Works Cited Basics
What Information do I need for a Citation?
When creating a works-cited entry for a source look for the following 9 core elements:
- Author. Who is responsible for this work?
- Title of Source. What is this work called?
- Title of Container. Where is this work located?
- Contributor(s). Who helped create this version of the work for this location?
- Version. What version or edition is this container?
- Number. What volume or number is this container?
- Publisher. Who published this container?
- Publication Date. When was this container published?
- Location. Where in the source is the information?
Elements 3 through 9 are considered "container elements" by MLA and can be repeated for as many containers as exist for a given source.
Include as many elements as you can find for your source. If an element does not exist it does not need to be included in your citation.
How Would the Information Appear in a Citation?
- A basic citation with only one container would look like:
- Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container, Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
- A source with multiple containers, like a journal article found on a library database, would look like:
- Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container 1, Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location. Title of Container 2, Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location. Container 3. etc.
- A source that is self-contained, like a book, would look like:
- Author. Title of Source. Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
What are Containers?
Containers were added to citations in an effort to make citing different types of sources easier, so writers could focus on citing based on commonly found elements, rather than learning how each individual type of source (i.e. book, article, video, etc.) needed to be cited.
As the name suggests, containers are the larger works containing the actual source being cited.
For example, if you are citing an article, the journal that published the article is the container, and the article is the main source: .
If that article came from a library database, then the journal would be container 1 and the database container 2:
If you are citing an entire book the book is considered to be "self-contained" and does not have a separate container, unless accessed through a library database or other non-physical means.