MLA works cited order for a 3-source bio paper?

The MLA Works Cited page should list your three books in alphabetical order by the first word of each author’s surname, and a hyphenated last name counts as one unit—so you alphabetize by the whole hyphenated name, not by the part after the hyphen. In practice, you’d treat “Garcia‑Lopez” exactly as you would “Garcia” when deciding where it falls in the list, and you’d ignore any leading particles like “de” or “van” if they’re not part of the core surname. Imagine you’re finishing a short bio paper and your sources are: a textbook by Maya Patel, a monograph by Ana‑Maria Garcia‑Lopez, and a field guide authored by James O’Connor. Because “Garcia‑Lopez” begins with G, it will come after Patel (P) and before O’Connor (O). Your Works Cited would therefore start with Patel, follow with Garcia‑Lopez, and end with O’Connor, each entry double‑spaced with a hanging indent. If any of the books have no listed author, you’d alphabetize by the title, ignoring initial articles like “The” or “A.” To make sure you’re set before the portal closes, first double‑check the spelling of each author’s name and verify that the hyphen is present exactly as it appears on the title page; a tiny typo can throw off the ordering. Then run through an MLA template or style guide to confirm you’ve got the punctuation, italics, and page‑range details right—pay special attention to the placement of commas and periods, because MLA is picky about those. Finally, give your Works Cited a quick visual scan: the entries should be in the same order you’d find them in a library catalog, and the second and subsequent lines of each entry should be indented half an inch. Following those steps will leave you with a correctly ordered bibliography that meets your TA’s expectations.