Works Cited in MLA: 1302

The following examples illustrate common MLA Works Cited entries used in English 1302. These examples are adapted from A Writer’s Reference, 10th edition.

Works Cited Examples

Book with a Single Author

Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Round Table, 1998.

Book with Two Authors

Noakes, Jonathan, and Margaret Reynolds. Margaret Atwood: The Essential Guide. Vintage, 2002.

Book with Three or More Authors

Wilson, Sharon R., et al. Approaches to Teaching Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Other Works. The Modern Language Association of America, 1996.

Book with an Author and an Editor (Primary Source)

Atwood, Margaret. Waltzing Again: New and Selected Conversations with Margaret Atwood. Edited by Earl G. Ingersoll, Ontario Review Press, 2006.

Work from an Anthology

a. Primary Source (Poem, Essay, or Story)

Atwood, Margaret. “Lusus Naturae.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 14th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, pp. 258–63.

b. Secondary Source (Editorial Commentary)

Mays, Kelly J. “Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, edited by Kelly J. Mays, shorter 14th ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2022, pp. 16–20.

Article in a Scholarly Journal (Blinn Database)

Blodgett, Harriet. “Mimesis and Metaphor: Food Imagery in International Twentieth-Century Women’s Writing.” Papers on Language and Literature, vol. 40, no. 3, Summer 2004, pp. 260–95. Humanities Full Text, doi:505094627.

Short Work from a Website

Atwood, Margaret. “Waterstone’s Poetry Lecture.” Canadian Poetry Online, June 1995, canpoetry.library.utoronto.ca/atwood/write.htm.

MLA Heading (“ID Block”)

This heading appears on the first page of your essay only.
Your last name and page number appear on every page using the MS Word header feature.
The font is Times New Roman, 12-point, throughout the entire paper, including the page number.
Do not boldface, enlarge, italicize, use quotation marks, or add extra spacing before or after the title. Use title case.
Use the Tab key once to indent each paragraph.

Works Cited Page Guidelines

The Works Cited page is the last, new page of your paper—not a new document—and it is double-spaced.
Margins are 1 inch on all sides.
Alphabetize entries by the author’s last name or by the first important word of the title. Do not number entries.
Center the title Works Cited at the top of the page.
If there is only one entry, the title becomes Work Cited.
Every source cited in the paper—including primary sources—must appear on the Works Cited page.
Abbreviate months using the first three letters, except September (Sept.). Do not abbreviate May, June, or July.

Sample Works Cited Page

Works Cited

Atwood, Margaret. Collapse: The Handmaid’s Tale. Round Table, 1998.

Maier, Jessica. “A ‘True Likeness’: The Renaissance City Portrait.”