How Do I Cite in MLA?

Your Works Cited list should include all the sources you quoted, paraphrased, or summarized in your paper. The listing appears on its own page at the end of your paper. Pages continue to be numbered in the upper right corner. When formatting your Works Cited page, follow these guidelines:

• Centre the heading Works Cited at the top of page. Do not italicize or use quotation marks around the heading.
• Arrange sources in alphabetical order by the author's name (or by the title if there is no author named).
• Double space the entire list (both within and between entries).
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of each entry 0.5 inches (approximately five to seven spaces) from the left (also known as a hanging indent).

For more information (with an image), visit Placement of the List of Works Cited (a free chapter from the online version of the MLA Handbook, 9th ed.)

MLA Template of Core Elements

When citing a work, refer to the MLA template of core elements noted below. The template identifies the information that is typically included in each entry in the list of Works Cited. The order of elements and the punctuation following each element within a citation are also shown in the template.

Author.  primary creator of the work (e.g., an individual, group of persons, organization, government or corporate entity)

Title of Source. title of the work (if absent, provide your own concise, informative description of the work as the title)

Title of Container, a work that contains another work (e.g., a journal is a container for articles, a book can be a container for a collection of poems or short stories, a vinyl album can be a container for songs)

Contributor, someone other than the author that contributes to the work (e.g., editor, film director, illustrator, music conductor, narrator, translator)

Version, the work is released in more than one form (e.g., 2nd ed., e-book ed., director's cut, version 2.36)

Number, the work is part of a sequence (e.g., volume, issue, episode, season)

Publisher, the entity primarily responsible for producing the work or making it available to the public (e.g., publisher, studio, distributor, network, theatre company)

Publication Date, when the version of the work was published (e.g, date of publication, date of revision, date of upload, date of posting, forthcoming publication date)

Location. depends on the format of the work (e.g., page range, DOI, permalink, URL, place)

NOTES:

• If the work being cited is missing a core element, omit it from the citation.
• To include additional information about the work, use Supplemental Elements.
• Always end your citation entry with a period.

Jump to: Author | Title of Source  | Container | Contributor | Version | Number | Publisher | Publication Date | Location

Author

• For individual authors, use surname, add a comma, and then the given name middle name or initial.
  e.g.,  Albrecht, Milton C.
• If there are two authors, put them in the same order as noted in the work. Invert the first author's name (as noted in the example above) followed by a comma, the word and, then the second author's name in standard form.
  e.g.,  Farris, Pamela J., and Joanne Park
• If there are three or more authors, list only the first author in inverted form ( i.e., surname first), followed by a comma and the abbreviation et al. (Latin phrase for "and others").
  e.g., Zerr, Paul, et al.

Title of Source

• Italicize titles if the work is self-contained and independent. Titles of books, plays, films, journals, magazines, newspapers, databases, and websites are italicized.
  e.g., The Picture of Dorian Gray, The New York Times, HathiTrust Digital Library, YouTube
• Place titles in quotation marks if the source is part of a larger work. Titles of articles, essays, chapters, poems, web pages, songs and speeches are placed in quotation marks.
  e.g., "The Road Not Taken", "All You Need Is Love", "I Have a Dream"
• Use title case (or headline-style) for English-language titles. Always capitalize the first and last word (of both the title and subtitle), and capitalize all major words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, verbs). Unsure about title case? Try the Capitalize My Title tool.
  e.g., Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, To Kill a Mockingbird, Wizard of Oz

Container

• Some works may have two containers. For example, a television episode's first container can be the television series itself (e.g., Stranger Things), but it can also exist in a second, larger container, such as a streaming service (e.g., Netflix). When citing a work with two containers, the format is as follows:

Below is a citation for an article residing in two containers - the first container is a journal (i.e, Modernism/Modernity) and the second container is a database (i.e., Project Muse).

Contributor

• When contributors are listed, include a label describing the role they played.
  e.g., conducted by, illustrated by, produced by
• The descriptive labels for contributors should be spelled out in full (not abbreviated).
  e.g., adapted by, edited by, translated by
• Capitalization of the descriptive label depends on the punctuation directly preceding the label.
  If preceded by a comma, the first word is not capitalized. e.g., directed by
  If preceded by a period, the first word is capitalized.  e.g. Directed by

Version

• Ordinal numbers should be written using Arabic numerals (1,2,3) with no superscript for the suffix.
  e.g., 3rd, 88th
• The words revised and edition should be abbreviated.
  i.e., rev. ed., 14th ed.

Number

• The words volume and number are abbreviated in this element.
  i.e.,  vol. ,  no. 
• Use Arabic numerals (1,2,3) for this element.
  e.g., Volume Five becomes vol. 5,  Number XXXVI becomes no. 36
• When a source has more than one number, identify them and separate the components with a comma
  e.g., vol. 26, no. 5

Publisher

• When the name of an academic press contains the words University Press, use the abbreviation UP or replace the words with the letters U and P when the words are not adjacent to each other [new for MLA 9th ed.]
  e.g., Oxford University Press becomes Oxford UP, University of Toronto Press becomes U of Toronto P
• When the name of an academic press includes the word Press, but not the word University, spell out the word Press in full.
  e.g., MIT Press, RIT Press
• Replace ampersands (&) or plus signs (+) in a publisher's name with the word and.
  e.g., Simon & Schuster becomes Simon and Schuster, McClelland & Stewart becomes McClelland and Stewart
• Omit initial articles (e.g., The) and legal corporate terms such as Company (Co.), Corporation (Corp.), Incorporated (Inc.) and Limited (Ltd.) from a publisher's name.
  e.g., The Key Publishing House Inc. becomes Key Publishing House, Macmillan Publishers Ltd. becomes Macmillan Publishers

Publication Date

• Abbreviate any months with more than four letters, followed by a period.
  i.e., Jan.  Feb.  Mar.  Apr.  Aug.  Sept.  Oct.  Nov.  Dec.
• Seasons should not be capitalized. [new for MLA 9th ed.]
  e.g., winter 2016
• When including complete dates, use the day-month-year format.
  e.g., 6 July 2019
• Use Arabic numerals (1, 2,3) for years.
  e.g., MMXX becomes 2020

Location

• The abbreviation for page numbers is p. (for page) or pp. (for pages).
• Page numbers should use the same numeric symbols and case as the source.
  e.g., pp. v-xxii, pp. B6-B12, p. 45
• If page numbers are not available (particularly with online sources) use par. or pars. for paragraph numbers.
• For online sources, the location, in order of preference, is the DOI, permalink or URL.
  • When a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is attached to a source (such as a scholarly journal article), use the DOI.
    Precede the DOI's alphanumeric string (e.g.,10.1353/pmc.2019.0017) with https://doi.org/. [new for MLA 9th ed.]
    e.g., https://doi.org/10.1353/pmc.2019.0017
  • When there is no DOI, use a permalink, a shorter, stable version of a URL.
    These links are often labelled Permalink, Permanent link, Persistent URL, Stable URL, Document URL or URI.
    If not readily visible, look for a Cite, Share or Actions button to find the permalink.
    e.g., https://muse.jhu.edu/article/803309
  • When a DOI or permalink are not available, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) noted in the web browser's address bar can be used.
    e.g., https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-muchmusic-relaunches-tiktok-gen-z-millennials
  • The http:// or https:// protocol of a permalink or URL can be included or omitted. [option new for MLA 9th ed.]
    e.g., https://www.kanopy.com or www.kanopy.com
    The http:// or https:// protocol should be included with DOIs. [new for MLA 9th ed.]
    e.g.,  https://doi.org/10.2307/2870706
  • When a URL spans more than one line, break the URL, but do not add extra spaces or hyphens. Ensure the broken URL follows the hanging indent format.
  • If a URL is very long (greater than 3 full lines), it can be shortened to at least the host component of the URL, e.g, https://go.gale.com/ps
    Avoid using URLs generated by shortening services such as bit.ly.
  • You may choose whether or not to hyperlink URLs. 
• Since online locations tend to change, and because there can be multiple versions of the same source online, using containers (e.g. JSTOR, Netflix, Spotify) in your citation will help the reader access and verify the source.