Creating a Works Cited Page and Parenthetical Citations for Your Paper

Your paper MUST HAVE a Works Cited page and include at least a few in-paper parenthetical citations.
The Works Cited page lists all of the sources you used in your paper and is placed at the end of the paper
on a new, numbered page. The sources listed on that page and the ones you cite within the text must align
exactly.
Formatting the Works Cited Page
Placement. Place the Works Cited page at the end of the paper on a new numbered page. An easy way to
do this is to add a page break at the end of the text on the last page of your essay.
Title. Title the page Works Cited, centered, in plain textno italics or quotation marks. You may
underline the words if you choose.
Spacing. Make sure to double space throughout.
Order. List the sources in alphabetical order by the authors' or contributors last names. For Catfish,
consider the last name of the first director listed. For a personal interview, consider the last name of the
person interviewed.
Indentation. Do not indent the first line in the citation; however, you must indent any additional lines
1/2". One way to do this is with a hanging indent: place your cursor at the end of the first line and press
Enter. Then, place your cursor at the beginning of the second line and press Tab once. Begin the second
line at that point.
The citation information for the articles is listed at the beginning or the end of each of the two articles
handed out in class. The citation information for Catfish is listed under Citation in the Reasoning
and Analysis Paper I nstructions handed out in class, and on the class website. Note: all the
information you need is there, but you will need to double check that the information is formatted
correctly for your Works Cited page.
I f you use another source for your paper, such as a book, article, or personal interview, the easiest way
to get the correct citation is to go to www.easybib.com and select what kind of resource (book, article,
etc.) you want to cite. The website will have you fill in information and will generate the correct
citation for you. Then you just have to decide where the new citation goes on the Works Cited page,
according to alphabetical order of the last name of the author, director (of a film), person interviewed,
etc.
FOR AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO USE PARENTHETI CAL CI TATI ONS AND A WORKS CI TED
PAGE I N AN ESSAY, USE THE FOLLOWI NG LINK:
http://www2.ivcc.edu/rambo/eng1001/sample_persuasive_essay.htm
To Do Parenthetical (in-paper) Citations
Whenever you directly quote or paraphrase (summarize) something written in any of your written sources
(articles or books), you must use a parenthetical citation in your paper, and the source must be included
on your Works Cited page.
(NOTE: do not use long direct quotations from your sources in your paperthe paper is too short to
support them. You should not use direct quotations of more than one sentence in this paper.)
For example, if I were writing a paper about cats, and I had read a book called Why Cats are Cute by
Anne Catlover, and in the book she made an argument that long-haired cats are cuter than short-haired
cats, and she made this argument on page 68, and I paraphrased what she wrote instead of quoting it
directly, I might write something like this in my paper, and do the parenthetical citation this way:
A common belief is that long-haired cats are cuter than short-haired cats (Catlover 68).
Note that I use only the last name of the author, and I put the page number or numbers afterward without
any punctuation between the name and the numbers. I put the period of my sentence after the citation. If
the argument or idea that I am paraphrasing covers more than one page in the article or book, I would cite
it like this: (Catlover 68-69)or whatever the relevant page numbers are.
If, on page 68 of the book Why Cats Are Cute, the author writes Long-haired cats are definitively cuter
than short-haired cats and I wanted to use this exact quotation in my paper, I would have to put it in
quotation marks, but I would make the parenthetical citation the same. It might look something like this:
Expert Anne Catlover states that Long-haired cats are definitively cuter than short-haired cats (Catlover 68).
If my next quote or paraphrase was also from Anne Catlover, I could just use the page number in
parentheses (70), without her name. However, if I quoted someone else after that, and then wen back to
quoting Anne, Id have to use her name again
If Anne Catlover had written a magazine article instead of a book, I would not have to use page numbers,
just her name.
To Paraphrase or Make a Direct Quotation from a Film or Personal Interview:
If possible, I would incorporate the title of the film in the text of my paper, instead of using a
parenthetical citation. For example, if I wanted to paraphrase, I might write:
Many people believe that cats are cuter than dogs, as veterinarian Dr. George Catpetter mentions in the
documentary Cats, Cats, Cats!
If I wanted to use a direct quotation, I might write something like:
Are cats cuter than dogs? According to Dr. George Catpetter in the documentary Cats, Cats, Cats! , The average
cat is super-duper cute, whereas the cutest dog is only super cute, at best.
I would use the same method for paraphrasing or quoting a personal interview, with the difference that
instead of mentioning the name of the film, I might write in a personal interview or something similar.
To figure out how to correctly cite a personal interview on your Works Cited page, go to
www.easybib.com and click on All 59 Options. You will find Interview listed.
If you need examples on what a Works Cited page or parenthetical citations look like, it is easy to find
examples online. Just make sure you type MLA when search, as in: MLA Works Cited page
example. Or MLA parenthetical citation example.