There are several issues related to the creation of Works Cited and bibliography pages on the WWW, including punctuation and formatting standards. One initial question is how closely we model Web page formats after formats developed for traditional printed texts. Answer: traditional printed citation format is STRUCTURALLY valid and sensible. The punctuation, spacing, and indentation are somewhat arbitrary, but then again, so is most spelling. Thus, there is no reason to adopt a different structure for Web-based documents, and we must consider the best and easiest way to duplicate the print-based structure in hypertextual format. Fortunately, recent incarnations of HTML (HTML 4.0+) give us all the tools we need.

Issues:

 


Formatting: underlining vs. italics

The use of italics versus underlining in a citation page raises a special issue when using HTML. More precisely, the use of underlining in an HTML document often has a special meaning: that of a hyperlink. Therefore, it is better to italicize the Titles of Books or other elements that would be underlined in standard MLA format. And after all is said and done, the use of underlining in those instances is an anachronism from when papers were TYPED rather than word-processed.

Indentation notes:
(These notes are fairly technical, and require a good understanding of HTML)
Indentation is usually overlooked in hypertextual works cited pages (as opposed to print-based citation pages that include electronic resources). However, correct indentation can be acheived in hypertextual pages in at least two ways:

1. The indentation can, but should not, be hard coded using artificial line breaks (<br>) and non-breaking spaces (&nbsp;). This is not a good method because variable browser window size will cause very ugly line wrapping to destroy any semblance of formatting.
   Example:

   Hoffman, Eric. "Citation Guide," English 104 On-line!.
        English Department at NIU, 2 April 1999.
         <http://www.engl.niu.edu/ceh/104/citation.html> 2 April 1999.

   HTML CODE for Example:

   Hoffman, Eric. "Citation Guide," English 104 On-line!.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;English Department at NIU, 2 April 1999. <br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<http://www.engl.niu.edu/ceh/104/citation.html> 2 April 1999.

   If this method is chosen, users should put citation entries into tables that have absolute width definitions, so text is unaffected by window resizing (i.e., <table width="350">)
   
   

2. The easier and better way to format proper indentation is by using a very simple cascading style sheet.

   The Easiest way to use the CSS version of the Works cited format is to include the following line somewhere in the HEAD of your HTML document:
   <LINK rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://www.engl.niu.edu/styles/citation.html">
   
   Then, in the body of the document, precede EACH works cited entry with the following line:
   <p CLASS="citeindent">
   AND CLOSE each entry with the following: </p>
   Follow this Link to see a sample Works-cited entry Page
   

Expert's Notes:

Here's the CSS code for creating correctly indented citation format on a Web page:

<style type="text/css">
.CITEINDENT {text-indent : -20px;
padding: 20px;}</style>