How To Create An Mla Citation For A Website

MLA Style:
Citing websites and web pages
(based on the 7th edition of the MLA Handbook)

Citing websites and web pages can be tricky. Not all websites and web pages have all components. Here are the parts you should list if you can find them. Citation examples are at the bottom of the page.

Author, editor, or compiler

Not all web pages and websites list the names of individual (personal) authors, editors, or compilers. Begin the citation with the title if there are no authors.When creating a citation, list authors last name first. Example:

"Title of Document"

This is usually at the top of the page, and also may be at the very top of your browser. The document title only refers to one part or page of a website - for example the "Johnny Depp" entry on the Internet Movie Database website, or the "H1N1 Flu" page on the CDC's website.When creating a citation put the title in " " (quotation marks).

bluetitlebar

Title of Website

Like the document title, this is usually at the top of the page, and also may be at the very top of your browser. Websites are a collection of individual pages - for example, the Internet Movie Database, the Occupational Outlook Handbook, The Daily Show, or Wikipedia are all websites, not pages.

If you are using an individual web page and want to know the name of the website where it resides, use the home button to get back to the main page for the entire website. If there is no "home" button, delete everything in the URL

after the domain name and get to "home" that way. http://www.imdb.com is an example of a shortened or "home" URL.When creating a citation put the website title in italics.

websitetitle

Institution or organization associated with the site

You want to discover the university, government agency, business, etc. that is responsible for or is publishing the site. You can often find this in the copyright statement.When creating a citation use n.p. for "no publisher" if you are unable to find this information.

Date of electronic publication or last update

This information is usually found at the bottom of the page. If there is a copyright date, it is often in the copyright statement or near it.When creating a citation note day, month, year - in that order. Example - 15 Dec. 2008. Use n.d. for "no date" if no date of publication copyright date, or date of update is given. Abbreviate long months, such as January (Jan.) or December (Dec.).

Medium of publication

MLA lists electronic sources, such as web pages, as "web publications." When creating citations for websites and web pages use "Web" as the publication medium.

Date of access

Date of access is the date you found and used the material. You should always be able to include this in a citation!

Remember, when creating a citation dates are written in a particular order - day, month, year. Example - 17 Nov. 2009

Web address or <URL>

MLA no longer requires web addresses in citations, but suggests that you include them anyway as your professors may still require them. Put angle signs (carets) around the web address.

<http://www.imdb.com/>

Citation examples

These examples show the correct order of citation elements and the correct punctuation to use. Notice that MLA citations also require indentation.

website

The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc, 2009. Web.
29 Oct. 2009. < http://www.imdb.com/ >.

web page

"Johnny Depp." The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc, n.d. Web.
29 Oct. 2009. < http://www.imdb.com/ >.