Most instructors will specify the type of format they want students to use when writing an essay. The Modern Language Association (MLA) format is the one most commonly used for essays written for English, literature, and other arts and humanities courses. The MLA Handbook offers detailed guidelines on how to use electronic sources in a paper. Here are some of those important strategies that will help you properly incorporate material from a website into your essay.

Document your sources. A works cited page will list all of the sources used in an essay and, as explained in the MLA Handbook, "identify a source and give sufficient information to allow a reader to locate it." Any research done while writing the paper must be listed here. Each source will be a separate entry on this page, which goes at the end of your essay.

Format the list of works cited. Each citation should contain, in this order, the author or editor of the work (last name listed first), the title of the article (in quotation marks), the name of the website (either underline or italicize this information), any version information that is given (examples: a volume number, the date of publication or the last time the site was updated), the publisher or sponsor of the site and the date you accessed the material.

Arrange the works cited entries. The citations are arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the author. If the author's name is not known, alphabetize by the title of the article. Ignore "A," "An" or "The" when alphabetizing. If no author or article title can be found, alphabetize the entry by the name of the website.

Create an in-text citation. List the author's last name in parentheses after the website quote that appears in your essay. If you do not have the author's name, use the title of the article or the name of the website, whichever you list at the beginning of your works cited entry.