(WR2) Lesson Topic 4: Works Cited Wonder

Lesson Topic 4: Works Cited Wonder

Remember that the Works Cited lists all of the sources you use in your essay. Refer to the following points when writing your Works Cited page:

• Just like setting up your essay in MLA format, the Works Cited also has a certain way for set up.
• The Works Cited is an alphabetized list of all sources in MLA format used in the essay. After you find all of your sources, you will be ready to set up your Works Cited. A complete Works Cited will be your final project for this module. 
• Again, the Works Cited page is different than a Bibliography. The Works Cited is a list of all of the sources you used in your essay, and the Bibliography is all of the sources you read regarding your topic. Your Works Cited must be created in MLA format.
• The Works Cited page will have several Works Cited entries. The Works Cited entry is all of the publishing information of a certain source that is set up in a certain format. There are many ways that you can format sources in MLA format.

Remember that as you select your sources make sure that the sources you choose are reliable and contain information that supports or proves your topic. If the website, article, or book you choose does not have information that supports your topic, you need to select a different source.

Creating the Works Cited List

For example, if an essay uses proof from the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald to support the essay's thesis statement, the writer must cite the source. Citing a source means revealing where the information comes from because writers must give credit to any author they borrow proof from.

The Works Cited entry for a novel with one author follows this formula:

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

So, to create a Works Cited entry for a novel, you would simply find the information above to complete the entry. The city of publication and publisher can be found on the inside of a novel on the first or second page. The page with the publication information will look like this:

 

As you look at the publication information, you see that the city of publication is at the top of the page: New York. The publisher and year of publication are found by the copyright: 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons.

Using the publication information, the final Works Cited entry for The Great Gatsby will look like this:

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1925.

Each type of source has a different Works Cited entry. 

Internet Sources

Internet sources, also known as electronic sources, are all cited differently depending on the type of source you are using. If you choose to use an electronic source, you might have to search deeply for the various parts of the Works Cited entry formula. If you find an article on the internet that you would like to use as a source, the Works Cited entry formula might look like this:

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation (if available). Date of access. 

The date of resource creation is the same as the publication date. This can often be found at the bottom of a website. Also, the date of access is just the date that you found the article. Notice how you should write the date for this source: day, month, year.

You might have trouble finding certain information for the Works Cited entry when using internet sources. If so, you might just use the formula for citing an entire website (such as the OWL example in the graphic above).