4 Exploring Source Types

To identify the correct MLA citation elements needed for your Works Cited list citation, you first need to know what type of source you have. Looking at a source’s visual clues can help you figure this out.

A source can be in different formats. For example:

  • a book can be in print or available online as an ebook in a Library database,  freely online or part of a database or even self-published
  • an article can be in a print journal or available online in a Library database or on a journal webpage
  • a video can be on a DVD or streamed online
  • and so on…

Other sources exist only electronically, such as blogs or websites and their individual webpages.

It can be a bit confusing figuring out what type of source you have. To help, we will go through some examples of source types and clues to look for.

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MLA Style Citations Copyright © 2021 by Ulrike Kestler is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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