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EGL 101-014 - Will Crawford - Fall 2024

Examples of MLA Citations and Sample Works Cited Page - 9th Edition

Long URLs in your citation? Advice from MLA Style Center (adapted from RW's work)

"...when URLs are so long that they become unreadable, truncating them will be necessary...As a general guideline, a URL running more than three full lines is likely to interfere with the readability of the entry."

Guidelines on Truncating

The MLA Handbook advises writers to truncate a URL in one specific way (by omitting the protocol and //). If you need to shorten it further, retain the host, which will allow readers to evaluate the site and search for the source.

URLs are composed of a few basic components:

  • the protocol (basically anything before //)
  • the double forward slash
  • the host (which encompasses the domain–like World Wide Web, or www)
  • the path

URL diagram

For example: the shortened version of the following URL:

go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sort=RELEVANCE&docType=Journal+article&tabID=T003&prodId= MLA&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchType=BasicSearchForm&contentSegment=& currentPosition=3&searchResultsType=SingleTab&inPS=true&userGroupName=mla&docId=GALE %7CN2810522710&contentSet=GALE%7CN2810522710

would be

go.galegroup.com/ps

Gibson, Angela. "URLs: Some Practical Advice." MLA Style Center, 2 Nov 2016, 
 https://style.mla.org/2016/11/02/urls-some-practical-advice/. Accessed 12 March 2019.