Research Paper Basics

Formatting the Works Cited page

Good news: The physical layout (but not the content of the items) of an APA References page is identical to the layout of an MLA Works Cited page, so once you master this technique, you can use it in APA papers as well.

Overview

• Same margins, same type size, and same type font as the body of the paper.
• The Works Cited page is a fresh sheet after the body of the paper (even if your last page only had a line or two).
• The entries are alphabetized by the first item.
  • In most cases, that means the author's last name.
  • For corporate authors, alphabetize by the first meaningful word. (Don't alphabetize by "The")
  • Don't treat corporate authors as if they were people; if you are citing the Microsoft Corporation as a corporate author, don't pretend that "Corporation" is the last name of someone whose first name is "Microsoft." Use "Microsoft Corporation," not "Corporation, Microsoft."
  • Entries are not given in order of appearance and they are not sorted by type of format. They are simply alphabetized.
• To see what a Works Cited page looks like, go to Writer's Reference §MLA-5b.

Procedure

1. Start a new page. Yes, you can just hit the "Enter/Return" key a lot to force a new page, but that's unreliable. If you ever edit anything or if someone prints it out on a different computer, your Works Cited page might land in the middle of the sheet or some other weird place. Do this instead. After your last page of real content:
   • Apple Pages: Drop down the "Insert" menu and click "Page break."
   • Microsoft Word (online version): Click "Insert" menu and choose "Page Break" (on the left).
   • Google Docs: Drop the "Insert" menu down to "Break" and choose "Page break." (On Windows, you can simply type Ctrl+Enter; Apple, type Command+Enter.)
2. Type the title. At the top of the new page type Works Cited and center it. (All word processors have a slick, one-click way to center things. If you are still hitting the "Tab" key or the spacebar a lot and eyeballing it, you need to learn this little trick.) If you type "Works Cited" and center it, the next paragraph will be centered too, so you have to change the alignment back to "Left" before you type the individual items.
3. Format the hanging indent. It's probably easiest to do them all at once, so type all your Works Cited entries, highlight them, then:
   • Apple Pages:
     • Open the format menu by clicking the format paintbrush on the right hand menu.
     • Click on Layout in the menu.
     • Under indents, change first to 0 in and left to 0.5 in. (Hint: You can define a new paragraph style for a hanging indent so you can do this in one click on future papers.)
   • Microsoft Word (online version):
     • Click the "Home" menu and choose "More Options." It's a box with three dots on the right: | … |
     • Click "Special Indent."
     • Choose "Hanging."
   • Google Docs:
     • Drop the "Format" menu down. Choose "Align & Indent."
     • Choose "Indentation options."
     • Under "Special indent" choose "Hanging."