MLA Style Bibliographies
MLA—or Modern Language Association—style is the format you will most likely be asked to use when writing papers for classes that are fall under the humanities, such as history, english, art, or critical theory, just to name a few. Yesterday, we talked about how to properly notate in-text citations. Today, in part two of our three part series, we will be discussing how to format a bibliography in MLA style.
A bibliography is the place where you list your references at the end of your paper. This is done so that your reader or grader can quickly find your source material. It is important that you format this page correctly, as it is often a source of point deductions in many classes. Some general guidelines:
- Your references page is a separate page at the end of your paper
- This page should be labeled WORKS CITED in bold centered at the top of the page
- You should list your references alphabetically by author’s (or authors’) last name
- The first line of your references should not be indented, the second line should be (this is called hanging indentation)
- The title of the piece should be underlined and followed by a period.
- An example:
Doe, John. Learning How to Write an MLA Style Bibliography. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date.
Please note the placement of periods, colons, and commas. These are essential to you getting full credit on your bibliography!! Also, note that every word in the title is capitalized.
Tomorrow, we will finish up our three-part series on MLA style formatting by talking about the overall format a paper should have under MLA guidelines.
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