Basic MLA Principles: General Guidelines

A Basic MLA Principle:

General Guidelines for the Works Cited Page

As we discuss our last basic principle, we'll talk about the way Works Cited pages should look and about the logic of individual Works Cited entries.

First, take a look at the Works Cited page below. You probably remember it from our last section.

Works Cited

Cook, Brian. "Technology Training for Teachers." Technology and

Education 43 (1998): 45-59.

"Even in Kindergarten?" The Dallas Morning Sun 12 Feb. 1999:

B1+.

Frank, Steven. "An Embarrassment of Riches: Technology in

Education." The Richmond Monitor 18 July 1997: C5-6.

White, Ann, and Susan Brett. Problem or Solution? Technology in

Education. New York: Virago Press, 1993.

Since we are trying to help our readers locate our research sources if they want to, we try to make the Works Cited page as easy to read as possible.

We do the following:

alphabetize (like an index)
doublespace, but put no extra spacing between entries
make sure that our parenthetical documentation for a source starts with the words beginning that source's Works Cited entry, as you learned in the last section.

These guidelines for the overall page are standard; they will never change. Of course, individual entries look a lot different from each other! Just compare the journal entry (Cook) with the book entry (White and Brett). Why do these differ so much? Let's look at the logic behind Works Cited entries.