Citing a Web Page in MLA Format

Lesson Plan - Get It!

Audio:

The MLA decided to create the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook, which was published in 2016, due to the increase in the citing of online sources.

The MLA realized new methods were needed to cite online sources more effectively in papers and projects. Since web pages are the most frequently cited sources in the online format, this lesson focuses on how to cite a web page.

Before learning to cite a website in MLA format, it is essential to know if the material you use from the Internet is academically credible and reliable.

Watch the following video for tips on ensuring a website is credible.

Besides evaluating on your own, you can use the Google Scholar search engine to find academically reliable sources for more advanced topics.

You may want to take some notes on the criteria you can use to assess online sources' credibility.

Once you know you have a credible online source, you must know how to formulate the Works Cited page citation.

• Do you remember the nine pieces of information the MLA established for citing all sources?

This information is used to cite sources in MLA.

1. author
2. title of source
3. title of container
4. other contributors
5. version
6. number
7. publisher
8. publication date
9. location

The information that you should look for when citing a web page is the author of the web page's content, the title of the web page, the title of the website, the site's publisher's name, the publication date of the web page, the page or paragraph numbers on the web page, the web address, and the date you accessed the web page.

To learn how to cite a web page, print the Citing a Web Page in MLA Format handout found in Downloadable Resources in the right-hand sidebar. Read the directions for how to cite a website.

You may need many other online sources to cite in a paper or project, such as blogs, tweets, entire websites, images, etc. The citations still follow the nine pieces of information established by the MLA.

Some reliable sources may include a proper MLA citation at the bottom of the web page, but always double-check it for accuracy!

If you are a little overwhelmed by all the steps needed to cite a web page, remember that the more you practice these types of citations, the easier they will become. Also, you can always refer to the list of nine pieces of information used for all citations or the handout from this section to follow the citation process for a web page.

Now, move on to the Got It? section to see a citation for a web page being created and get some much-needed practice writing citations for web pages.