This is an alphabetical list of the sources you have found and plan to use in your paper. It is called a Works Cited page because it refers to the "works" (meaning books, web sites, magazine articles, etc.) from which you gather your information.  These will be the sources that are "cited" or referred to within your paper once it is written. 

Although it will actually be the last page of your research paper, you will prepare a draft of your Works Cited page before even beginning to write your paper.  Initially, this will be used to let your instructor know of the sources that you have found and plan to use for note taking.  Later on, you may have to update your Works Cited page being sure to add any additional sources you find and/or delete any you decide not to use.

You are required to have at least three different sources.  One of these sources must be a print source (book, magazine article, newspaper article or encyclopedia article) and one must be an electronic source (reliable web site or database article).  The remaining source may be any type that you choose.

Since your Works Cited page must be prepared according to MLA style, follow these general guidelines.

• Sources will be listed alphabetically according to the first word in each entry.  This is usually the author’s last name, but may be the title if there is no author.  Be sure to ignore “a”, “an”, or “the” if these are the first words in a title.  Before sitting down to type, arrange your source cards in alphabetical order.

• Use Times New Roman 12 pt. and double space the Works Cited page as you do all pages prepared according to MLA style.

• Center the words Works Cited as the title for this page.  Do not underline or bold this title.

• Each entry must be formatted properly according to source type. Click here to review details related to formatting entries for different source types or refer to your Guide to MLA Documentation.

• Indent (press tab once) on  each line that comes after the first one in a single entry.  If an entire entry fits on a single line, then no indenting is necessary.

• All dates must be formatted according to MLA style which is day month year with no punctuation.  Dates will appearl as 21 March 2003 rather than March 21, 2003 which is the format you are more used to seeing and wrtiting.

• Include a running header with your last name and page number in the upper right corner.