MLA Documentation for Electronic Sources
St. Mary's University College, Alberta, Canada .
The Goal of Documentation
The goal of documenting a source is to give the reader of your paper as much information as is necessary to find your source. It is important to give this information in a standardized format, and MLA (Modern Languages Association) is one such format.
Information Needed for Documentation
It is crucial to find all of the information that you will need for your Works Cited page before leaving the site that you are using. The information you need includes the following:
· Author of document
· Title of document
· Title of larger website in which the document exists
· Copyright date or date the website was last modified
· Date you accessed the site
· URL of the document you are citing
Finding the Information You Need for Documentation
Usually the document you are citing is embedded in a host website, and you arrived at the document through a series of clicks. The page you are citing may not have all of the information that you need, such as the date last modified or the author. To find that information, subtract parts of the URL between slashes, working from right to left. Each subtraction removes one layer of embedding.
Example : The URL http://65.107.211.206/tech/epiph.html contains several levels of embedding. The first part, 65.107.211.206, is the host name. The last part, epiph.html, is the file name of the specific document you are citing. The part in between the first and last part is the path to the document. Often going to the host site will give you the information you need.
Sample Works Cited Entry
Landow, George P. “Epiphanies, Perfect Moments, and Centres to Time.” The Victorian Web .
1987. Funded by the University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore . 9
Mar. 2003 <http://65.107.211.206/tech/epiph.html>.
The document title is in quotation marks and the title of the entire website is underlined. This is by analogy with an article in a book or journal: the article title is always in quotation marks and the book or journal title is underlined. Notice also that the last two parts of the Works Cited entry for an electronic source will always be the date you accessed the source and the URL of the document, not of the larger website.
The in-text citation will take the same form as for a print source—the last name of the author followed by one space and the year of publication, all in parentheses: (Landow 1987). If the author is unknown, the citation will include a shortened version of the title and the date: (“Sweat Lodge” 2001). The URL is not included in the in-text citation.
Microsoft Word automatically turns URLs into links; the URL then becomes underlined and/or coloured. To turn off this hyperlinking, go to “Tools,” then to “Autocorrect, then to “Autoformat as you type.” Remove the checkmark next to “Internet and network paths with hyperlinks.” To remove the hyperlinking quickly on individual URLs, right click on the URL. Choose “Hyperlink,” then “Edit hyperlink,” then “Remove link.”
Since URLs have no spaces in them, sometimes they move over to the next line, leaving a big unsightly space in the line before. To avoid this, just before you print the final version of your paper (the one you will hand in), insert a space ( not a hyphen) in the URL so that enough of it moves to the previous line to fill in that space. The space must come just before or after a slash or period. See the second example below, in which a space was inserted after http://.
Article from a Web-based Article Database
Hornby, Richard. “ Shakespeare in Oregon .” Hudson Review 46.4 (1994): 697-705. Academic Search Premier . EBSCO Host. St. Mary's College Library, Calgary , Alberta . 21 Oct. 2003 <http://search.epnet.com>.
NOTE : “46.4” means Volume 46, Issue no. 4. “Academic Search Premier” is the name of the database. “EBSCO Host” is the name of the service providing the database. The URL is the address of EBSCO Host, not the address of the specific article cited.
Janigan, Mary. “Immigrants: Who Should Get In?” Macleans 16 Dec. 2002 . 12 Feb. 2003
<http:// www.macleans.ca/xta-doc2/2002/12/16/Cover/76915.shtml>.
“Building a Sweat Lodge.” Think About It . 19 Dec. 2001 . 7 Mar. 2003
<http://www.think-aboutit.com/native/building_a_sweat_lodge.htm>.
Landow, George P. “Epiphanies, Perfect Moments, and Centres to Time.” The Victorian Web . 1987. University Scholars Program, National University of Singapore . 9 Mar. 2003 <http://65.107.211.206/tech/epiph.html>.
Valea, Ernest. “The Divine Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity.” A Comparative Analysis of the Major World Religions from a Christian Perspective . 12 Oct. 2002 . 30 Mar. 2003 <http://www.comparativereligion.com/avatars.html#otherSaviors>.
Canada . Agriculture and Agri-food Canada . Government Response to the Report of the House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Environment. Pesticides: Making the Right Choice for the Protection of Health and the Environment. 4 Apr. 2003 <http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/pmra-arla/english/pdf/hlawns/hl-GovtResp-e.pdf>.
Note : For government documents, the country is given first, then the government department.
E-mail Communication
Doherty, Jeremy. "Globalization and Sustainable Development." E-mail to the author. 20 June 2003 .
Note : The words in the subject line of the e-mail make up the title in quotation marks.
This handout was compiled by the St. Mary's University College Learning Centre staff in consultation with St. Mary's University College faculty and staff. Please contact the Learning Centre with any documentation queries.
October 21, 2003