MLA formatting is very useful when conducting research. As a writer or even a blogger it is very beneficial. It demonstrates a sense of accountability to your audience as well as builds credibility depending on sources. One very important benefit to including this type of format in your writing is the legal protection it offer. Plagiarism is defined as the the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material produced by other writers. In this article i will cover the basic of MLA formatting but if you are ever asked to use MLA formatting by an industry professional i highly recommend using the MLA handbook ninth edition and for publishing scholars and graduate students, consult with the MLA style and manual to scholarly publishing.
My focus for this particular article will be work cited for a website, book, journal and P.D.F. As previously mentioned, citing your sources gives credit to the researchers and authors whose work informed yours. It also preserve the academic integrity of the education system especially if the knowledge you gained isn’t considered to be common knowledge and websites shouldn't be the exception but included as the rule. When it comes to online information, it can easily disappear. When it comes to web information, it is a good idea to download and retain your sources. When it comes to blogging independent journalism or any type of online publishing, MLA formatting only require you to use the phrase accessed to denote the date you actually accessed the information. Even though it’s not required it is highly recommended.
Including web url’s is crucial when it comes to citing your sources electronically. It can help users locate your source also whenever possible use citing containers in order to easily access or verify sources. Citing containers such as You tube, JSTOR, Spotify, or Netflix in order to easily access and verify sources. Most online publications include permalinks which is a shortened stable version of a url. When available, include page numbers. When unavailable use par. or pars. To denote paragraph numbers where par would be a single paragraph and pars would denote two paragraphs or more. So in a nutshell to close things off we would start with the author or editors name last names first followed by their first name/s. Next we would include the article name in quotation marks followed by the title of the website, book or project in italics. Try to include version numbers, editions, revisions, issues numbers and posting dates.
We also want to include the publisher’s information consistent with names and dates ans as previously mentioned the date you accessed the information in the event your source has updates or other revisions. In the end, your work citied project should look like this:
Purdue University. "MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications)" On Campus writing lab Date accessed 2/21/25
" Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).
