MHS Senior Inquiry Research Project: MLA 8 Citation Help

Practical Tips for MLA 8 Works Cited

• EVERY citation will have at least one Title of Container in italics.  This is the title of the book, e-book, webpage, magazine, newspaper, database, etc.  Almost all database articles will have 2: the original source and the name of the database.
• EVERY citation should end with a period.
• When citing BOOKS, everything you need is on the Title Page, except the Date of Publication, which is on the back of the title page.  You can ALSO get everything you need from the library catalog.
• Citations are alphabetized by the first significant letter in the citation.  Skip over A, The, etc.
• When a work begins with a number, alphabetize the source as if was in written format 
  • Ex. "10 Reasons to Have New Year's Resolutons" would be alphabetized in your works cited as if written out "Ten"
• Works Cited page should be double spaced and use hanging indent.
• All Databases and MANY e-book and major news websites will INCLUDE a citation.  Look for it ("Cite This", "Citation Tools") to copy & paste, check it for accuracy, edit if necessary.
• Shorten long URLS (should be 2 lines or less), leave off “Date Accessed."
• URLs should not appear as hyperlinks in your works cited.
• When citing database articles, do NOT use the URL from the browser. Instead, look for the shortened link prompts provided within the database article (get link, bookmark, stable link, persistent link).

MLA Guides for Students

OWL is a great resource for MLA Help.