How to Make a Web Bibliography

Since the Internet offers an abundance of information, students often consult websites when they are working on research projects. If you use information from the web when writing a paper, you must tell the reader exactly where you got the information. Bibliographic citations are the means by which you tell your reader about your sources. Most academic institutions require that you to use either MLA (Modern Language Association) or APA (American Psychological Association) guidelines for citing sources. MLA and APA differ in their guidelines for writing citations for web sources.

Instructions

  1. MLA

    • 1

      Include the citation for each website on the Works Cited page of your paper. Put them in alphabetical order with all the other sources.

    • 2

      Name the institution, agency or individual that published the website. For example, a publishing agency might be the U.S. Forest Service. In the case of an individual, write the last name first, followed by the first name. Place a period at the end of the name.

    • 3

      Write the title of the web page enclosed in quotation marks. Place a period inside the closing quotation mark.

    • 4

      Name the medium in which the article was published---the web---followed by a period. Next, indicate the date on which the page was accessed.

    • 5

      Close the citation with the full URL or web address enclosed in angle brackets (< >). Place a period after the closing bracket.

      A full MLA citation for a web site should look like this:

      Cornell University Library. "Citation Management: MLA Citation Style." Cornell University Library. Cornell University, 2009. Web. 26 September 2010

      <http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla#web_page>.

    APA

    • 6

      Include the citation for each website on the Reference page of your paper. Put them in alphabetical order with all the other sources. If you are citing an entire website rather than a specific page on the site, no Reference page entry is required. However, you must include the URL for the site in the in-text citation of your paper.

    • 7

      Name the institution, agency or individual that published the web site. For example, a publishing agency might be the U.S. Forest Service. In the case of an individual, write the last name first, followed by the first name. Place a period at the end of the name.

    • 8

      Include the year the website was first published or most recently updated and enclose this information in parenthesis. The year of publication is sometimes located on the bottom of the home page for the website.

    • 9

      Write the title of the web page in italics. Place a period after the title.

    • 10

      Close the citation with the word "Retrieved" followed by the date you accessed the site, a comma, "from" and then the URL. Do not end the citation with a period.

      A full APA citation for a web page should look like this:

      Cornell University Library. (2009) Citation Management: MLA Citation Style. Retrieved September 26, 2010, from

      <http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla#web_page

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