Otis College LibGuides: History of Toys: Works Cited Page

This page has been updated to MLA 9

Works Cited Page

In MLA format, the final page of a research paper is the Works Cited page. This is where you will include full citations for all the sources you used.

Quick Rules

The Works Cited list begins on a new page.
- For example, if your paper is four pages long, start your Works Cited list on page five.
Add the title, Works Cited, to the top of the page. Center it. Do not make it bold or underlined.
Make the page double-spaced.
Use a hanging indent for the citations.
Alphabetize your list of citations.
- Put the entries in alphabetical order based on the first word of each citation.
  - (This is usually the author's last name. When the author is unknown, use the first word of the title, ignoring any articles like "a," "an," or "the.")
If the full citation for an image or table is included in the caption, you do not need to add it to the Works Cited list.
Your citations should be stylistically consistent, adhering to MLA format. Please check if your professor wants you to use a different style.

Sample List

Bellantoni, Patti. If It's Purple, Someone's Gonna Die: The Power of Color in Visual Storytelling. Taylor and Francis, 2005. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/otis-ebooks/detail.action?docID=234952.

Berlatsky, Noah. Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948. Rutgers UP, 2017.

Foucault, Michel. The Archaeology of Knowledge. Translated by A. M. Sheridan Smith, 1st American ed., Pantheon Books, 1972.

--. Manet and the Object of Painting Translated by Matthew Barr, Tate Publishing, 2009.

Henty, George Alfred. The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt. Blackie and Son, 1889. HathiTrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073478847. Accessed 7 Nov. 2017.

Zemel, Carol. “Sorrowing Women, Rescuing Men: Van Gogh’s Images of Women and Family.” Art History, vol. 10, no. 3, Sept. 1987, pp. 351-368. Art & Architecture Source, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8365.1987.tb00261.x.

View more samples from Purdue OWL

Hanging Indent

A hanging indent is formatted so that all lines of a paragraph are indented except the first line.

For MLA citations, the first line has no indent, while subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches. Adding a hanging indent to your Works Cited entries groups the information of each citation together, keeping each entry distinct from the others.

Here are three ways to create a hanging indent in MLA format:

Method 1

Select the text you want to format
Press the "Ctrl" and "T" keys on your keyboard simultaneously
For a Mac computer, press "Command" and "T" instead

Method 2

Select the text you want to format
Drag the indentation cursor at the top ruler from 0.00" to the 0.50" mark
Move the top part of the indentation cursor back to 0.00"

Visual guide:

Method 3 (Google Docs only)

Select the text you want to format
Using the menu at the top, select "Format" > "Align & indent" > "Indentation options"
Use the dropdown menu for "Special indent" > "Hanging" > "0.5"
Click on "Apply"

Visual guide: