Preparing a Works Cited Section

Once you have found the sources you intend to use, you will need to identify them for your reader. For each BOOK you use, write a separate listing (on an index card or in some handy format available in your laptop computer or your notebook — whatever is convenient and cannot be lost), giving:

  1. the name of the author or authors;
  2. title;
  3. editor, translator, compiler, if any;
  4. edition, if it is not the first (i.e., 2nd ed., rev. ed.);
  5. place and date of the book's publication; and
  6. the name of the book's publisher.

You might also note on this listing how this source was (or could be) particularly helpful in your research.

For example:
Mumford, Lewis. The Highway and the City. New York: Harcourt Brace and World, 1963.

Pikarsky, M. and Christensen, D. Urban Transportation Policy and Management. Boston: D.C. Heath, 1976.

Write a separate listing for each article from a magazine or journal. Include

  1. the name(s) of the author(s);
  2. the title of the article;
  3. the title of the periodical;
  4. the date of the issue in which the article appears;
  5. and the pages on which the article you are referring to appears.
For example:
Prin, Dinah. "Marriage in the '90s." New York 2 June 1990: 40-45.

You might also use reference books, newspapers, electronic resources, audio-visual materials, and other sources of information. In preparing listings for those sources, refer to The Writer's Practical Guide to Documentation in this document to see the kinds of facts you should record for each.

If you have to produce an annotated bibliography, a list of resources that includes commentary on the relative usefulness of each resource, click HERE for advice on that subject.