UCD School of English Drama Film Scoil an Bhéarla, na Drámaíochta agus na Scannánaíochta UCD

Works Cited Requirements

Requirements for the “Works Cited” Section of Assessment submitted to the School of English, Drama, Film and Creative Writing

(Updated September 2018)

1. Unless otherwise explicitly stated in individual assessment guidelines, all formal assessments must include a separate “Works Cited” section at the end of the assignment (essay, etc.).

2.  The “Works Cited” section should include all works referred to in the essay. This includes direct quotations and/or paraphrasing from primary (e.g. the novel you are analysing) or secondary (e.g. the textbook or critical essay you’re applying) sources.

3.  When completing the “Works Cited” section, you must follow current MLA style (from the MLA Handbook, 8th ed.). Click here for the library’s constantly updated guide to MLA format.

4.  A penalty of one grade point (for example, from A to A-) will be applied if you have not included a separate “Works Cited” section.

5.  An inadequate “Works Cited” section may also lower your grade. “Inadequate” may include some or all of these errors:

  • Not all works referred to in the body of the assignment are included – primary as well as secondary material, or
  • The entries are not in alphabetical order based on the author’s surname or (where the author’s name is unavailable), the opening words of the title, or
  • One or more of the following five key categories of information is missing in the entries, unless that category of information is not available to other students and researchers in UCD:

- author’s surname and first name, where available; 
- title of the work; 
- publisher / performance group / film company / website; 
- date of publication / performance / production / access to website; 
- place of live presentation (theatre or musical performance/lecture etc);

6.  Incorrect in-text citation can also be penalized. In-text citation refers to citation in the main body of the essay (page numbers in brackets at the end of  the sentence, for example). Check your MLA Handbook or the library’s MLA guide to make sure you’ve used proper in-text citation.