General formatting rules:
- The Works Cited is an alphabetical list of all sources used. It appears as the last numbered page of the essay.
- Center title, Works Cited, one inch from the top of the page; do not underline or put in quotation marks or all caps.
- Double space the entire page.
- Entries are arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name. If the author is unknown, alphabetize by title, ignoring A, An or The.
- Each entry begins with the first line flush against the left margin. Indent subsequent lines of this entry ½ inch. This is sometimes called a Hanging Indention format. If using Microsoft Word, open the Paragraph formatting option and select the special indentation, hanging
- Months more than 4 letters in length are abbreviated. Ex. Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec.
Title of Work:
- Capitalize the first and last word as well as any other important words in the title, regardless of how they appear in the original document.
- Italicize the titles of books, plays, periodicals, web sites, databases, films, albums and works of art
- Place quotation marks around titles of articles, short stories, poems, chapters of books, songs and web pages that are part of a larger web site.
Author(s):
- Names are listed last name (comma) first name. Omit titles (Mr., Ms., Dr.), affiliations and degrees.
- If two or more works are used by the same author, include the full author information in the first entry only. Type three hyphens and a period instead of the author’s name for all subsequent entries. (ex. ---. “article title”… )
- If there are more than three authors, name only the first author or editor and add et al. or give all names in full, in order of their appearance on the title page.
- If there is no author, the title will appear first in the citation.
Lack of information:
- Sometimes the publisher, place, date of publication, or pagination is not indicated. Use the following abbreviations for information you cannot supply:
- n.p. No publisher
- N.p. No place of publication
- n.d. No date of publication
- N.pag. No pagination
- The N is capitalized when it appears after a period.
