How to Set Up a Works Cited
Page
If you have written an academic essay, you have more than likely
borrowed some material—ideas or exact words—from other sources. At each place
in your essay that you have included borrowed material, you have cited the source
of that material by inserting the name of the person who is the original
source.
Therefore, the reader of your paper knows the person (or source)
who is responsible for the material you included. But the reader knows little
else. What is the name of the book or article your information or quoted words
comes from? When was it published? And so on.
Because including this information in the body of your essay would
interfere with the essay itself, it is included on the final page (or pages) of
your essay in what is known as the Works Cited page.
This handout will explain how to format a Works Cited page, but it
will not explain what information belongs in each entry and what order that
information should be arranged. For that information, you need MLA Works Cited
formatting information. A complete listing of this information would
necessitate a handout many pages long. A better way to access this information
is to own a reference book that shows you the proper formatting style. Or
search the Internet for “MLA Works Cited Format” and you can find the
information that way. You will see how to format a book, an article from a
book, a newspaper article, etc. An important category of source is the
electronic source. Guidelines on how to format an electronic source seem to
change every year or so, so make sure your information is current. The primary
source of all MLA formatting is the MLA handbook, published by the MLA itself.
This book lists 88 pages of guidelines for how to arrange Works Cited entries.
This handout will not attempt to provide you with that
information. Instead, this handout will show you the keyboarding and formatting
maneuvers that are necessary.
Here’s how to format the
page:
Suppose
your essay ends halfway down page 5. If so, your Works Cited page begins on the
first line of page 6. The same header that contains your last name and the page
number will appear on the Works Cited page as well. So if your Works Cited page
begins on page 6, the upper right-hand corner of your header will read “Lastname
6.”
Begin your title on the first line of text. Type two words: Works
Cited. Center your title (the Center button). Not bold, not underlined. Leave
it in 12 pt. font, Times New Roman.
Type your entries. For now,
just type your entries. The formatting will come later.
In order to know how to
type your entries, you will need access to MLA Works Cited Formatting
information—as discussed earlier.
Your entries should be double spaced. If they are not already
double spaced, do so after you finish typing them (Ctrl A, then Ctrl 2).
Now set all your entries in a hanging indent. Select the entries
only (don’t select the title, “Works Cited”). Go Format > Paragraph. Find
the drop-down menu under Special and choose Hanging. Now your paper has been
automatically formatted. Each of your eight entries begins at the left margin,
and each successive line is indented a half-inch.
Your entries
should be alphabetized by the author’s last names. Select all your entries
(don’t select the title, “Works Cited”). Go Table > Sort. There, now your
works cited page has been alphabetized. Here’s a sample of what a Works Cited
page might look like:
Frieden, Bernard J., and
Lynne B. Sagalyn. Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics. 4th ed.
Gilligan, Carol. In a
Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development.
Lewis, Peter H. “Many
Updates Cause Profitable Confusion.” New York Times
Ruitenbeek,
Hendrick, ed. Freud as We Knew Him.
Tilin, Andrew. “Selling the Dream.” Worth Sept. 1997: 94-100.