MLA - Citing Electronic Resources


Your list of sources page is called Works Cited in MLA

The first line of each citation is at the left margin and the remainder of the lines are indented 5 spaces. The citations are double spaced.

Basic Style for Citations of Electronic Sources

Here are some common features you should try and find before citing electronic sources in MLA style. Always include as much information as is available/applicable:

Author and/or editor names
Name of the database, or title of project, book, article
Any version numbers available
Date of version, revision, or posting
Publisher information
Date you accessed the material
Electronic address, printed between carets < www.website.url>

Web Sources

Web sites (in MLA style, the "W" in Web is capitalized, and "Web site" or "Web sites" are written as two words) and Web pages are arguably the most commonly cited form of electronic resource today. Below are a variety of Web sites and pages you might need to cite.

An Entire Web Site

Basic format:

Name of Site. Date of Posting/Revision. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site (sometimes found in copyright statements). Date you accessed the site [electronic address].

It is necessary to list your date of access because web postings are often updated, and information available on one date may no longer be available later. Be sure to include the complete address for the site. Here are some examples:

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. 26 Aug. 2005. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. 23 April 2006 <http://owl.english.purdue.edu>.

      Felluga, Dino. Guide to Literary and Critical Theory. 28 Nov. 2003. Purdue University. 10 May 2006 <http://www.cla.purdue.edu/english/theory>.

Long URLs

URLs that won't fit on one line of your Works Cited list should be broken at slashes, when possible.

Amazon.com. "Privacy and Security." 22 May 2006 <http://www.amazon.com/>. Path: Help; Privacy & Security.

A Page on a Web Site

For an individual page on a Web site, list the author or alias if known, followed by the information covered above for entire Web sites. Make sure the URL points to the exact page you are referring to, or the entry or home page for a collection of pages you're referring to:

"Caret." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 28 April 2006. 10 May 2006 <http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Caret&oldid=157510440>.

 

An Image, Including a Painting, Sculpture, or Photograph

For works housed outside of an online home, include the artist's name, the year the work was created, and the institution (e.g., a gallery or museum) that houses it (if applicable), followed by the city where it is located. Include the complete information for the site where you found the image, including the date of access. In this first example, the image was found on the Web site belonging to the work's home museum:

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800. Museo del Prado, Madrid. 22 May 2006 <http://museoprado.mcu.es/i64a.html.>

An Article in a Web Magazine

 

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Online Publication. Date of Publication. Date of Access <electronic address>.

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

Online scholarly journals are treated different from online magazines. First, you must include volume and issue information, when available. Also, some electronic journals and magazines provide paragraph or page numbers; again, include them if available.

Wheelis, Mark. "Investigating Disease Outbreaks Under a Protocol to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention." Emerging Infectious Diseases 6.6 (2000): 33 pars. 8 May 2006 <http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol6no6/wheelis.htm>.

E-mail or Other Personal Communication

Author. "Title of the message (if any)." E-mail to person's name. Date of the message.

This same format may be used for personal interviews or personal letters. These do not have titles, and the description should be appropriate. Instead of "Email to John Smith," you would have "Personal interview."

E-mail to You

Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." E-mail to the author. 15 Nov. 2000.

MLA style capitalizes the E in E-mail, and separates E and mail with a hyphen.

 

Farmingdale State College last updated:  May 15, 2008 http://www.farmingdale.edu/library/mlaelectronic.html