how to write a url in an essay

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How to Format URLs in Text

What are these strange beasts?

Today’s topic is how to treat URLs when you have to use them in text.

Web addresses are strange beasts; they seem more like equations or long numbers than words. All the rules for how to handle uniform resource locators (or URLs) in documents are matters of style , but some styles make more sense than others.

URLs and Terminal Punctuation

URLs always have internal periods and often are scattered with other punctuation marks and symbols such as question marks, slashes, and percent signs. So what do you do when one shows up at the end of a sentence? Should you include the period or other terminal punctuation mark at the end of the sentence as you normally would? Leave off the period so the reader doesn’t mistakenly include it in the address? Or do something funky such as put quotation marks around the Web address? As you’re weighing your options, first consider whether you are writing for print or the Web.

If you’re writing for print, Web addresses don’t need special treatment. Put the period, opens in a new window question mark , or opens in a new window exclamation point at the end of the sentence just as you would if the sentence ended with a word or a number. Most people these days know that URLs don’t end with periods, so there’s not much risk people will mistake the period as part of the address if they’re manually typing it into an address bar.

You may choose to highlight the URL in some way, such as making it bold or blue, but it isn’t necessary, and opens in a new window APA style actually recommends removing special colors and underlining so the address looks the same as surrounding text.

When you’re including a URL on a blog, in an e-mail program, or in some other online environment and the link will be active, years ago you used to have to worry that if your URL was at the end of a sentence, a period at the end would be included when the interface automatically generated an active link on the address and that the link would be wrong when people clicked on it, and my advice back then was to leave a space between the end of the URL and the period that ends your sentence. Systems have gotten better, so now it’s generally not necessary to leave a space, which is great because I always hated how that looked.

Still, you should make sure all your links work properly because not every system is perfect. Twitter, for example, knows not to include periods, question marks, or exclamation points in the active address if you type them right after a URL, but Apple’s Pages word processing software knows to exclude the period and exclamation point, but since addresses often contain question marks, sometimes it will still include the question mark in the live link (for example, if you type cnn.com? it won’t include it, but if you type Click this link it will include it).

My advice today is if you have a URL at the end of a sentence in a text document or a social media post, include the period, exclamation mark, or question mark like you normally would, with no space, but keep an extra eye out to make sure the terminal punctuation didn’t get included in the live link, especially if it’s a question mark.

Again, these are style choices, and remember that all the style manuals are especially picky about how citations are formatted and those styles can change over time, so when you’re including a Web address in a citation, be sure to check the specific style you’re supposed to be following. For example, current APA style is to opens in a new window not put a period after a URL in a citation . Their rationale is that the specific alphanumeric sequence is important because it is what points readers to the reference.

The Full Monty: Full URLs Versus Abbreviated URLs

Now, what about abbreviating the address? Some people prefer to write out the entire address including the https:// and www parts, whereas other people prefer to write the shortest address that will still work when you type it into a Web browser.

Whether you should write out the full URL is also a matter of style. For example, the opens in a new window BuzzFeed Style Guide says not to use the http part, and only to use the www part when it is necessary for the link to work, which is almost never. The Modern Language Association style guide also opens in a new window recommends using the short URL in running text —simply Forbes.com instead of https://www.forbes.com , for example).

But even here there are style differences. BuzzFeed wants you to write forbes.com with a lowercase F, and MLA wants you to write Forbes.com with a capital F. As usual, my advice is to pick a style and be consistent.

The next problem you are likely to encounter is what to do with a long URL. You know what I mean: one of those dynamically generated URLs that seem to go on forever with equal signs and question marks and lots of numbers.

The most important thing is that if you have to break a URL across two lines, don’t insert an extra opens in a new window hyphen at the line break. That will confuse people because it’s common for URLs to contain hyphens. And if there is a hyphen in the address, don’t make the line break right after it; because that will confuse people because they won’t know whether you are improperly inserting a hyphen to mark the break or the hyphen is part of the address.

Instead, if you have to wrap the URL to a new line, find a natural break like a slash, number sign, or other symbol, or if you must, in the middle of a long string of letters or numbers. Use common sense: don’t break a URL right after a period or readers might think the period marks the end of the sentence.

Click Here and Underlining

Next, when you’re turning words into links on a Web page, it’s generally best to put the link on the words that describe what you are linking to. For example, link the words Grammar Girl’s article about how to format links instead of linking generic words such as click here . Sometime if writers have a lot of references, I’ve seen them put something like See here, here, and here, in parentheses, with each here linking to a different source, and I can see how it’s kind of efficient, but I still recommend using meaningful link text because it’s more search engine friendly and makes it easier for people with visual impairments to navigate your site (because they may be using software that only reads the link text to them.)

Finally, it’s best to avoid underlining things for emphasis on websites because underlining is the style for an active link on the Web. I know it’s possible to make links any style you want if you fiddle with the code, but underlining is the default style, so if you underline text, some people will think it’s an active link, and they will be annoyed when they try to click on it and it doesn’t work. And I believe one of your top goals should be to avoid annoying your readers. That just makes sense.

This is an update of an article that was originally published September 5, 2008.

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Mignon Fogarty is the founder of Quick and Dirty Tips and the author of seven books on language, including the New York Times bestseller " Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing ." She is an inductee in the Podcasting Hall of Fame, and the show is a five-time winner of Best Education Podcast in the Podcast Awards. She has appeared as a guest expert on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show. Her popular  LinkedIn Learning courses help people write better to communicate better. Find her on Mastodon .

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URLs: Some Practical Advice

The new MLA Handbook recommends including URLs in works-cited-list entries for online works, but it also notes their drawbacks: they can cause clutter, become obsolete, and have limited use in a print work. URLs may also be inaccessible when the pages to which they refer are behind a paywall. Although writers can avoid these problems by following the handbook’s recommendation to use permalinks and DOIs when such information is available, URLs are often the only option. In this post, I offer commonsense guidelines on treating URLs in works-cited-list entries.

First, it is important to keep in mind that documentation has two main goals: it should testify to the veracity of your research and provide readers with information about your source that allows them to retrace your steps. Ensuring the enduring availability and retrievability of a source is not the primary objective of documentation, even though the Internet allows for the retrieval of online works referred to in other online works. You would document a performance, even though your readers can’t attend it. Similarly, you would document a letter in a private collection, even though it might not be accessible to your readers. By doing so, you are vouching, “I was here.”

When deciding whether and how to include a URL in a works-cited-list entry, you should balance the goals of testifying and retracing. A good litmus test might be this: if your works-cited-list entry adequately achieves the primary goal of vouching for your work, then ask yourself whether providing a URL will help readers wishing to retrace your footsteps.

Basic Rule of Thumb

The MLA Handbook encourages writers to list the URL that they see in their browsers unless the source identifies a DOI or permalink associated with it.

Inaccessible URLs

If the URL leads to a source that is behind a paywall or defunct by the time you submit or publish your work or if the URL cannot be publicly resolved, then retrieving becomes difficult or even impossible, but readers may still glean information from the URL that helps them understand the path of your research. For example, the root of the URL may lead to a home page where readers can log in with their own credentials, pay to see the source, evaluate the credibility of the site that published the source, or locate the source under a new URL.

Ridiculously Long URLs

So you have a ten-page-long URL. Now what? As Russell W. Grooms writes, the MLA Handbook “values concise citations and one of its guiding principles is, ‘Make your documentation useful to readers.’ How useful is it to my reader to have six lines of random letters and numbers at the end of every citation?” Indeed, when URLs are so long that they become unreadable, truncating them will be necessary. (Omitting the URL altogether, however, may not make it clear that the source you are citing appears online.)

The question is, How long is too long? If the URL compromises the readability of your entry, then it is too long. Thus judgment is called for, since whether a URL hinders the readability of the works-cited-list entry will depend on the entry. The length of the entry is one factor: if a URL is several lines longer than the rest of the entry, it will run the show. The placement of the URL is another factor: a URL at the end of an entry generally makes the entry easier to read than does a URL that appears before optional information that is appended to the entry. 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

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)

In addition, sometimes file-specific information or a query string is appended:

https://style.mla.org/app/uploads/sites/3/2016/04/practice-template. pdf

https://www.mla.org/search/ ?query=pmla

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.

Guidelines on Breaking

As long as the URL is accurately recorded, writers of unpublished material should not worry about how a URL breaks. To ensure that a URL is accurately reproduced, never introduce a hyphen or space in it. Note that the freely available formatting guidelines on this site advise writers to turn off their word processors’ automatic hyphenation features for just this reason.

Professionally typeset publications in fixed formats, like print or PDF, normally follow rigorous conventions for breaking URLs. Publishers vary in their practices. In its own professionally typeset publications, the MLA breaks URLs before a period and before or after any other punctuation or symbol (e.g., /, //, _, @). We do not break URLs after a hyphen in such publications, to avoid ambiguity.

Grooms, Russell W. Comment in response to “ FW: Chicago Style Citation Question” thread. Infolit , 6 Sept. 2016, 20:02:16, lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/infolit/2016-09/msg00005.html.

38 Comments

Norman holland 17 november 2016 at 01:11 pm.

When confronted with a long, long URL, why not use a tinyurl citation or other shortening sites?

Your e-mail address will not be published

Angela Gibson 17 November 2016 AT 09:11 PM

One drawback is that shorteners obfuscate the information encoded in the URL, so writers should weigh the pros and cons of using them for each project.

Johnathan Gibbly 11 April 2018 AT 04:04 PM

Angela, the data contained inside of a URL is not encoded. It is all readable clear text that simply contains the directions to a pages server inside of the Internet. If readers are really worried about a sources credentials, they can just open up the shortened URL and survey the page for themselves.

Richard 14 April 2019 AT 05:04 PM

While she wasn't correct as per the definition, I read between the lines and saw her point.

It is rude to only provide a shortened URL. You can't tell where it is going, if it is safe for work, if it is going to pass your company firewall, and more. It is fine to provide a shortened URL if you are verbalizing something to a crowd, but any place where a mouse click will do all the work, you need to provide the final URL. By all means, provide the shortened one too, but only in addition to and not exclusively.

Also, shortened URL services have been known to go away. Even the big ones you wouldn't expect, such as Google https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/30/google-shutting-down-goo-gl-url-shortening-service/.

Many websites will outlive URL shortening services, and therefore pages that should be accessible are now broken.

Paul 21 November 2016 AT 07:11 PM

This didn't clarify anything for me. Can you provide a before-and-after of a super long URL that has been shortened in an acceptable way?

Angela Gibson 22 November 2016 AT 09:11 PM

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

go.galegroup.com/ps

By shortening, you at least know that the work was found online and know the vendor whose platform it was found on.

Andres Torres 28 January 2017 AT 01:01 AM

That example is super clear. Thank you.

Stefanie Elwood 17 February 2017 AT 05:02 PM

If shortening an overly lengthy URL means we should reduce it to the host, why did you include the ps at the end of this shortened URL?

I'm wondering why this URL isn't set up as this:

go.galegroup.com/

Angela Gibson 24 February 2017 AT 02:02 PM

Because no Web page exists at go.galegroup.com/. The shortest URL that takes one to a Web page is go.galegroup.com/ps.

Stefanie Elwood 14 April 2018 AT 11:04 AM

Thanks, Angela, for the helpful answer. I should have thought to test it myself. Reading the rest of your replies to these questions has been quite helpful!

Barbara Flanagan 22 November 2016 AT 05:11 PM

I see some URLs with a terminal slash and other URLs without. I don't see a pattern. Can you clarify when to use or not use a terminal slash?

Angela Gibson 08 December 2016 AT 09:12 PM

Whether the terminal slash will break the link depends on how the URL is set up. The simplest answer for writers is to test the link with and without the slash and use the shortest form that works (i.e., use the slash-free URL if it works). If you are editing a work, follow copy--that is, avoid deleting or adding a slash and use what the writer has provided.

April Mason 12 February 2017 AT 04:02 AM

Breaking up the URLs and trying to indent them 5 spaces is a nightmare. Word does not want to break up a URL. Is there a way to do this that doesn't take 15 minutes an entry? Thus far, it's a nightmare.

Angela Gibson 14 February 2017 AT 03:02 PM

April--I hope I'm understanding your problem correctly. You should let Word break lines automatically and be sure to use the hanging indent function under the Paragraph tab--don't manually indent using spaces. Creating hanging indents in a list of works cited can be achieved in one fell swoop; tutorials abound online.

Scott Davis 28 February 2017 AT 05:02 PM

Why did you break the url after the hyphen in your own citation after saying that MLA, in order to avoid ambiguity, does not do that?

Angela Gibson 01 March 2017 AT 12:03 AM

This is a good question; thank you for asking it. In referring to "professionally typeset publications," I meant those in fixed formats, like print or PDF, not Web publications in HTML, where the text is meant to resize according to the device on which it's read. I'll update the post to clarify.

Gina Lee 29 March 2017 AT 05:03 PM

Why does MLA style now require removing the protocol? This prevents the URL from being automatically hyperlinked in, for instance, a Word document, so the reader can't click on the URL to get to the source. Plus deleting the protocol is a huge pain when you have a long list of copy/pasted URLs. I have a hard time explaining this rule to my students.

Angela Gibson 02 May 2017 AT 07:05 PM

These are good points, Gina. We recommend removing the protocol in print works--especially those that are professionally designed and typeset--but if you aim to have hyperlinked URLs and you are working in a software program (Word) that doesn't allow hyperlinking with the protocol removed, by all means modify our suggestions for your classroom.

Arnav 20 May 2017 AT 01:05 AM

Is it still necessary to remove the protocol if it is not http:// or https://? How will someone know that they have to enter, for example, ftp:// instead of http:// in order to access the source?

Angela Gibson 24 May 2017 AT 08:05 PM

No, it's not necessary. If you're concerned that someone won't be able to find the source without the protocol, leave it.

Brandy Daly 20 October 2017 AT 09:10 AM

I am using the MLA citations & bibliography and when I added the URL the link is broken in to 2 parts on my Word document. How can i correct this? ex: Jacobs, Steven Leonard. "Genocidal Religion." Journal of Hate Studies 9.1 (2010/2011): 221-235. 15p. .

David Fulton 01 April 2018 AT 07:04 PM

Why did MLA return to including URLs? The previous edition got rid of the requirement and frankly, it was one of the best moves MLA could have made. URL are confusing, obsolete, messy and a nightmare to format properly in a bibliography. Also, it is absurd to include a url in a paper document like an essay.

Arnav, most modern websites will automatically update requests from users from HTTP to HTTPS for security. Omitting that field will not affect reaching the source. Also, I would hope that users are not trying to reach sources through FTP, as you are accessing a dedicated server with cleartext usernames and passwords.

John Padgett 21 July 2018 AT 10:07 AM

What if you come across an online source that has created its OWN truncated URL for a source to allow, for instance, easier Tweeting or other social media posting? The main URL for this EdTech Magazine article, for example, is

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/12/wikipedia-trustworthy-academic-resource-scientists-think-so

which is rather long and unwieldy ... but the article also includes a link to post it on Twitter, which yields the following (in the Twitter post box):

.@MIT research finds #Wikipedia to be a useful research tool. http://tech.mg/wjqs21 via @EdTech_HigherEd

Is that shorter URL, http://tech.mg/wjqs21, sufficient and/or intuitive enough for use in a Works Cited/Bibliography? Is it permissible, given that this is a URL provided by the source itself? Or would it be better to go with the longer URL, even if it has to be broken over multiple lines? (Admittedly, the longer URL in this case is not as long and unwieldy as many URLs are these days.)

Angela Gibson 22 July 2018 AT 02:07 PM

That's an excellent question! I suppose that the shortened URL intended for social media sharing isn't entirely illegitimate, since it's provided by the publisher. But the main URL is preferable: it's easier to find, easier for the reader to parse, easier to confirm, and so on.

John Latch 05 November 2018 AT 12:11 PM

When doing a works cited how do you tab the url without having a line sticking out?

David Fulton 08 November 2018 AT 02:11 PM

When MLA dropped the url requirement there was a collective sigh of relief from instructors and students alike. For all the reasons you mentioned, the addition of urls in bibliographic citation is ill-advised. If the citation includes author, source, and envelope, then the reader can use those to track down the item.

Think about it this way: The SIMPLEST MLA entry is for a bound book. Author. Title. Publisher. Year. What if MLA required a specific location for the book... such as the library where it is found. To me, that is the same as requiring a url string.

MLA... you had me... then you lost me.

Rolando Regino 11 December 2018 AT 01:12 PM

Does citing with an url require a hanging indentation? Is a hanging indentation required at all times in MLA format?

Shasta 15 January 2019 AT 12:01 PM

What if a URL is not crazy long, but it can't be indented accurately? The two options I see are to add a space to the URL, so that it can be indented and the formatting is correct or leave the URL as is and the formatting is wrong...

Samantha 08 May 2019 AT 10:05 PM

When a teacher comments on your Works Cited page that she wants you to wrap the URL, what does that mean? Am I supposed to underline the URL?

Thomas Raywood 11 April 2020 AT 06:04 PM

Time to perhaps think outside the box a bit. Since a set of footnotes (usually citations) is an essentially tabular "clarification directory" pointing back to that which warrants clarification, this/that as a widely embraced best practice informs us, quite squarely, that only with perfect ease we could do the same for the footnotes themselves... that is, to the extent that they too, as a body warranting clarification, might exist as a body warranting clarification. There's simply no reason not to have a secondary directory or as it were subdirectory, where needed, to point back to the primary one. In short, footnotes can have footnotes if only to be so bold. There's no reason a primary directory cannot refer to its several URLs in sequence, as they appear, as URL1, URL2, etc., and then allow the secondary directory to embody the full texts of the actual URLs. If it's gainful to declutter the body of a manuscript through the use of footnotes, by what measure can it be considered not gainful to declutter footnotes through the use of footnotes?

James Stripes 04 February 2021 AT 12:02 PM

Footnoting footnotes! I like how you think.

As an instructor who has graded thousands of student papers, I do not want to see long URLs that show me the search string. I want a direct and stable link that shows me the article, even it it is only the title and abstract with the rest behind a paywall.

For instance, I find unacceptable ProQuest's suggestion:

V. Kashintseva et al, "Consumer Attitudes towards Industrial Capture and Storage Products and Technologies," Energies, vol. 11, (10), 2018. Available: https://ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/scholarly-journals/consumer-attitudes-towards-industrial-co-sub-2/docview/2316226019/se-2?accountid=7305. DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/10.3390/en11102787.

I would shorten the URL to doi.org.ezproxy.library.ewu.edu/10.3390/en11102787, but even this is still institution specific, which might be acceptable for college writing, but seems unacceptable for "real" research outside of school.

Kirsten Johnsen 17 April 2021 AT 04:04 PM

So.... I have a specific weird situation, and Two Questions. I am citing (for my dissertation) many, many specific newspaper articles that I found, and clipped, on archive databases. I need to provide access to the individual clippings for each citation (I have dozens; this was primary research). Q1: Do I need to include the entire url to provide a stable link? Q2: Once the dissertation is published on Proquest, is it necessary to include the link function so that future researchers can easily access my clippings? Doing my best to format my Works Cited by combining rules for Newspaper Articles and Digital Sources.

Angela Gibson 21 April 2021 AT 10:04 AM

Hi, Kirsten. The number one priority for documentation is to tell readers where you found the source; it need not provide readers with direct access. (If it does, as for a freely accessible online source, that's great. But writers often need to document sources that are inaccessible to readers--an article behind a paywall, a website that becomes defunct, a personal conversation, a lecture or performance attended in person). If you found the works in a database, this is what you should indicate in your documentation. If it doesn't make sense to include URLs for these sources, we recommend omitting the URLs. Good luck on your project!

Ray 02 September 2023 AT 10:09 AM

As a /student/ of word origins my brain grates on placing a URL, or any surrogate of a web address, under the heading "Bibliography." I am at the precipice of just putting everything under the heading "References" but that seems akin to just throwing everything into a jumble (like Fibber McGee's closet). My neological itch to have a term for resources only found on the web ("Reverso" might be such a resource) needs a remedy. "Bookmarks" "Links" Any ideas?

Kate 08 February 2024 AT 10:02 PM

Hi! Is this article still accurate in MLA 9? This is what I have been using in my classes, but all of my fellow teachers are telling students to truncate links.

Syed Ahmed 20 February 2024 AT 09:02 PM

Hello! My question is... Can I shorten the URLs using services like "tiny.url" for clarity?

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• Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples

Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples

Published on 19 May 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 7 November 2022.

To reference a website in Harvard style , include the name of the author or organization, the year of publication, the title of the page, the URL, and the date on which you accessed the website.

Different formats are used for other kinds of online source, such as articles, social media posts and multimedia content. You can generate accurate Harvard references for all kinds of sources with our free reference generator:

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Table of contents

Online articles, social media posts, images, videos and podcasts, referencing websites with missing information, frequently asked questions about harvard website references.

Blog posts and online newspaper articles are both referenced in the same format: include the title of the article in quotation marks, the name of the blog or newspaper in italics, and the date of publication.

The format for a magazine article is slightly different. Instead of a precise date, include the month, season, or volume and issue number, depending on what the magazine uses to identify its issues.

The URL and access date information are included only when the article is online-exclusive.

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To reference posts from social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, include the username and the platform in square brackets. Write usernames the way they appear on the platform, with the same capitalization and symbols.

If the post has a title, use it (in quotation marks). If the post is untitled, use the text of the post instead. Do not use italics. If the text is long, you can replace some of it with an ellipsis.

Online content is referenced differently if it is in video, audio or image form.

To cite an image found online, such as an artwork, photograph, or infographic, include the image format (e.g. ‘Photograph’, ‘Oil on canvas’) in square brackets.

Online videos, such as those on YouTube, Instagram, Vimeo and Dailymotion, are cited similarly to general web pages. Where a video is uploaded under the name of an individual, write the name in the usual format. Otherwise, write the username of the uploader as it appears on the site.

If you want to locate a specific point in a video in an in-text citation, you can do so using a timestamp.

For a podcast reference, you just need the name of the individual episode, not of the whole series. The word ‘Podcast’ is always included in square brackets. As with videos, you can use a timestamp to locate a specific point in the in-text citation.

Online sources are often missing information you would usually need for a citation: author, title or date. Here’s what to do when these details are not available.

When a website doesn’t list a specific individual author, you can usually find a corporate author to list instead. This is the organisation responsible for the source:

In cases where there’s no suitable corporate author (such as online dictionaries or Wikis), use the title of the source in the author position instead:

In Harvard style, when a source doesn’t list a specific date of publication, replace it with the words ‘no date’ in both the in-text citation and the reference list. You should still include an access date:

It’s important to assess the reliability of information found online. Look for sources from established publications and institutions with expertise (e.g. peer-reviewed journals and government agencies).

The CRAAP test (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, purpose) can aid you in assessing sources, as can our list of credible sources . You should generally avoid citing websites like Wikipedia that can be edited by anyone – instead, look for the original source of the information in the “References” section.

You can generally omit page numbers in your in-text citations of online sources which don’t have them. But when you quote or paraphrase a specific passage from a particularly long online source, it’s useful to find an alternate location marker.

For text-based sources, you can use paragraph numbers (e.g. ‘para. 4’) or headings (e.g. ‘under “Methodology”’). With video or audio sources, use a timestamp (e.g. ‘10:15’).

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

A Harvard in-text citation should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source.

The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

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Caulfield, J. (2022, November 07). Reference a Website in Harvard Style | Templates & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 26 August 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-website-reference/

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Home ➔ Citation Questions ➔ Citing a Website in an Essay — APA and MLA Reference Guide

Citing a Website in an Essay — APA and MLA Reference Guide

Building a strong house starts with a sturdy foundation. Similarly, writing a good essay requires reliable information. Your citations and references prove to your reader that your ideas are based on facts. Searching for solid information can take time, but the Internet makes it easier by offering a wide range of sources.

You’ll find not only digital versions of print materials but also lots of content that’s only online, like blogs or research reports. To use this information in your essay, you need to know how to cite a website in an essay properly. This article will show you how to do that. We’ll focus on how to cite in two common styles, APA and MLA.

Note: Examples below are for the reference list entry only. For in-text citation guidelines, check — How to Cite a Source in an Essay .

Understanding the Essential Elements

When citing websites in your essay, it’s important to grasp the key components of a proper citation. So, what are these essential elements? Let’s break it down.

• Author: The first piece of the puzzle is the author’s name. If available, this typically includes the last name and initials of the author. Sometimes, you might have an organization or a company as the author. Remember, proper citation respects the hard work of the original creator.
• Date: The next element is the publication date. This is the year, and often the month and day, when the content was published or last updated. Dates are crucial as they allow readers to determine the timeliness and relevance of the source.
• Site Name: The name of the website where the content is published.
• Title: Here, we’re talking about the title of the web page or article. Be accurate and copy the article title exactly as it appears on the website. Remember, it’s a direct reflection of the content.
• Source: Finally, where did you find the information? This could be the website’s URL. This helps readers trace back to the original source if they wish.
• Page Number: If the source includes numbered pages, paragraphs, or sections, these details are included, particularly in direct quotations.
• Retrieval Date: For online sources that are likely to change over time (like a Wiki page), APA style recommends adding a retrieval date.

The order and format of these elements may vary between APA and MLA styles, but their inclusion remains a constant across both. Understanding these components is the first step in mastering the art of proper citation. Stay tuned as we delve deeper into the specific rules of each style in the following sections.

How to Cite a Website in APA

Citing a website in APA (American Psychological Association) style involves several key steps. Let’s walk through them.

• Example: Johnson, A. B., & Smith, C. D.
• Example: (2023, January 1)
• Example: How to bake bread at home
• Example: Baking 101
• Example: https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home

The final website citation would look like this:

Johnson, A. B., & Smith, C. D. (2023, January 1). How to bake bread at home. Baking 101. https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home

Remember to adhere to your institution’s guidelines for font and line spacing. Most often, APA citations are double-spaced and use a standard font, like 12-point Times New Roman.

That’s the basics of citing web pages in APA style. But remember, more complex situations will require additional rules. For example, multiple authors, no author, or no date all have their own guidelines.

• Example: How to bake bread at home. (2023, January 1). Baking 101. https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home
• Example: Johnson, A. B., & Smith, C. D. (n.d.). How to bake bread at home. Baking 101. https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home
• Example: Johnson, A. B., Smith, C. D., & Lee, E. F. (2023, January 1). How to bake bread at home. Baking 101. https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home
• Example: American Baking Association. (2023, January 1). How to bake bread at home. Baking 101. https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home
• Example: American Baking Association. (2023, January 1). How to bake bread at home. Baking 101. Retrieved June 24, 2023, from https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home

These are just common exceptions. Always refer to an APA style guide or manual for the most accurate and up-to-date website citation rules.

How to Cite a Website in MLA

The Modern Language Association (MLA) format for citing websites involves several key steps, with variations for certain exceptions. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

• Example: Johnson, Amy B., and Charles D. Smith.
• Example: “How to Bake Bread at Home.”
• Example: Baking 101,
• Example: Johnson Publishing,
• Example: 1 Jan. 2023,
• Example: www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home

Johnson, Amy B., and Charles D. Smith. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, Johnson Publishing, 1 Jan. 2023, www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .

Remember to follow the formatting guidelines provided by your institution, but generally, MLA citations are double-spaced and use a legible font like Times New Roman.

Now, let’s go over the exceptions:

• “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, Johnson Publishing, 1 Jan. 2023, www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• Johnson, Amy B., et al. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, Johnson Publishing, 1 Jan. 2023, www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• American Baking Association. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, Johnson Publishing, 1 Jan. 2023, www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• Johnson, Amy B., and Charles D. Smith. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home . Accessed 25 June 2023.

Although it’s not required in every website citation, the accessed date can be a helpful piece of information to include, providing additional context about the currency of your information.

Always refer to an MLA guide or publication manual for the most accurate and up-to-date rules for citing a website. This is just a general guide and may not cover all possible scenarios you may encounter.

Bonus: How to Cite a Website in Chicago Style

Citing a website in the Chicago Manual of Style involves certain key steps. Here’s a straightforward guide to assist you, along with examples of common exceptions.

• Example: Amy B. Johnson and Charles D. Smith
• Example: “How to Bake Bread at Home”
• Example: (2023),
• DOI example: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ajae/aaq063

The final citation would look like this:

Johnson, Amy B., and Charles D. Smith. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, (2023), https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .

Now let’s consider the exceptions:

• “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, (2023), https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• Amy B. Johnson, Charles D. Smith, and Elizabeth F. Lee. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, (2023), https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• American Baking Association. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, (2023), https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .
• Amy B. Johnson and Charles D. Smith. “How to Bake Bread at Home.” Baking 101, Accessed June 26, 2023, https://www.baking101.com/bake-bread-at-home .

Please note that the above examples are for the bibliography. Footnotes or endnotes in Chicago style may differ slightly, so always be sure to check with your instructor or refer to the Chicago Manual of Style.

The list of references

• Citation Guide: How to cite Websites — Dixie State University Library
• APA Quick Citation Guide — PennState University Libraries
• Citing Internet Sources — Yale Poorvu Center of Teaching and Learning

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / APA Website Citation

How to Cite a Website in APA

This guide explains all of the important steps to referencing a website/web page in your APA research papers. The guidance below follows APA style, 7th edition.

APA format is much different than MLA format and other styles. If you need to cite websites in MLA , or you’re looking for more styles , check out the other resources on EasyBib.com!

Guide Overview

Here’s a run-through of everything this page includes:

What is a website? Am I citing a website or a web page?

Citing a website in the text (in-text citation), citing a website on the reference page, citing a general web article without an author, titles of pages on the web, extra information, publisher information, web addresses and dois, apa format for online news articles, additional website citation examples, troubleshooting.

A website is a place on the Internet that holds a group of individual pages (called web pages).

Think of a website like a tree. A website is the tree, and the individual web pages are the branches. Use YouTube as an example. YouTube is the site, and the individual channel pages and video pages are the branches. Wikipedia is a site, and each article has its own individual web page on that site.

Most of the time, you aren’t trying to cite a whole, entire site, but actually an individual web page. If you used a YouTube video to help you with your research project, you wouldn’t cite the entire YouTube site, you would cite the specific YouTube page the video was found on.

Here’s a similar question we’re often asked when it comes to the APA citation of a web page:

Q: This page describes citing specific pages and articles. Can I cite an entire site?

A: According to the APA manual (7th edition), it is not necessary to cite a site in its entirety in a reference list. Instead, include a reference to the website in the body of your paper and cite any web page individually.

The Department of Justice has just released a new site called ReportCrime.gov at https://www.reportcrime.gov/ to help people identify and report crimes in their area.

In the above passage, the website is stated in the text rather than cited. This guide focuses on how to cite individual pages found on the web (web pages). If you used an entire website, it’s perfectly acceptable to cite the whole site in the text of your paper, as shown above, but for the most part, you want to cite the page where the information was found.

If you’re seeking out an APA citation website to take the stress away from proper referencing, try out EasyBib.com! Stop typing into the search bar, “how to cite a website APA” or “APA in-text citation website.” EasyBib.com is the answer to your referencing questions and needs!

When you include a piece of information from a site in your project, you must include two citations: a brief citation in the text and also a full citation on the reference page.

When it comes to mentions in the text, students are sometimes tempted to put the web address in the body of a project. However, URLs can be long, clunky, and distracting. They should never be written in the body of a project.

Instead of writing the full address in the text, use the last name of the author and the date the source was published. If no author is shown, write the title of the individual page and the date.

For direct quotations, you may use paragraphs to indicate the quotation’s location in the work. Count the paragraphs manually if needed and use the abbreviation “para.” for paragraph.

Check out this in-text citation APA website example:

                 Cite your source

The above APA website in-text citation (the author’s last name and the date the information was published) corresponds to the information on the final page of the project, the reference page.

Here’s how the full APA citation for a web page looks on the final page of the project:

Need more in-text citation APA website info? Here’s more on how to build an APA parenthetical citation . You may also like our full-length guide on how to create an APA in-text citation .

If you’re looking for information on structuring other styles in the text of your paper, check out our page on MLA in-text and parenthetical citations .

In the next section of this APA citation website guide, we’re going to focus on how to format an APA website citation. If you’re wondering how to create an APA citation of a web page, the majority of web references use the structure shown below.

General structure for how to cite a website in APA

Note: A retrieval date is no longer required for online sources. It’s only needed if the content is likely to change over time (such as wikis and social media). The article or page title should be italicized. The URL is at the end and does not have a period after it.

Full reference example:

View Screenshot | Cite your source

Example of an in-text citation for a website in APA:

If you’re looking for an APA format website to do the work for you, try out EasyBib.com’s citation generator. Our APA citation website makes referencing a breeze!

APA citation for website structure:

Do you need to cite a source with no author in APA ? No problem. Wikipedia pages, online dictionary sites, and online encyclopedia sites are just a few examples of sites without an author. When there is no clear individual author, use the website organization (group author) as the author.

Group authors

There are plenty of times when an individual’s name isn’t listed as the author, but the information on the site is written by a group, organization, or company.

In an APA website citation, it is completely acceptable to use the group’s name in the author position. Type it out in its entirety and add a period at the end. Check out the various APA citation of web page examples at the bottom of the page to see group authors in action!

Note: If the author name and website name is the same, just list it once in as the author; leave out the website name section in the APA citation. 

APA citation for website example:

If you’re wondering whether to include the full date in your APA citation for web pages (month, day, and year) or just the year, we have the answer for you here.

An APA citation of web page reference includes the month, day, and year if it’s a site that is updated with new information frequently. Blog posts, newspaper articles, posts from social media profiles, and YouTube videos are just a few of the sources that would display the full date. In an APA citation for web pages, it’s written in this order in parentheses: (Year, Month Day).

If there is any information missing, simply include what is available. Also, if there is no date , indicate this by using (n.d.).

No date APA website example:

If you’re using the EasyBib citation generator to create an APA citation for a web page, our technology structures dates for you in their proper order. It’s the APA format website (and also the APA in-text citation website) you’ve been waiting for. Give it a whirl!

Here’s the advice we provide on many of our guides:

• If the source you are citing is a standalone source, meaning an entire book, television series, or film, the title of such sources should be in italics.
• If, however, you are citing a piece of a larger source, i.e., a journal article, a page on a site, or an episode of a show, the title should be in sentence case and not in italics.

Long story short, do not italicize an APA citation for web pages’ title in the text and on the final page of references.

For full references on the final page of the project, only include capital letters at the beginning of the title, at the beginning of each proper noun, and at the beginning of the first word in the subtitle.

The title is written in the text only when there isn’t an author listed. So, instead of showing the reference as (Author, Date), use (“Title of Page,” Date) in any APA citation for web pages. Notice the switch from sentence case to title case in the text reference.

A little extra information goes a long way when it comes to site citations. If you’re including a unique source type, include information about the medium directly after the title. This information is placed in brackets. Only the first letter is capitalized.

Here are a few examples you might see in an APA citation for a web page:

[Image attached]

[Infographic]

[Status update]

To see some of the extra information in action, scroll down to the examples towards the bottom of this page.

Speaking of extra information, it may not hurt to get some extra details on grammar topics in that brain of yours. Brush up on your adjective , pronoun , and interjection knowledge with our comprehensive guides!

Any information related to the publisher is not invited to the web citation party. In an APA citation of a web page, you do not need to include information about the company that made the site, where its offices are located, or any other similar information about the company in any web references. One thing less to worry about in your APA citation for web pages!

Other source types are much different, so before you exclude publisher information from all of your references, make sure you check out our APA citation page. While you’re at it, check out our other helpful resources, such as APA reference page  and MLA works cited .

We also need a web address and DOI number in an APA citation for a web page. Including site addresses and DOIs are an absolute necessity. Addresses and DOIs (which stand for direct object identifiers) are usually the last item in an APA website citation.

For sites, after adding the full URL to the APA citation for a web page, do not end it with a period. If the address is very long, it is acceptable to roll it onto the next line, but break it up so that a type of punctuation mark or symbol is the first item closest to the left margin. Check out the APA citation of a webpage URL below.

APA citation of a webpage example of a properly structured URL:

DOI numbers are assigned by publishers to electronic sources such as journal articles, e-books, datasets, and more. They’re a string of numbers and sometimes other characters. If the source you’re using has a DOI number assigned to it, place it at the end of the APA website citation, instead of the URL, in this format: https://doi.org/10.XXXXXXXXX. Place the DOI string in place of the X’s shown above.

DOIs were created to combat the problem of broken links and 404 errors (pages taken down). Think about it: if a webpage is taken off of the Internet, it can be pretty difficult to find a copy of it. If you’re lucky, an archive site may have a copy stored somewhere, but for the most part, when sites are gone, they’re gone. DOIs are permanent, making them the ideal choice to include in any APA citation for webpages.

APA properly structured DOI:

APA differentiates between traditional newspapers that are online versus news websites with no daily/weekly/monthly newspaper or magazine edition. Unsure what you’re citing? Follow this decision tree:

• YES –> Cite it as a newspaper article.
• NO –> Cite it as a web page or a news site article.
• NO –> Cite it as a web page or news site article.

Online news article APA example:

News sites with no associated daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited like a web page. That means the article title is italicized and the publisher/site name is in plan font. This format applies to articles from these sites:

• MSNBC Fox News

Newspaper article online APA example:

Sites associated with a daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited as a newspaper article. That means the article title is in plain font and the publisher/site name is italicized. This format applies to articles from these sites:

• The New York Times
• The Guardian
• The Times of India
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Washington Post
• Yomiuri Shimbun

Below are various web reference examples to give you a quick visual of how pages are structured and organized. Quick reminder that if you’re trying to create a reference for an e-book found on the web, use the APA book citation page. In addition, if it’s an online article from journal, use our APA journal page.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to build your references, EasyBib.com is an APA citation website that does the work for you. Try it out and say hello to stress-free referencing and goodbye to constantly searching for “how to cite a website APA” or “how to cite APA” on search engines. The APA offers more information here .

How to cite a group/organization/company:

How to Cite a Blog Post in APA:

The structure is the same, but the format is slightly different: The blog article title is in plain text, and the name of the blog is italicized.

APA citation of a web page example for Facebook:

The text of the post is italicized, while the site name (Facebook) is in plain text.

APA citation of a web page example for Twitter:

Cite your source

If the name of the author is unknown, start the APA citation of a web page for Twitter with the username.

Need another set of eyes to check your paper for grammar and spelling edits? Not quite sure if every determiner , preposition , or conjunction is where it belongs? Check out our grammar and plagiarism checker . It’s the answer to all of your grammar questions!

If you’re still confused and typing into the search bar, “how to cite APA” or “how to cite a website APA,” try out EasyBib.com’s reference generator. It’s fast, easy, and allows you to focus on your writing and research, and less on your references. The best part? It creates both types of references. It has an in-text citation website APA generator and also a full reference generator! What are you waiting for? Go see the magic happen!

Here’s a quick video overview of how to cite a website in APA:

Solution #1: Determining the website company, the author, the publisher, or both (APA)

A website citation included in an APA-format bibliography doesn’t need a publisher, so you do not need to worry whether the website company is the publisher of a page you want to cite!

If an author isn’t credited on a given webpage, the website company should be listed as the author. This also goes for online encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.

Here’s an example for a full bibliography:

Roman empire. (2022, February 6). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire

Here is an example for an in-text citation:

(“Roman Empire,” 2022)

Solution #2: How to cite images and videos from social media in APA format

Making a bibliographic citation for a photo or video from social media is similar to making a citation for any website. Examples that fall into this category include photos, videos, or social media-specific mediums like highlights, reels, moments, or lives.

For your full citation in your bibliography, use the caption of the photo or video, up to 20 words, as the title. Denote the style of media in brackets, following the title.

For sources like Instagram Reels, Highlights, and other media whose exact date of posting is hard to discern, include the date you found and cited the photo or video rather than the original date the media was shared.

Here are examples of bibliographic citations:

World Wildlife Foundation [wwf]. (2021, October 20). This year marks our 60 years of action for people and nature. Together, we’ve done so much… [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVQQbF_KmA6/

New York Times [nytimes]. (n.d.) NYC Marathon 2021 [Highlight]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17928514339867051/

Here are the corresponding in-text citations:

(World Wildlife Foundation, 2021)

(New York Times, 2021)

Solution #3: How emojis are cited in APA format

If the website or social media post you are citing contains an emoji, keep the emoji in your full bibliographic citation without altering it.

Reference list example:

Grande, A [arianagrande]. (2021, October 18) the final #voicebattles begin tonight @nbcthevoice.🧚🏼‍♂️ thank you @kchenoweth, i love you. [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLfY_vv_3c/

In-text citation example:

(Grande, 2021)

If you have trouble pasting the emoji into your full citation, put the emoji’s name followed by the word “emoji” all in brackets within your citation instead. Use Unicode’s Emoji Charts to look up the widely accepted, technical name of the emoji you want to cite.

Grande, A [arianagrande]. the final the final #voicebattles  begin tonight  @nbcthevoice . [woman fairy emoji] thank you  @kchenoweth , i love you. [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLfY_vv_3c/

This guide is not officially associated with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, but it does provide information in line with the manual. 

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

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You will need the webpage’s author’s name, publication date, title of the page, website name, and the URL.

Here is an example with an author:

Geggel, L. (2021, July 6). A brief history of dinosaurs . LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/3945-history-dinosaurs.html

Usually, if no author is shown the website is assumed to be the author. In these cases, the website name replaces the author name in the beginning of the reference.

For example:

National Park Service. (2018, July 23). Night skies as a cultural-historical resource . https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/cultural.htm

The URL of a website is mandatory if you cite a website or a webpage. Where you include the URL depends on the type of citation. To cite a website as a general reference without any reference to a specific page or particular details, simply add the name of the website in the text and include the URL in parentheses. There is no need to add a reference list entry. However, to cite a webpage on a website, you need to provide both an in-text citation and a reference list entry. Do not add the URL in the in-text citation. Just add the author’s name and year. The URL is given only in the reference list entry. Templates for in-text citations and reference list entries of a website or webpage along with examples are given below.

Website as a general reference

In-text style:

We took the data from the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (https://censusindia.gov.in/).

Webpage of a website

In-text citation templates and examples:

Author Surname (publication year)

Skelton (2017)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, publication year)

(Skelton, 2017)

Note that month and day are not mentioned in in-text citations.

Reference list entry template and example:

Author Surname, F. M. (Year, Month Day). Title of the webpage. Name of the Site. URL

Skelton, R. (2017, February 16). Fact check’s return perfect timing in ‘post truth’ age. ABC Opinion. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-16/fact-check-return-perfect-timing-in-post-truth-age/8277268

APA Citation Examples

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Webpage on a Website References

This page contains reference examples for webpages, including the following:

• Webpage on a news website
• Comment on a webpage on a news website
• Webpage on a website with a government agency group author
• Webpage on a website with an organizational group author
• Webpage on a website with an individual author
• Webpage on a website with a retrieval date

1. Webpage on a news website

Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies . HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e

Roberts, N. (2020, June 10). Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, qualifies to run for elected office . BET News. https://www.bet.com/news/national/2020/06/10/trayvon-martin-mother-sybrina-fulton-qualifies-for-office-florid.html

Toner, K. (2020, September 24). When Covid-19 hit, he turned his newspaper route into a lifeline for senior citizens . CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/us/coronavirus-newspaper-deliveryman-groceries-senior-citizens-cnnheroes-trnd/index.html

• Parenthetical citations : (Bologna, 2019; Roberts, 2020; Toner, 2020)
• Narrative citations : Bologna (2019), Roberts (2020), and Toner (2020)
• Use this format for articles from news websites. Common examples are BBC News, BET News, Bloomberg, CNN, HuffPost, MSNBC, Reuters, Salon, and Vox. These sites do not have associated daily or weekly newspapers.
• Use the newspaper article category for articles from newspaper websites such as The New York Times or The Washington Post .
• Provide the writer as the author.
• Provide the specific date the story was published.
• Provide the title of the news story in italic sentence case.
• List the name of the news website in the source element of the reference.
• End the reference with the URL.

2. Comment on a webpage on a news website

Owens, L. (2020, October 7). I propose a bicycle race between Biden and Trump [Comment on the webpage Here’s what voters make of President Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis ]. HuffPost. https://www.spot.im/s/00QeiyApEIFa

• Parenthetical citation : (Owens, 2020)
• Narrative citation : Owens (2020)
• Credit the person who left the comment as the author using the format that appears with the comment (i.e., a real name and/or a username). The example shows a real name.
• Provide the specific date the comment was published.
• Provide the comment title or up to the first 20 words of the comment in standard font. Then in square brackets write “Comment on the webpage” and the title of the webpage on which the comment appeared in sentence case and italics.
• Provide the name of the news website in the source element of the reference.
• Link to the comment itself if possible. Otherwise, link to the webpage on which the comment appears. Either a full URL or a short URL is acceptable.

3. Webpage on a website with a government agency group author

National Institute of Mental Health. (2018, July). Anxiety disorders . U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

• Parenthetical citation : (National Institute of Mental Health, 2018)
• Narrative citation : National Institute of Mental Health (2018)
• For a page on a government website without individual authors, use the specific agency responsible for the webpage as the author.
• The names of parent agencies not present in the author element appear in the source element (in the example, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health). This creates concise in-text citations and complete reference list entries.
• Provide as specific a date as possible for the webpage.
• Some online works note when the work was last updated. If this date is clearly attributable to the specific content you are citing rather than the overall website, use the updated date in the reference.
• Do not include a date of last review in a reference because content that has been reviewed has not necessarily been changed. If a date of last review is noted on a work, ignore it for the purposes of the reference.
• Italicize the title of the webpage.

4. Webpage on a website with an organizational group author

World Health Organization. (2018, May 24) . The top 10 causes of death . https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

• Parenthetical citation : (World Health Organization, 2018)
• Narrative citation : World Health Organization (2018)
• For a page from an organization’s website without individual authors, use the name of the organization as the author.
• Because the author of the webpage and the site name are the same, omit the site name from the source element to avoid repetition.

5. Webpage on a website with an individual author

Horovitz, B. (2021, October 19). Are you ready to move your aging parent into your home? AARP. https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/home-care/info-2021/caregiving-questions.html

Schaeffer, K. (2021, October 1). What we know about online learning and the homework gap amid the pandemic. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/10/01/what-we-know-about-online-learning-and-the-homework-gap-amid-the-pandemic/

• Parenthetical citations : (Horovitz, 2021; Schaeffer, 2021)
• Narrative citations : Horovitz (2021) and Schaeffer (2021)
• When individual author(s) are credited on the webpage, list them as the author in the reference.
• Provide the site name in the source element of the reference.

6. Webpage on a website with a retrieval date

U.S. Census Bureau. (n.d.). U.S. and world population clock . U.S. Department of Commerce. Retrieved January 9, 2020, from https://www.census.gov/popclock/

• Parenthetical citation : (U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.)
• Narrative citation : U.S. Census Bureau (n.d.)
• When contents of a page are designed to change over time but are not archived, include a retrieval date in the reference.

Webpage references are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 10.16 and the Concise Guide Section 10.14

Thursday, February 23: The Clark Library is closed today.

APA Style (7th Edition) Citation Guide: Websites

• Introduction
• Journal Articles
• Magazine/Newspaper Articles
• Books & Ebooks
• Government & Legal Documents
• Biblical Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Films/Videos/TV Shows
• How to Cite: Other
• Additional Help

Table of Contents

Entire Website - No Separate Pages or Sections

Page or Section from a Website

Note: All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

This Microsoft support page contains instructions about how to format a hanging indent in a paper.

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day.

If an original publication date and a last updated date are provided, use the last updated date. If the more current date is "last reviewed" instead of "last updated," use the original publication date (since the review may not have changed the content).

If there is no date provided, put the letters (n.d.) in round brackets where you'd normally put the date.

Titles should be italicized when the document stands alone (e.g. books, reports, websites, etc.), but not when it is part of a greater whole (e.g. chapters, articles, webpages, etc.).

Website Name

Provide website names in title case without italics after titles of work. Include a period after the website name, followed by the URL. When the author of the work is the same as the website name, omit the site name from the reference.

Retrieval Date

If the content of a website is likely to change over time (e.g. Wikis), you must provide the date you last visited the website.

If a URL is too long to fit onto one line, try to break it at a slash (/).

Entire Website

Note: If you are quoting or paraphrasing part of a website, you should create a reference for a Page or Section. If you mention a website in general, do not create a reference list entry or an in-text citation. Instead, include the name of the website in the text and provide the URL in parentheses.

The Department of Justice has a site called ReportCrime.gov (https://www.reportcrime.gov/) to help people identify and report crimes in their area.

Note : If you cite multiple webpages from a website, create a reference for each. Include the date you retrieved the information if the content is likely to change over time.

Created by a Corporate or Group Author

Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website Name. URL

Example in which the content is unlikely to change over time:

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims . https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims

Example in which the content is likely to change over time:

Adidas. (2020). Sustainability . Retrieved January 23, 2020, from https://www.adidas.com/us/sustainability

Note: When the author and site name are the same, omit the site name in the reference.

In-Text Paraphrase:

(Corporation/Group's Name, Year)

Example: (Adidas, 2020)

In-Text Quote:

(Corporation/Group's Name, year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: (Adidas, 2020, Sustainability section, para. 1)

Note: When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from.

Abbreviating Corporation/Group Author Name in In-Text citations:

Author names for corporations/groups can often be abbreviated. The first time you refer to the author, provide the full name, along with the abbreviation.

If the group name appears in the text of your paper, include the abbreviation in the in-text parenthetical citation:

Example: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA, 2019) assisted in the rescue of 40 dogs.

If the group name first appears within a parenthetical citation, include the full group name as well as the abbreviation in square brackets:

Example: Forty dogs were rescued in Bendena, Kansas (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals [ASPCA], 2019).

Provide the full group name (without an abbreviation) in the reference list entry: 

Created by an Individual Author 

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any). Website Name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist . Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

Shillam, S. (2018). Message from the Dean . University of Portland. Retrieved October 1, 2018, from https://nursing.up.edu/about/index.html

(Author Last Name, Year)

Example: (Shillam, 2018)

(Author Last Name, Year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: (Shillam, 2018, Message from the dean section, para. 2)

Created by an Unknown Author 

Title of page: Subtitle (if any). (Year website was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Website Name. URL

Example in which the content is unlikely to change over time (because the restaurant has closed) :

Jarra's Ethiopian Restaurant [Reviews]. (2012, November 9). Yelp. https://www.yelp.com/biz/jarras-ethiopian-restaurant-portland

Powell's City of Books [Reviews]. (2020, February 25). Yelp. Retrieved February 28, 2020, from https://www.yelp.com/biz/powells-city-of-books-portland-4

("Title," Year)

Example: ("Powell's City of Books," 2020)

("Title," Year, Section Name section, para. Paragraph Number if more than one paragraph in section)

Example: ("Powell's City of Books," 2020, Review Highlights)

Note: When there are no visible page numbers or paragraph numbers, you may cite the section heading and the number of the paragraph in that section to identify where your quote came from. In this example, there is only one paragraph under the specific heading, so no paragraph number is needed.

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• Last Updated: Aug 25, 2024 9:56 PM
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• Bibliography Answers

How to cite a website in APA, MLA, or Harvard style

There are many different ways to cite a website, depending on which citation style you need to format it in.

 The easy way to cite a website in any citation style

Use our citation generator below to automatically cite a website in any style, including APA, MLA 7 and 8, and Harvard. Just select the style you need, copy the URL into the search box, and press search. We’ll do the rest.

 The manual way to cite a website

To cite a website by hand just follow the instructions below. For the 3 most popular styles–APA, MLA 8, and Harvard–this is as follows:

 In APA style

You need to locate these details for the website: page or article author, page or article title, website name, published date, access date, page URL (web address) .

• The author can typically be found on the page, but if there isn’t one listed you can use the website name in its place.
• The page title can be found near the top of the page, and you can also find it by hovering your mouse over the browser tab.
• The website name can usually be found in the web address or by looking for a logo or similar at the very top of the page.
• There often isn’t a publish date , but if there is it’ll be very close to the page title.
• The access date is the date you took information from the article (usually today).
• The page URL can be copied straight from the address bar of your browser and will start with either http:// or https://.

Then use this template, replacing the colored placeholders with the information you found on the page:

Author last name , author first name initial . ( published year , published month and day ). Page title . Retrieved accessed month and day , accessed year , from article URL .

The final formatted citation should look like this:

Ingle, S. (2018, February 11). Winter Olympics was hit by cyber-attack, officials confirm. Retrieved July 24, 2018, from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/11/winter-olympics-was-hit-by-cyber-attack-officials-confirm.

For a more comprehensive guide, including what to do when you can’t find certain details, have a look at our more in-depth guide to citing a website in APA format .

 In MLA 8 style

Here are the specific details you need to find on the page: page or article author, page or article title, website name, published date, access date, page URL (web address) .

Then use this template:

Author last name , author first name . “ Page title .” website name , published date day, month, year , page URL . Accessed accessed date day, month, year .

Ingle, Sean. “Winter Olympics Was Hit by Cyber-Attack, Officials Confirm.” The Guardian , 11 Feb. 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/11/winter-olympics-was-hit-by-cyber-attack-officials-confirm. Accessed 13 July 2018.

For a more comprehensive guide, including what to do when you can’t find certain details, have a look at our more in-depth guide to citing a website in MLA 8 format .

 In Harvard style

First, find these details for the website: page or article author, page or article title, website name, published date, access date, page URL (web address) .

Author last name , author firstname initial ( published date year ). Page title . [online] website name . Available at: page URL [Accessed accessed date day, month, year ].

Ingle, S. (2018). Winter Olympics was hit by cyber-attack, officials confirm . [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/11/winter-olympics-was-hit-by-cyber-attack-officials-confirm [Accessed 13 Jul. 2018].

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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How to Reference Essays

Last Updated: January 8, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alexander Peterman, MA . Alexander Peterman is a Private Tutor in Florida. He received his MA in Education from the University of Florida in 2017. There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 377,268 times.

When you begin writing a research essay, you must take into account the format of your writing and reference pages. There are several reference styles that may be assigned to you, including MLA (Modern Language Association), APA (American Psychological Association), and Chicago. Each one has its own set of rules. There's no need to familiarize yourself with all 3 unless you have to, but you do need to learn at least one if you’re in any field involving academic writing. Here are summaries of each style to help you start your essay on the right track.

Referencing Essays Templates

• You will need a citation directly after every sentence (or group of sentences if you're citing the same source in multiple consecutive sentences) containing information you didn't think of yourself. These include: paraphrases, facts, statistics, quotes, and examples.
• An in-text citation using MLA will simply have the author last name (or title if no author) followed by the page number. No comma between author and page number. For example: (Richards 456) Richards is the author last name, and 456 is the page number.
• If you have an author name (or title, if no author) but no page number, simply use author last name (or title).

• The easiest way to keep track of MLA citations while doing research is to copy and paste copyright information into a word processing document as you go, or to write it down in a notebook.
• Things to include for any source are author(s), date published, publisher, page number, volume and issue number, website, date accessed, anything that appears on the copyright page or indicates how to find it again. [2] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• As an example, the format for a standard book citation using MLA style is as follows: Last name of author, First name. Title of Book. City published: Publisher Name, Year published. Source Medium.
• An MLA website citation looks like the following. If there's no author listed, begin citation with the name of the page: Last name, first name. "Page Title." Website Title. Publisher. Date published. Source Medium. Date accessed.
• An MLA scholarly article citation looks like the following: Last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal . Volume.Issue (Year): page numbers. Source Medium.
• Write the title of the main work (book, magazine, journal, website, etc.) in italics, or underline if you’re writing references by hand.
• Chapter or article titles should be in quotation marks.

• If there is no author listed, as is common on websites, simply skip the author’s name and begin the entry with the title of the work.
• Alphabetize by the first letter that appears in the entry, whether it has an author name or not.

• The formatting should be in Times New Roman font, size 12, with “Works Cited” centered at the top of a new page.
• Each entry should have hanging indent, meaning all lines below the first line are indented by half an inch.
• Make sure there is a period after each section of the citations. A period should always end the citation.

• Place a parenthetical citation at the end of every sentence (or group of sentences if you're using the same source for multiple consecutive sentences) containing information you didn't know before doing research.
• An in-text citation using APA will simply have the author last name (or title if no author) followed by the year it was published. No comma between name and year. For example: (Richards 2005) Richards is the author last name, and 2005 is the year.
• If you have an author name (or title if no author) but no page number, simply use author last name (or title). This is common when citing websites.
• APA document formatting is very important. APA papers are divided up into 4 sections: the title page, the abstract, the main body, and the references page. The citations of a research paper using APA appear in the References section, the last portion of an APA document. [7] X Research source

• To form APA reference page citations, you will need such information as author name(s), date published, website URL, date you accessed the website, title of work, and so on. [8] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source

• For example, the format for an APA reference of a scholarly journal article is as follows: Author last name, First initial. (Year published). Article or chapter title. Journal or book title, Issue number , page number range. [10] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• The format for an APA book reference looks like: Last name, First name. (Year.) Title of Book: Capital letter also for subtitle . Location: Publisher.
• The format for an APA website reference looks like: Author, A.A. First name, & Author, B.B. (Date published.) Title of article. In Title of webpage or larger document or book (chapter or section number). Retrieved from URL address

• Capitalize the author's last name and first initial, followed by a period.
• Only capitalize the first word of a journal article title, unless the title contains a proper noun (called sentence case). Titles of books should preserve the published capitalization.
• Capitalize the city of publication, and use correct state abbreviations for states. Also capitalize the name of the publisher and end the reference with a period.
• The title of larger works, whether a book, journal, website, or magazine, is in italics (or underlined if handwriting), as is the issue number that appears right after the title. Titles for shorter works like articles and chapters should not have any indicative punctuation in an APA entry. [12] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• A period should end all citations.

Using Chicago Manual of Style

• For Notes and Bibliography, you will use a superscript at the instance of each quote in the text with a corresponding footnote at the end of the page. All footnotes are compiled into endnotes at the end of the work, on the bibliography page. [14] X Trustworthy Source Purdue Online Writing Lab Trusted resource for writing and citation guidelines Go to source
• For Author Date, you will use parenthetical in-text citations that include author last name and year published, using no punctuation between name and year. The full version of each parenthetical citation is listed alphabetically on the references page. For example: (Simon 2011) Simon is the author last name, and 2011 is the year.
• You will need a citation directly after every sentence (or group of sentences if you're using the same source for multiple consecutive sentences) containing information you didn't think of yourself. These include: paraphrases, facts, statistics, quotes, and examples.

• If using a book, write down all pertinent information found on the copyright page, including the name of the publisher and the city and year of publication.
• For other sources, look for this information near the title of the piece you’re looking at. Publication date is often at the bottom of webpages.

• Title your references page “Bibliography” centered at the top of the page. Leave 2 blank lines between this title and the first entry, and one blank line between entries.
• Notes and Bibliography style uses footnotes for page endings and endnotes for chapter endings. The bibliography page will be an alphabetized list of all sources in hanging indent.
• An example format for a book is as follows: Last name, First name. Book Title . City: Publisher, Year.
• An example format for a chapter in a print scholarly journal is as follows: Author last name, first name. "Title of Chapter or Article." Book or journal Title Issue Number (Year): Page number range. (For an online scholarly journal article, tack on the following at the end: Date accessed. URL address.)
• When there is no known author, the entry should begin with the title of the document, whether it's a webpage, chapter, article, and so on.
• When there are multiple authors, the first listed author appears last name, first name, so that the citation is alphabetized by this author's last name. Subsequent authors are listed by first name, like this: Alcott, Louisa May, Charles Dickens, and Elizabeth Gaskell.
• Always end a citation with a period.

• When using Author Date style, title your references page “References” centered at the top of the page. Leave 2 blank lines between this title and the first entry, and 1 blank line between entries.
• Author Date style bibliographies should be organized alphabetically by last name (or by title if no author) in hanging indent.
• An example format for a book is as follows: Last name, first name. Year. Book Title . City Published: Publisher.
• An example format for a chapter in a print scholarly journal is as follows: Author last name, first name. Year. "Title of Chapter or Article." Book or journal title issue number: page numbers. (for an online scholarly journal article tack this onto the end: Date accessed. URL address.)
• An example format for a website is as follows: Name of Website. Year. "Page Title." Date last modified. Date accessed. URL address.

Expert Q&A

• You don't have to write each bibliography or reference entry on your own. You can download citation management software like Endnote [17] X Research source (purchase required on this one), Zotero [18] X Research source (it's free), or use websites like http://www.bibme.org/ and http://www.easybib.com/ . Select the name of your style manual before you begin creating citations. Copy and paste the citation into your bibliography or references list. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• If you are assigned to write a paper or other written document in one of these styles, you need to purchase the style manual. It will contain nearly every instance not only of source citation, but paper formatting as well as grammar and punctuation that is unique to that style. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

• This article only lists how to cite research for each style manual. Each style has its own instructions for setting up the format of the essay, including heading, spacing, margins, font, and so on. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_page_books.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/in_text_citations_author_authors.html
• ↑ https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html
• ↑ https://libguides.jcu.edu.au/apa/reference-list
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_basic_rules.html
• ↑ https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/chicago_manual_17th_edition/cmos_formatting_and_style_guide/chicago_manual_of_style_17th_edition.html
• ↑ http://guides.nyu.edu/c.php?g=276562&p=1844734
• ↑ http://endnote.com
• ↑ https://www.zotero.org

About This Article

To reference an essay using MLA style, add a citation after any information you found through a source, like facts or quotes. When citing the reference, include the author’s name and the page number you pulled the information from in parenthesis, like “(Richards 456).” Once you’ve finished your essay, add a Words Cited page with all of the information you used to research your essay, like books or articles. To create a Works Cited page, list the sources in alphabetical order using the author’s last name, and include additional information, like year published and the medium. For more tips from our Writing reviewer, like how to reference an essay using APA style, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How should I include a list of links in my thesis?

In my thesis, I would like to refer to a set of links. These are tools/calculators/etc. related to my subject, included to show that there is an interest in society at large in this topic.

I'm wondering what the best way would be to include them. Options include:

• all (15+) in the running text is cumbersome;
• a table with only one column looks just plain weird;
• as references [1,3-5,76] breaks the flow of reading, and mixes them up with formal, cited literature sources. I would not suggest that these links are quality sources of anything, their simple existence is the point;
• as an appendix diminishes their impact.
• writing-style
• citation-style

• 1 Welcome to Academia. I edited the title and tags of your question. Please feel free to edit it or roll it back to a previous version. –  enthu Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 9:17
• 2 I noticed, this title is definitely better. Thanks :) –  Jakob Buis Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 9:21

4 Answers 4

Personally, I am in favour of adding them as references in the bibliography section.

With that said, I am from a CS subfield that is very close to the "real world" in a way that related work is almost always a motley mixture of peer-reviewed publications, books, newspaper articles, technical standard documents (such as those by W3C), and actual innovative software or websites (whose concepts were never formally published in a scientific venue), i.e. sources with a continuously varying degree of reliability. Consequently, trying to find a well-defined rule about what to add as a footnote and what to add as a bibliography reference is certain to give you headaches (and uncertain to lead to a useful and consistent result).

However, I can see a few (maybe a bit subjective) general advantages of using bibliography items rather than footnotes for links (in no particular order):

• Bibliography items tend to more or less have a fixed format. Frequently, meta-information such as year of publication or author can be provided for web resources just as it can for anything else. When using a footnote, authors may be tempted to just provide the link and skip the meta-information that would be naturally included in a bibliography item, thereby foregoing both any due attribution and any information required to possibly locate the resource again, should the link die.
• I have seen styleguides that generally forbid the use of footnotes (e.g. "Please do not use footnotes at all!" ), but I have yet to see a styleguide that generally forbids the use of a bibliography. By not using any footnotes, your manuscript is one step closer to being agnostic of the final formatting used (and thus matches with the ideal of separating content from layout).
• The footnote can be added several times in the document. However, this means a waste of space, and it may also confuse readers who expect some new information when reading a new footnote for the first time, or who might wonder whether they are looking at a copy-and-paste error where a previously unmentioned link should be provided. Personally, I consider this "solution" downright bad style.
• The same footnote can be pointed to several times. While this may be slightly cumbersome in some typesetting software, it is definitely feasible. However, it significantly increases the effort for finding the footnote (it might be on any page in the document), and the need to switch to another page than the one the reader is currently on kind of defeats the purpose of footnotes, anyway.
• As a reader, I find keeping track of references, figure numbers, and table numbers that I still want to look into after finishing or while reading the current paragraph or section hard enough. There is no reason to add yet another independent list for footnote numbers.
• Also as a reader, I have a certain expectation what amount of information I will find when following a pointer to additional information. For bibliography references, it is clear that the pointer points to an entire external document. For footnotes, I conversely prefer it to be clear that the pointer points to no more than one or two sentences worth of additional information (for which I do not need to search for and/or open another document).

You could include them as an itemized list. Something like:

There is a lot of intest in topic XYZ, as can be seen from the following example websites:

• http://(somepersonalwebsite).xyz
• http://(department).(institution).xyz/(applicable-tool)/

It is basically a variation on the table with 1 column, but it looks less "weird".

• 1 The first link is not a deep link, the other link is 404, which shows the issue of citable URLs. –  koppor Commented Jan 8, 2021 at 9:25

I am personally more in favor of using footnotes for that purpose; I used this approach extensively in my theses.

You can use a web link for one of two purposes: to point to the website of something you mentioned, or as a reference to support a statement you make. In the latter case, a citation to a formal reference is preferred (with title, link, authorship date, and the date you last checked the link):

• Text: McDonald’s toys are A, B, and C [42].
• Reference: [42] “McDonald’s Happy Meal Toy Safety Facts,” McDonald’s Corporation, accessed July 19, 2008, xttp://www.mcdonalds.com/corp/about/factsheets.html.

But you are asking for the former case, for which I'd opt for something in the lines of:

• Text: Social network websites like Facebook¹, Twitter² of LinkedIn³ are... .
• Bottom of the page: ¹ http://www.facebook.com ² http://www.twitter.com ³ http://www.linkedin.com

• 1 The problem is that this is a "poor" thing. Web is not static and you ought to include the retrieval date to your reference. –  yo' Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 14:43
• 3 That is absolutely true for the case where you cite a web link as a reference. When the web link is just additional information, I'd waive that formality (I guess it's kind of implicit that "this was Facebook's URL as of the date this document was written"). –  d_l_b Commented Feb 23, 2015 at 11:41

I did it like bibliography using a url shortener, this way the link is usable for those who read it in paper or electronic format and will avoid many issues with the bibliography format.

One thing you should consider is to include the lasta access data to the link (they can remove it).

Just in case, you can consider adding and annex where display the URLs unshortened whit their match, so if anyone can't access any of them can try to search by ieself in the web.

• 4 But I do not think using url shortening services to be a good idea. Have you seen this question? Is it OK to present a URL using a link shortening service? –  enthu Commented Feb 20, 2015 at 13:48
• 2 Well, as I said I added both. Shortened in bibliography and unshortened as appendix –  Rafa Soler Commented Mar 31, 2015 at 20:40

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• The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples

The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples

Published on March 14, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on February 28, 2024.

An in-text citation is a short acknowledgement you include whenever you quote or take information from a source in academic writing. It points the reader to the source so they can see where you got your information.

In-text citations most commonly take the form of short parenthetical statements indicating the author and publication year of the source, as well as the page number if relevant.

We also offer a free citation generator and in-depth guides to the main citation styles.

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Table of contents

What are in-text citations for, when do you need an in-text citation, types of in-text citation, frequently asked questions about in-text citations.

The point of an in-text citation is to show your reader where your information comes from. Including citations:

• Avoids plagiarism by acknowledging the original author’s contribution
• Allows readers to verify your claims and do follow-up research
• Shows you are engaging with the literature of your field

Academic writing is seen as an ongoing conversation among scholars, both within and between fields of study. Showing exactly how your own research draws on and interacts with existing sources is essential to keeping this conversation going.

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An in-text citation should be included whenever you quote or paraphrase a source in your text.

Quoting means including the original author’s words directly in your text, usually introduced by a signal phrase . Quotes should always be cited (and indicated with quotation marks), and you should include a page number indicating where in the source the quote can be found.

Paraphrasing means putting information from a source into your own words. In-text citations are just as important here as with quotes, to avoid the impression you’re taking credit for someone else’s ideas. Include page numbers where possible, to show where the information can be found.

However, to avoid over-citation, bear in mind that some information is considered common knowledge and doesn’t need to be cited. For example, you don’t need a citation to prove that Paris is the capital city of France, and including one would be distracting.

Different types of in-text citation are used in different citation styles . They always direct the reader to a reference list giving more complete information on each source.

Author-date citations (used in APA , Harvard , and Chicago author-date ) include the author’s last name, the year of publication, and a page number when available. Author-page citations (used in MLA ) are the same except that the year is not included.

Both types are divided into parenthetical and narrative citations. In a parenthetical citation , the author’s name appears in parentheses along with the rest of the information. In a narrative citation , the author’s name appears as part of your sentence, not in parentheses.

Note: Footnote citations like those used in Chicago notes and bibliography are sometimes also referred to as in-text citations, but the citation itself appears in a note separate from the text.

An in-text citation is an acknowledgement you include in your text whenever you quote or paraphrase a source. It usually gives the author’s last name, the year of publication, and the page number of the relevant text. In-text citations allow the reader to look up the full source information in your reference list and see your sources for themselves.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

• APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
• MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
• Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

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Caulfield, J. (2024, February 28). The Basics of In-Text Citation | APA & MLA Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved August 26, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/citing-sources/in-text-citation-styles/

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Guest Essay

The Human Cost of Your Breakfast Banana

By Ignacio Gómez G.

Mr. Gómez G. is the director of “Noticias Uno,” a Colombian news program. He has covered drugs, crime and corporate corruption in Colombia for 40 years.

Although several El Espectador journalists were killed in the 1980s and ’90s, many young reporters aspired to being on the staff of the storied Colombian newspaper at the end of the 20th century. I loved working there, despite the risks. After the Medellín Cartel bombed our headquarters, my colleagues and I rescued from the rubble the desk on which Gabriel García Márquez wrote his first stories for the paper.

We dreamed that an invisible Mr. García Márquez, from that empty desk, urged us to pursue stories that would expose injustice in Colombia. In 1998, when The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the American banana company Chiquita Brands had bribed Colombian officials to obtain a license for the use of a port loading facility in Turbo, Urabá, a city on Colombia’s coast, I began investigating the firm as if Mr. García Márquez himself had handed me the assignment.

Chiquita denied the allegations of the 1998 Enquirer story. The paper later publicly apologized and renounced the investigation after it was revealed that a reporter lied about sourcing and illegally obtained voice mail records. But at El Espectador we felt that The Enquirer was on to something. We published the allegations, noting that the paper had retracted the article and the story’s reporter was being investigated by the police in Ohio. And for years — even when I left El Espectador for “Noticias Uno,” a nightly news program — I continued to look into the company. In 2002, after speaking with Nicaraguan police and military officials as well as the police in Panama, I reported that 3,000 weapons for the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing paramilitary group known as the AUC, had landed in the Urabá port from Nicaragua and that Chiquita appeared to have been aware the militants were using its facilities to receive weapons.

Now, I like to think that Mr. García Márquez would have smiled at the outcome of a Florida lawsuit against Chiquita. In June, a jury found Chiquita liable for the deaths of eight men killed by the AUC, which Chiquita helped finance. (Seventeen years earlier, the Department of Justice found that Chiquita paid the group over $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 .) The firm was ordered to pay $38.3 million in damages to the men’s families. It was the first time that Chiquita was found liable for its actions in Latin America. A representative for Chiquita, responding to questions about this essay, said that the company’s payments to the AUC were made under duress and it is appealing the verdict.

The world has known something was amiss in the banana business for a while. In Colombia, “Noticias Uno” had reported on Chiquita’s association with the AUC since the early 2000s. And while that relationship has come under legal scrutiny in the United States, Chiquita has yet to face judgment in Colombia. The Florida case raised long neglected ethical questions in both countries about the real cost of one of the least expensive fruits in American supermarkets. We should all ask ourselves: How much bloodshed is behind the bananas we eat for breakfast?

In the Urabá region, there’s been far too much. Chiquita set up an operation there, where the land to grow bananas was inexpensive, but it was forced to pay the AUC through its subsidiary in Colombia to operate safely, the company has said . In the 20th century, Fusarium wilt, a deadly fungus also known as Panama disease, destroyed banana crops in parts of the Caribbean and Central America but not in Colombia. Then, in 1998, some of Chiquita’s banana operations in Honduras and Guatemala suffered hurricane damage , costing the company $74 million. Chiquita, it seemed, accepted that paying the paramilitaries was the cost of doing business in Colombia.

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Ten Faculty Members Selected for Office of Faculty Development Scholarly Writing Fellows Program

The  Office of Faculty Development (OFD) has announced that 10 faculty members have been selected to participate in the Scholarly Writing Fellows Program for the 2024-25 academic year. As a scholarly writing fellow (SWF), the faculty member partners with OFD to catalyze interdisciplinary support for faculty writing and expand a mutual support community of writers across campus.

Faculty members selected for the SWF 2025-25 cohort are:

• Lynn Adler, professor of biology
• Jessica Barr, professor and director of the program in comparative literature
• Jess Dillard-Wright, associate professor of Nursing, associate dean of Equity & Inclusion
• Sara Jackson, associate professor and program director of German studies
• Jasmine Kerrissey, associate professor of sociology, director of the Labor Center
• Verónica Martín Ruiz, assistant professor of marketing
• Sindiso MnisiWeeks, associate professor of political science and legal studies
• Tara Pauliny, senior lecturer and interim director of the UMass Amherst Writing Program
• Katherine Reeves, professor of epidemiology, associate dean of graduate and professional studies
• Aida Villanueva, assistant professor of sociology

The fellows play a key role in continuing OFD’s ongoing mission to support faculty writing at UMass Amherst. Each fellow launches and facilitates one Writing Circle (WC) comprised of small groups of faculty members who meet weekly to write together and share progress on their writing. Each fellow represents an array of departments and disciplines and brings a unique set of writing practices and expertise to share with their circles.

Writing Circles create connections among writers while fostering sustainable writing practices. Fellows facilitate each session, providing guidance on meeting format and writing tips. In addition to supporting their colleagues, fellows benefit from dedicated time for their own scholarly writing and receive a small stipend to acknowledge their contributions.

“The SWF and WC are two of the most popular OFD programs,” says  Rebecca Dingo , senior fellow and OFD associate director. “Past participants have noted how, due to the support of the SWF and the dedicated writing time, they have submitted more grants, written more essays and finished books. Likewise, participants appreciated learning more about their colleagues’ scholarship and finding interdisciplinary connections. I am excited to get to know this stellar group of SWF and see who they each shape their Writing Circles.”

Through Sept. 6, all faculty and librarians can sign up online on the  OFD Writing Circles interest form for a Writing Circle led by a scholarly writing fellow, who will offer programming starting this fall semester. 

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format

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Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.

Basic rules

• Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name, page number header as the rest of your paper.
• Only the title should be centered. The citation entries themselves should be aligned with the left margin.
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries.
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent.
• List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list the page numbers on your Works Cited page as pp. 225-50 (Note: MLA style dictates that you should omit the first sets of repeated digits. In our example, the digit in the hundreds place is repeated between 2 25 and 2 50, so you omit the 2 from 250 in the citation: pp. 225-50). If the excerpt spans multiple pages, use “pp.”   Note that MLA style uses a hyphen in a span of pages.
• If only one page of a print source is used, mark it with the abbreviation “p.” before the page number (e.g., p. 157). If a span of pages is used, mark it with the abbreviation “pp.” before the page number (e.g., pp. 157-68).
• If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online database name in italics. You do not need to provide subscription information in addition to the database name.
• For online sources, you should include a location to show readers where you found the source. Many scholarly databases use a DOI (digital object identifier). Use a DOI in your citation if you can; otherwise use a URL. Delete “http://” from URLs. The DOI or URL is usually the last element in a citation and should be followed by a period.
• All works cited entries end with a period.

Additional basic rules new to MLA 2021

New to MLA 2021:

• Apps and databases should be cited only when they are containers of the particular works you are citing, such as when they are the platforms of publication of the works in their entirety, and not an intermediary that redirects your access to a source published somewhere else, such as another platform. For example, the Philosophy Books app should be cited as a container when you use one of its many works, since the app contains them in their entirety. However, a PDF article saved to the Dropbox app is published somewhere else, and so the app should not be cited as a container.
• If it is important that your readers know an author’s/person’s pseudonym, stage-name, or various other names,  then you should generally cite the better-known form of author’s/person’s name. For example, since the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is better-known by his pseudonym, cite Lewis Carroll opposed to Charles Dodgson (real name).
• For annotated bibliographies , annotations should be appended at the end of a source/entry with one-inch indentations from where the entry begins. Annotations may be written as concise phrases or complete sentences, generally not exceeding one paragraph in length.

Capitalization and punctuation

• Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose .
• Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)

Listing author names

Entries are listed alphabetically by the author's last name (or, for entire edited collections, editor names). Author names are written with the last name first, then the first name, and then the middle name or middle initial when needed:

Do not  list titles (Dr., Sir, Saint, etc.) or degrees (PhD, MA, DDS, etc.) with names. A book listing an author named "John Bigbrain, PhD" appears simply as "Bigbrain, John." Do, however, include suffixes like "Jr." or "II." Putting it all together, a work by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would be cited as "King, Martin Luther, Jr." Here the suffix following the first or middle name and a comma.

More than one work by an author

If you have cited more than one work by a particular author, order the entries alphabetically by title, and use three hyphens in place of the author's name for every entry after the first:

Burke, Kenneth. A Grammar of Motives . [...]

---. A Rhetoric of Motives . [...]

When an author or collection editor appears both as the sole author of a text and as the first author of a group, list solo-author entries first:

Heller, Steven, ed. The Education of an E-Designer .

Heller, Steven, and Karen Pomeroy. Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design.

Work with no known author

Alphabetize works with no known author by their title; use a shortened version of the title in the parenthetical citations in your paper. In this case, Boring Postcards USA has no known author:

Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulations.  [...]

Boring Postcards USA  [...]

Burke, Kenneth. A Rhetoric of Motives . [...] 

Work by an author using a pseudonym or stage-name

New to MLA 9th edition, there are now steps to take for citing works by an author or authors using a pseudonym, stage-name, or different name. 

If the person you wish to cite is well-known, cite the better-known form of the name of the author. For example, since Lewis Carroll is  not only a pseudonym of Charles Dodgson , but also the better-known form of the author’s name, cite the former name opposed to the latter. 

If the real name of the author is less well-known than their pseudonym, cite the author’s pseudonym in square brackets following the citation of their real name: “Christie, Agatha [Mary Westmacott].”

Authors who published various works under many names may be cited under a single form of the author’s name. When the form of the name you wish to cite differs from that which appears on the author’s work, include the latter in square brackets following an italicized published as : “Irving, Washington [ published as Knickerbocker, Diedrich].”.

Another acceptable option, in cases where there are only two forms of the author’s name, is to cite both forms of the author’s names as separate entries along with cross-references in square brackets: “Eliot, George [ see also Evans, Mary Anne].”.