Citing Electronic Sources



Because electronic sources (especially those on the Internet) change rapidly, citations for these sources are not completely standardized. The Modern Language Association (MLA) has recently expanded its section on electronic sources, and the rules for documenting Internet sources contained in the MLA manual should address most documentation situations that arise (see pages 178-202). Below are examples of the most commonly used types of Internet sources.

Because websites are often altered or even disappear altogether, it is a good idea to print the material you intend to use in your papers. Also, note that when you type the web address in your Works Cited, you must be sure not to include extra hyphens for line breaks. If the web address will not fit in a line of your text, make sure your line break occurs only after a slash (/); introducing a hyphen actually changes the web address and will make it difficult for readers to locate your site.

Example:

Williams, Andrew P. "The Center of Attention: Theatricality and the Restoration Fop." Early

Modern Literary Studies 4.3 (January, 1999). 10 July 1999 .

Citing Electronic Sources on the Works Cited page

Citations of electronic sources generally follow MLA format for other types of sources: include information about the author (last name first), title (article titles in quotation marks, book titles italicized or underlined), name of the journal/database/electronic source, publication date, page or paragraph numbers, medium, network or service, date of access, and availability information. Because electronic sources vary, you may also have to adapt the citation structure to what you need in order to accurately represent the material.

Online journal article:

For material from an electronic journal, newsletter, or conference--provide author, title of article (in quotation marks), title of journal, newsletter, or conference (underlined), volume and number (if applicable), year or date of electronic issue, page numbers or number of paragraphs (if available), date of access, and web address.

Williams, Andrew P. "The Center of Attention: Theatricality and the Restoration Fop." Early

Modern Literary Studies 4.3 (January, 1999). 10 July 1999. .

Online newspaper article:

Longman, Jere. “Pride in Their Play, and in Their Strong Bodies.” New York Times on the Web. 8

July 1999. 9 July 1999. .

Online book:

For publication information of online books, provide the date of the online publication and the name of the organization that published it. Also, include any information given about the original print version, such as city of publication, publisher or date.

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Project Gutenberg. June 1995. 10 July 1999.

.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. 1845. Electronic Text Center,

University of Virginia Library, 1993. 10 July, 1999. .

Online database:

Provide authorship and title (in quotes), name of database for electronic text (italicized or underlined), date of electronic issue (if known), date of access, and web address.

Clark, Stephen Hall. “Technology and Leisure in Britain after 1850.” The Victorian Web. 10 July

1999. .

Article in a professional or personal site:

Many articles appear as parts of larger websites, run by organizations, such as the website of the National Endowment for the Arts, below:

Snyder, Joel. “Sharing The Story Within -- An Interview with Julie Taymor.” National

Endowment for the Arts. 11 July 1999. .

The article by Joel Snyder was published as one small part of the larger website, which is then treated like a book or journal containing articles. Hence, the format follows that for articles in books or journals.

Anonymous article:

For websites without authors given, begin with the title of the website:

“1999 MacArthur Fellows Announced.” The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation,

1999. 10 July 1999. .

Article with a corporate author:

American Civil Liberties Union. “Proposition 209 Cannot be Enforced.” ACLU News - The

Newspaper of the ACLU of Northern California, Jan/Feb 97. 10 July 1999.

.

Document available online:

Lincoln, Abraham. “The Emancipation Proclamation.” The National Park Service: ParkNet.

.

Review:

Mahmut Mutman, “Writing the Body: Problematizing Cultural Studies, Postmodernism and

Feminism's Relevance.” Rev. of Telling Flesh: The Substance of the Corporeal, by Vicki

Kirby. Postmodern Culture 9.3 (May 1999). 11 July 1999. .

Person-to-person or online message:

For memos and e-mails, include author, descriptive label for the document (or title) in quotations and give a notation that the document is an e-mail letter, to whom addressed, and date of electronic posting.

Rushdie, Salman. "My Concern about the Fatwa." e-mail to author. 1 May 1995.

For a bulletin board posting--provide the author, descriptive label or title in quotation marks, date of electronic transmission, medium, name of computer network, any information about the bulletin board, address or path for electronic access, date of access.

MacDonald, James C. "Suggestions for Promoting Collaborative Writing in College Composition."

10 Nov. 1994. NCTE Forum/current topics/bulletin posting. 12 Mar. 1995.

Citing electronic sources in your text

As with print sources, information you access electronically is attributed in your text to its author. However, because page numbers are not used with Internet sources, the usual format for MLA parenthetical citations (author’s last name page number) does not work very well. The MLA Handbook editor recommends citing all sources without pagination in your text rather than in parenthetical citations (see p. 208).

Examples:

Stephen Hall Clark points out that while increased use of the railways in Britain promoted leisure travel for all classes, train cars, divided into first, second and third class, also were “steel barriers” between classes.

Jere Longman suggests that the women’s World Cup team is sending “a message around the world that women can be both athletic and feminine in an endeavor that, in many countries, still carries the stigma that women who play are somehow unwomanly.”

Note that no parenthetical citation is used, and the web address does NOT appear in the text. Readers will reference the author’s names in your Works Cited and find out where these citations came from.

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CITING ELECTRONIC SOURCES - MLA FORMAT

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