Documenting Internet Sources in MLA Style

Documenting Internet sources in MLA style is basically the same as documenting any other source; you need three elements:

  • A signal phrase: Yam (1993) argues that.... or The Nucor homepage states
  • A parenthetical citation indicating where the source ends: ... in the twenty-first century ("Nucor") or (Smith).
  • An entry in the Works Cited section indicating the full citation for the source, beginning with the author and date of creation, the title of the source, and concluding with the date when you accessed the source.

The entries in the Works Cited section for Internet sources look like these:

World Wide Web site

Shade, Leslie R. Gender issues in computer networking. [Online] Available
     http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/sorokin/women/lrs.html, 14 Aug. 1998.

Web Page linked from another web page (Use the abbreviation Lkd. for >Linked from= and underline the name of the page on which you found the link.)

Koster, J. (n.d.) Writing 465 Syllabus. [Online] Available lkd. Jo Koster= Home Page,
     at AClick here for the WRIT 465 Syllabus.@ http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj
     (19 Aug. 1998). {N.B. There is controversy about this form; ask your
     professor for a suggested form or preference.}

E-mail message

Koster, Jo. About your grade in WRIT 465. [Online] Available email:    
    reynoldsm@infoave.net from kosterj@winthrop.edu, 5 Aug. 1998.

Listserv message

Harris, Muriel R. Re: Questions for administrators redux. [Online] Available:
    wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu, 13 Aug. 1998.

Newsgroup message

                    Slade, R. UNIX made easy. [Online] Available alt.books.reviews, 26 Mar. 1996.

Article found in a database or bibliography source

                    Crain, Jeanie. AMarketing on a Shoestring.@ Small Business Opportunities Nov. 1996:
                        23+. Online. Searchbank. 12 Aug. 1998.

For additional information on documenting Internet sources, see Online! by Andrew Harnack & Eugene Kleppinger (NY: St. Martin=s, 1997, from which some of these examples are taken), and see the Winthrop Writery at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/WCenter/mla.htm, where you=ll find links to more comprehensive explanations of web documentation in MLA format.