Works Cited Entries in MLA Documentation
MLA documentation 鈥� and documentation or sources, generally 鈥� can be intimidating to students. Fortunately, there are not only many resources available to assist in this part of the writing and research process, but organizations such as the Modern Language Association (MLA) are acknowledging the need to simplify the recording of information in a world where new resources and formats are constantly created.
To that end, MLA has an easy guide to the parts of information needed for documenting sources on a works cited page
The MLA Style Center provides 9 criteria, or core elements, which make up the information for most works. The images used in this resource can be found on the .
Containers are an important concept for this guide, as parts 3 鈥� 9 refer to elements of a container. This refers to where a source is housed 鈥� for example, a short story is published in a book of collected works; the book is the container. Other examples could be an article inside of a journal, a song which is part of a complete album, or an episode of a TV show which is part of a series. In these instances, the journal, album, and TV series are the containers for the shorter works.
Location can also be unclear as it refers to different elements from one work to the next. In some texts, the location refers to page numbers. Since so many sources are available online and do not have page numbers, location can also refer to the URL for the source.
- Author
- Title of Source
- Title of Container
- Contributor
- Version
- Number
- Publisher
- Publication Date
- Location
Updated March 2025 by LC staff
