The Core Elements

“The core elements of any entry in the works-cited list are given below in the order in which they should appear. An element should be omitted from the entry if it’s not relevant to [doesn’t exist for] the work being documented. Each element is followed by the punctuation mark shown unless it is a final element, which should end with a period” (20).

  1. Author.
  2. Title of source.
  3. Title of container,
  4. Other contributors,
  5. Version,
  6. Number,
  7. Publisher,
  8. Publication date,
  9. Location.

Author and title are pretty self-explanatory, but the idea of a “container” is the big idea new to the 8th edition. If a work you are citing is part of a larger whole, like a work in an anthology or an article in a journal, an episode of a show, an article from a larger website, then that anthology, journal, series, or website is the “container.”

Often a work can be found in more than one place; you might find an article on a database (a container) that was originally published in a journal (the first container). Items 1 and 2 in the list above are the first parts of an entry, but items 3-9 are repeated as many times as necessary to illustrate places a reader can find your source.

Examples from the MLA handbook of sources that would have two containers (31-35):

Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” [KD1]The Georgia Review, vol. 64, no. 1, 2010, pp. 69-88.[KD2]JSTOR,

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of Red Death.”[KD4]The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe, edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-258. [KD5]HathiTrust Digital Library, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924079574368;view=1up;seq=266[KD6]

Notes about the other info items:

4. Other contributors can refer to translators, editors, etc. For video and audio productions this might include noteworthy directors, creators, writers, performers, etc.

5. Version for print sources typically means edition; for video or audio it might refer to a director’s cut, radio edit, or other like notation.

6. Number in print media can refer to volume or volume and issue and in video media might refer to season and episode. Volume should be abbreviated “vol.” and issue or number should be noted as “no.” while other notations like season and episode should just be spelled out.

9. Location in a print source refers to page number or numbers. An online publication location is the URL address. Performance locations can be where you saw the production.

*Also, for online sources, the date of access is an optional element that most professors are likely to want. This can follow the location and be expressed this way: Accessed 11 August 2016.

Kelly Douglass

Riverside City College

[KD1]Author and title.

[KD2]Container 1 with info items # 3, 6, 8, and 9.

[KD3]Container 2 with info items # 3 and 9.

[KD4]Author and title.

[KD5]Container 1 with info items #3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9

[KD6]Container 2 with info items #3 and 9.