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IMPORTANT NOTICE: The Modern Language Association updated their guidelines on April 1, 2016. We have not yet updated this section of Resources for Researchers to reflect these changes. We have ordered a copy of the new guidelines and will update as soon as possible.

Parts of a Citation:
Author

The author is the person or persons who wrote the material you are citing. Generally, the author's name can easily be found in a book or article. But, authors of web sites can be more difficult to find.

Some websites list the author's name on the top of the page. Sometimes, as with this page, the author's name can be found at the bottom. At other times, you need to do some investigation because the name is listed on a different page of the website.

For some websites, such as "Writing An Argument", you need to use critical thinking skills to figure out the author. On that page, Mark Harris; name is listed on the top and mine is listed on the bottom--in the same place it appears on this page. Although I am the author of this page, because of how Professor Harris' name is listed on "Writing and Argument," you can rightly assume he is the author of that particular page and I serve as the publisher.

What if no author is listed?

Although books and articles usually have an author listed, it is not uncommon for a web site not to have an author listed.

When no author is listed, you simply leave the author's name out of the citation. Do not use "Anonymous" as the author's name. In your bibliography, list of works cited, or references, you would alphabetize the citation by the title.