The MLA guidelines on documenting online sources are explained in detail in the sixth edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (1999) and in the second edition of the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (1998). What follows here is a summary of the guidelines that cover the World Wide Web. For the complete MLA recommendations on Web sources, please see one of the books mentioned above.

Sources on the World Wide Web that students and scholars use in their research include scholarly projects, reference databases, the texts of books, articles in periodicals, and professional and personal sites. Entries in a works-cited list for such sources contain as many items from the list below as are relevant and available. Following this list are sample entries for some common kinds of Web sources.

1. Name of the author, editor, compiler, or translator of the source (if available and relevant), reversed for alphabetizing and followed by an abbreviation, such as ed., if appropriate
2. Title of a poem, short story, article, or similar short work within a scholarly project, database, or periodical (in quotation marks); or title of a posting to a discussion list or forum (taken from the subject line and put in quotation marks), followed by the description Online posting
3. Title of a book (underlined)
4. Name of the editor, compiler, or translator of the text (if relevant and if not cited earlier), preceded by the appropriate abbreviation, such as Ed.
5. Publication information for any print version of the source
6. Title of the scholarly project, database, periodical, or professional or personal site (underlined); or, for a professional or personal site with no title, a description such as Home page
7. Name of the editor of the scholarly project or database (if available)
8. Version number of the source (if not part of the title) or, for a journal, the volume number, issue number, or other identifying number
9. Date of electronic publication, of the latest update, or of posting
10. For a work from a subscription service, the name of the service and--if a library is the subscriber--the name and city (and state abbreviation, if necessary) of the library
11. For a posting to a discussion list or forum, the name of the list or forum
12. The number range or total number of pages, paragraphs, or other sections, if they are numbered
13. Name of any institution or organization sponsoring or associated with the Web site
14. Date when the researcher accessed the source
15. Electronic address, or URL, of the source (in angle brackets); or, for a subscription service, the URL of the service's main page (if known) or the keyword assigned by the service

Scholarly Project
 
Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry
 
     Willett. Apr. 1997. Indiana U. 26 Apr. 1997
 
     <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/>.
 

Professional Site
 
Portuguese Language Page. U of Chicago. 1 May
 
     1997 <http://humanities.uchicago.edu/
 
     romance/port/>.
 

Personal Site
 
Lancashire, Ian. Home page. 1 May 1997 <http://
 
     www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~ian/
 
     index.html>.
      

Book
 
Nesbit, E[dith]. Ballads and Lyrics of
 
     Socialism. London, 1908. Victorian Women
 
     Writers Project. Ed. Perry Willett. Apr.
 
     1997. Indiana U. 26 Apr. 1997 <http://
 
     www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/
 
     ballsoc.html>.
 

Poem
 
Nesbit, E[dith]. "Marching Song." Ballads and
 
     Lyrics of Socialism. London, 1908.
 
     Victorian Women Writers Project. Ed. Perry
 
     Willett. Apr. 1997. Indiana U. 26 Apr. 1997
 
     <http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/nesbit/
 
     ballsoc.html#p9>.
 

Article in a Reference Database
 
"Fresco." Britannica Online. Vers. 97.1.1. Mar.
 
     1997. Encyclopaedia Britannica. 29 Mar.
 
     1997 <http://www.eb.com:180>.
 

Article in a Journal
 
Flannagan, Roy. "Reflections on Milton and
 
     Ariosto." Early Modern Literary Studies
 
     2.3 (1996): 16 pars. 22 Feb. 1997 <http://
 
     unixg.ubc.ca:7001/O/e-sources/emls/02-3/
 
     flanmilt.html>.
 

Article in a Magazine
 
Landsburg, Steven E. "Who Shall Inherit the
 
     Earth?" Slate 1 May 1997. 2 May 1997
 
     <http://www.slate.com/Economics/97-05-01/
 
     Economics.asp>.
 

Work from a Subscription Service
 
Koretz, Gene. "Economic Trends: Uh-Oh, Warm
 
     Water." Business Week 21 July 1997: 22.
 
     Electric Lib. Sam Barlow High School Lib.,
 
     Gresham, OR. 17 Oct. 1997 <http://
 
     www.elibrary.com/>.
 
 
"Table Tennis." Compton's Encyclopedia Online.
 
     Vers. 2.0. 1997. America Online. 4 July
 
     1998. Keyword: Compton's.
 

Posting to a Discussion List
 
Merrian, Joanne. "Spinoff: Monsterpiece
 
     Theatre." Online posting. 30 Apr. 1994.
 
     Shaksper: The Global Electronic Shakespeare
 
     Conf. 27 Aug. 1997 <http://www.arts.ubc.ca/
 
     english/iemls/shak/MONSTERP_SPINOFF.txt>.
 

In parenthetical references in the text, works on the World Wide Web are cited just like printed works. For any type of source, you must include information in your text that directs readers to the correct entry in the works-cited list (see the MLA Handbook, sec. 5.2). Web documents generally do not have fixed page numbers or any kind of section numbering. If your source lacks numbering, you have to omit numbers from your parenthetical references.

If your source includes fixed page numbers or section numbering (such as numbering of paragraphs), cite the relevant numbers. Give the appropriate abbreviation before the numbers: "(Moulthrop, pars. 19-20)." (Pars. is the abbreviation for paragraphs. Common abbreviations are listed in the MLA Handbook, sec. 6.4.) For a document on the Web, the page numbers of a printout should normally not be cited, because the pagination may vary in different printouts.