ENGL 1301 (English Composition I) - Dr. P. Henry

This information has been copied and adapted from the Purdue OWL, an excellent resource on citation. Visit their website for more information.

When a source has no known author (usually this happens on websites), use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name. Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (like books or entire websites) and provide a page number if it's available.

We see so many global warming hotspots in North America likely because this region has "more readily accessible climactic data and more comprehensive programs to monitor and study environmental change . . ." ("Impact of Global Warming").

In this example, since the reader does not know author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows: 

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs. 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

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