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Creating a Works Cited Page

It is not an easy task to create a correctly formatted Works Cited page.

Give yourself a lot of time to do it!

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My instructor says I need to use MLA

format when creating a Works

Cited page.

What is that?

What is MLA format?

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MLA Format

• MLA stands for Modern Language Association.

• MLA format, developed by the Modern Language Association, provides the style (page layout of the essay, header, quotations, Works Cited, etc.) most instructors in the humanities require for papers.

• However, there are other formats such as APA (American Psychological Association) or the Chicago Manual of Style. Each format has its own set of rules. For papers in literature you must use MLA format.

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Rules for MLA Format

• The bibliography is called “Works Cited.”

• Double space everything on a Works Cited page.

• Center the title Works Cited (no bold, italics, or underlining) and place it at the top of the page.

• Use a “hanging indent” after the first line of each entry.

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Works Cited

Berman, Jeffrey. “The Unrestful Cure: Charlotte Perkins Gilman and

‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” The Talking Cure: Literary

Representations of Psychoanalysis. By Jeffrey Berman. New

York: New York University Press, 1985. 33-59. Rpt. in

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Paula Kepos. Vol. 37.

Detroit: The Gale Group, 1991. 198-200.

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wall-paper.” The YellowWOther

Stories. New York: Modern Library, 2000. Print.

OK: so what does it look like?

All text is double-

spaced, and there are no line spaces between entries.

CenteredTitle

“Hanging” Indent

More Rules for Works Cited

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• The author’s last name is usually first in a Works Cited entry, followed by the source title(s) and publication information.

• Place the titles of articles, short stories, book chapters, poems, and songs in quotation marks.

• Italicize the titles of books, plays, journals, magazines, newspapers, and films.

• Capitalize each word in titles, except articles, short prepositions, or conjunctions.

• Include publication medium (Print or Web) in each citation.

Works Cited Entry for a Book

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Elaine Showalter would disagree with the interpretation of the demonized baby that poses a threat to the mother, “in particular the weight gain that was considered an essential part of the cure was a kind of pseudo-pregnancy” (247).

Works Cited

Showalter, Elaine. A Literature of Their Own. Princeton: Princeton

University Press, 1998. Print.

In-text Citation

Works Cited Entry

Wow! Look at the

connection!

Works Cited Entry for a Periodical Article from a Database

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In-text Citation

Roth, Marty. “Gilman’s Arabesque Wallpaper.” Mosaic 34.4 (2001)

145-163. Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Web.

27 June 2006.

Jonathan Crewe claims that “the exasperating effect of pattern wallpaper on

invalids was a medical commonplace of Gilman’s time” (qtd. in Roth).

Works Cited Entry

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Works Cited Entries for the Gale Literary Criticism Series

Treichler, Paula A. “Escaping the Sentence: Diagnosis and Discourse in ‘The Yellow

Wallpaper’.” Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 3.1-2 (1984): 61-77. Rpt. in

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Paula Kepos. Vol. 37. Detroit: The Gale

Group, 1991. 188-194. Print.

Hedges, Elaine R. “Afterword.” The Yellow Wallpaper. By Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

1973. New York: The Feminist Press, 1973. 37-63. Rpt. in Twentieth- Century

Literary Criticism. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 9. Detroit: The Gale Group, 1983.

105-107. Print.

Follow the examples below to cite material from the Gale Literary Criticism Series. The first example shows how to cite material originally published in an article; the second illustrates how to cite material reprinted from books:

Rules for Web Sources in Works Cited

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• All Web sources need two dates: the date that the Web page was last updated and the date the information was accessed from the Internet.

Works Cited Entry for a Web Site

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Deborah Thomas notes that in Charlotte Gilman’s view, “women

were constricted to the set parameters that men determined. . .

[and] conditioned to accept these boundaries and remain in place,

in the private sphere.”

Thomas, Deborah. “The Changing Role of Womanhood: From True Woman to

New Woman in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’.” American Literature Research and Analysis Web Site. Florida Gulf Coast University. September 1997. Web. 26 June 2006.

In-text Citation

Works Cited Entry

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Additional Research Sources

• Lecture or Speech

• Chapter in a Book

• Newspapers

• Interview

• Television or Film

Hmm… what if I am using something else as a research

source? Yes, something like this…

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For More Information

Visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab for more information about formatting various Works Cited entries in MLA format at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_mla.html.

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Now I need to learn how to use the

information from my sources in my paper.

How can I use quotations and avoid

plagiarism?