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| This page does not cover information from electronic databases to which our library subscribes, like CommSearch. This page tells you how to cite public web pages. The amount of author-title information on web sites varies greatly. Following are three examples. For more information see Gibaldi and Achtert (180-190) or visit the Modern Language Association Web Site, click on MLA Style, then Frequently Asked Questions. | |
| Article on a Web Site with Named Author and Title | |
| This case is analagous to an article in a journal or anthology. The name of the web site is the containing work and is italicized or underline. This is followed by the date you accessed the web page and the URL: | |
| Williams, Juan. "In Search of A. Philip Randolph." A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom. PBS Online. 3 Mar. | |
| 1998. <http://www.pbs.org/weta/apr/juanwms.html>. | |
| If the date the article was published is available, as in the case of a news article or speech, that date goes after the title of the article but before the name of the containing web site. The parenthetical reference is just as in any other author-title reference but generally lacks page numbers. | |
| Web Page with No Author | |
| Some web sites make things difficult for you by using frames so that a URL to the exact page cannot be given, or by providing information without giving a clear title or an author. In this case you put down whatever information is available, beginning with anything resembling a title, and keeping in mind the best way to make it easy for your readers to access the page. Ironically, the MLA web site is one of these rascals: | |
| "Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style." MLA Style. Modern Language Association. 3 Aug. 2001. | |
| <http://www.mla.org>. | |
| Citing an Entire Web Site with No Separate Author or Title | |
| In many cases you have occasion to cite a complete web site without specifying a particular page with a separate author or title. Ideally, you should only do this in cases similar to the one on the first paragraph of this page or to this sentence, where you are purposefully referring to the entire site (Modern). See the corresponding reference in the reference list below. | |
| Web Site with a Single Author (Professional or Personal Site) | |
| Many smaller web sites are owned and operated by a single web author, including many academic sites. If no other title or name for the site is given, you may list the entire site under author, as in the following example: | |
| Zulick, Margaret D. Home page. 3 Aug. 2001. <http://www.wfu.edu/~zulick/>. | |
| Some scholars with a little more panache than yours truly give their web sites a title: | |
| Burton, Gideon. Silva Rhetoricae. 3 Aug. 2001. <http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm>. | |
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Reference
List
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| Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 5th ed. New York: Modern | |
| Language Association of America, 1999. | |
| Modern Language Association. 6 Aug. 2001. <http://www.mla.org/>. | |