.g. Smith, Adam, and John Jones. ...
  • For publications with 3 or more authors, list the first author followed by a comma and "et al."
  • For multiple works by the same author, list the full author name for the first entry only, and use three hyphens (---) for author in the following entries. List works under the same author by title, e.g.

Germov, John. Get Great Marks for Your Essays. 2nd ed. Allen & Unwin, 2000.

---. “Medifraud: A Systemic Infection Untreated." Australian Journal of Social Issues, vol. 29, no. 3, Aug. 1994, pp. 301-04.

  • For works with coauthors beginning with the same name, alphabetize them by the last name of the 2nd author. 

  • When a work is published by an organisation that is also its author, begin the entry with the title, skipping the author element, and list the organisation only as publisher, e.g. 

    Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America. National Endowment for the Arts, June 2004.

  • Do not include The before the name of any corporate author in the works-cited list.
  • Titles are capitalized headline-style, e.g. Introduction to Psychology.
  • Titles of larger works (e.g. books and journals) are italicized; titles of smaller works (e.g., chapters, articles) or unpublished works are enclosed in quotation marks. 
  • List the database name if the source is located in a library database.
  • If a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is available for your source, cite the DOI instead of the URL.
  • When citing URLs, omit the part of http:// or https://.
  • MLA recommends including the access date for web resources without a date of publication; n.d. (no date) is no longer used.
  • To cite secondary sources, mention both the original and secondary source in the text, and list only the secondary source in the works-cited list. 

For more details and examples follow the links to each type of sources at the left of this page or use the index under How to reference ...

Sample Works Cited list

 

The works-cited list starts on a new page with a hanging indent. It is organised in alphabetical order by author or title if there is no author. Ignore the leading words "A","An", or "The" when alphabetising by title.

 

Works Cited                 

 

Baron, Naomi S. Alphabet to Email How Written English Evolved and Where It's Heading. Routledge, 2000. Communication & Mass Media Complete, search.ebscohost.com/.

---. Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World. Oxford UP, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com.

---. "See You Online: Gender Issues in College Student Use of Instant Messaging." Journal of Language & Social Psychology, vol. 23, no. 4, Dec. 2004, pp. 397-423. Sage Premier, doi:10.1177/0261927X04269585.

---. Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World. Oxford UP, 2015.

Germov, John. Get Great Marks for Your Essays, Reports, and Presentations. 3rd ed., Allen & Unwin, 2011.

---, editor. Second Opinion: An Introduction to Health Sociology, 6th ed., Oxford UP, 2019.

Germov, John and Tara Renae McGee. Histories of Australian Sociology. Melbourne U Publishing, 2005.

Germov, John and Marilyn Poole, editors. Public Sociology: An Introduction to Australian Society. 4th ed., Allen & Unwin, 2019.

Germov, John and Lauren Williams, editors. A Sociology of Food and Nutrition: The Social Appetite. 4th ed., Oxford UP, 2017.

 

MLA abbreviations used

 

Abbreviations are used regularly in the list of works cited and in in-text citations. 

  • The names of months that are longer than four letters are abbreviated in the works-cited list as:

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. and Dec.

  • Common academic abbreviations used in the works-cited list: 
    • ​Where confusion may result, spell out the word instead.
    • The plurals of the noun abbreviations given here other than p. are formed through the addition of s (e.g. chs. for chapters).

 

  Abbreviations      Terms    Abbreviations      Terms
            ch.   chapter

par.

  paragraph

dept.

  department

qtd. in

  quoted in

ed.

  edition

rev.

  revised

et al.

  and others

sec.

  section

no.

  number

trans.

  translation

P

  Press

U

  University

p.

  page

UP

  University Press

pp.

  pages

vol.

  volume
 

 

 

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