If you're a high-school teacher or undergraduate professor, refer to the most recent edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for high school and undergraduate students; MLA's Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, on the other hand, is for graduate students, scholars, and professional writers.
Draft a template for the MLA "Works Cited" or MLA Bibliography page.
Include a labeled section for each kind of source (books, articles, online, etc.).
Include a step number for each required citation detail.
Leave plenty of space following each step for students using the Worksheet to enter their specific data.
Type out general instructions for MLA citations at the top of the Worksheet's first page.
Find a relevant example for each type of citation and include it at the end of each section, after the steps.
Type: "Author's last name, first name, middle initial, followed by a period. For works with two or three authors, reverse the name of only the first author; list other authors as they are listed in the source. Separate names by a comma and end entry with a period."
Add: "Editor(s) last name, first name, middle initial, followed by a comma and the abbreviation, 'ed.' for one editor or 'eds.' for multiple editors."
Type: "Title of book with title italicized, followed by a period. Capitalize the first word and all other principal words of the titles and subtitles of cited works listed."
Include: "Edition (if other than first edition)."
Type: "Place of publication, followed by a colon. Use only the first city when more than one city is listed for the same publisher."
Add: "Publisher's name, followed by a comma. Shorten the publisher's name by eliminating business abbreviations and descriptive words. Include all publishers, placing a semicolon between them."
Type: "Year of publication, followed by a period."
Type: "List the article's author: last name, first name and middle initial."
Add: "Put the title of the article in quotation marks and italicize the periodical title."
Type: "Add the date of publication: day, abbreviated month and year, followed by a colon, then pages cited. The citation ends with specifying the publication's medium."
Add: "Citation for a newspaper article is similar to that of a magazine, but newspaper citations include section, pages and edition."
Type: "Author or editor names (if available)."
Add: "Article name in quotation marks (if applicable)."
Include: "Title of website, project or book in italics."
Add: "Publisher information, including name and date."
End with: "Date you accessed the material."