Updated 2025 Summer
Active Investigation
Sometimes, in order to solve the problem of authorship or title, it will be necessary to leave the page you are working with and open a search query.
MLA Documentation for Electronic Sources
Usual Order of Elements, Adapted from Purdue OWL
Author. Title.
- Author, last name first. [Communicate your knowledge of who is speaking?]
- “Title of the ‘primary source text,’ which might be a web page, article, chapter, or presentation in quotation marks.” If you are working with an online book, you may either specify a chapter here or just skip this and go to the next step.
Container
- Title of container one in italics: website, project, or book.
- Other Contributors: Translated by, Edited by, or Posted by.
- Any version numbers available, including editions (ed.), revisions, posting dates, volumes (vol.), or issue numbers (no.).
- Publisher information, including the name of the web publisher, commonly indicated by the domain name, and publishing date, if noted. If you placed the name of the website above, you may skip this.
- [Note: Location information for a specific quote within the ‘primary source text’ is best communicated in the in-text citation that follows the quote. Different quotes will usually be in different paragraphs, pages, or chapters. So be sure to take note of any page numbers (p. or pp.) or paragraph numbers (par. or pars.). If the text is an html page, it will often not have any page number. If the lines, paragraphs, or pages are not numbered, you do not have to count them up.]
- Publication Date.
- Location of ‘primary source text’: usually a URL (may be a DOI or permalink).
Container Two
- See container components above
Here is a template for a work cited, with components placed together in-line:
Author. “Title.” Title of container one (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher (web publisher, often indicated by domain name), Publication Date, Location (URL, DOI, or permalink).
You may copy the above shell entry for a work cited into your word processor and replace each component, based on the source that you are working with.
Template for work cited
Author. “Title.” Title of container one (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher (web publisher, often indicated by domain name), Publication Date, Location (URL, DOI, or permalink).
You may copy the above shell entry for a work cited into your word processor and replace each component, based on the source that you are working with.
Also, please note the punctuation: One period after the Author. One period after the Title of the source. And one period after all the elements of the Container have been listed. Elements of the Container are separated by commas.
Example of 2-container source
List of Elements
1. Author. Maimonides
2. Title of ‘primary source text.’ The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics.
CONTAINER ONE
3. Title of container, [Book titles are self-contained; if a chapter was used as Title of source above, the book title would go here.]
4. Other contributors, Translated by Joseph I. Gorfinkle,
5. Version, Columbia University Oriental Studies, vol. VII,
6. Number,
7. Publisher, Columbia UP
8. Publication date, 1912
9. Location.
CONTAINER TWO
3. Title of container, Internet Archive,
4. Other contributors,
5. Version,
6. Number,
7. Publisher,
8. Publication date, 2007,
9. Location.
Resulting Work Cited
Maimonides. The Eight Chapters of Maimonides on Ethics. Translated by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, Columbia University Oriental Studies, vol. VII, Columbia UP, 1912. Internet Archive, 2007,
(Note: WordPress inserts the https:// above whether I like it or not. MLA 8th Edition recommends leaving that part out.)
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