 Building a works cited list with MLA 9th. You've done the research and you have lots of high quality articles, books, and websites to put on your works cited list. Now, where to begin? We all know works cited lists are fussy and take time. But they are very important because they list all the sources you use when writing your paper. A works cited list is sometimes called a bibliography and each item in the list is called a citation. Here are some tips to help you do a great works cited list. Number one, use a guide. A citation guide is a set of rules outlining how to properly cite sources in academic writing, offering specific formats for various source types. It ensures consistency and accuracy in citations. You can access a free online MLA guide by going to the citation and research hub on the learning portal to find links to your college's citation guides. Whenever you're unsure of what to do, you can always refer to your citation guide. Number two, reflect your sources in two places. If something is on your works cited list, it should also appear somewhere earlier in your assignment as an in-text citation. An in-text citation is the original author's name in parentheses, usually following a quote, fact, or idea. Number three, punctuation, quotation marks, and italics. In an MLA works cited, the formatting will include a variety of punctuation, quotation marks, and italics. There are specific rules about what does and doesn't get italicized or enclosed in quotations, as well as where all the punctuation goes. This all depends on the type of source you're citing. For example, if you're citing a journal article, the title will be in quotations, while the title of the journal itself, as well as the database name, will be italicized. For a book on the other hand, the title is italicized. Periods usually denote the end of a section of information, including the end of the entry, while a comment denotes more information about one piece of information. These slight differences are why it is always important to consult a citation guide. Number four, page numbers. List page numbers of sources efficiently when needed, if the expert spans multiple pages, use pp with a hyphen between the page numbers. For example, pp 157 hyphen 200. If only one page of a print source is used, use the abbreviation p before the page number, for example, p157. If you refer to a journal article that appears on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your works cited page as pp 225 hyphen 50. If the expert spans multiple pages, use pp. Note, MLA style dictates that you should omit the first set of repeated digits. In our example, the digit in the hundreds place is repeated between 225 and 250, so you omit the two from 250 in the citation pp.225 hyphen 50. Number five, identifier. For online sources, you should include a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scholarly databases use a DOI, digital object identifier. Use a DOI in your citation if you can. Otherwise, use a URL. Delete the http slash slash from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a citation and should be followed by a period. Number six, page title. Start your works cited lists on a new page at the end of your assignment and title the page works cited. Do not italicize the words works cited or put them in quotation marks and center the words works cited at the top of the page. Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be aligned with the left margin. Number seven, alphabetical order. Entries are listed alphabetically by the author's last name or for the entire edited collections, editor's names. Author names are written with the last name first, then the first name, and then the middle name or middle initial when needed. In cases where there is no author, use the first word of the citation and place it appropriately in the alphabetical order. Number eight, hanging indent. If a citation is more than one line, every line but the first is indented. This is called a hanging indent. You can set this up automatically in Microsoft Word by highlighting your citation, choosing paragraph from the format menu, then select hanging from the special drop-down menu. Number nine, double space. Don't forget the entire document should be double spaced, including your works cited. To sum it up, putting together a works cited page is the cherry on top of your research paper. It's a simple way to say, hey, I did my research and here's the proof. And it's an important final step to give credit where it's due. It may seem confusing and complicated to properly cite your sources, but by following these simple steps, you will have it mastered in no time. If you ever need a little more help, check out the citation and research module on the Learning Portal or contact your college library.