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English · June 2025

How to Cite Sources in MLA Format

MLA citation is a two-part system: a brief in-text reference that points the reader to a full entry on your Works Cited page. Master the pattern once and every source type follows the same logic.

What Is MLA and When Is It Used?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. Its citation style is the standard in English, literature, and many humanities courses at the secondary and university level. The current edition is MLA 9th edition (2021), which introduced a flexible "container" model for citing almost any source type consistently.

MLA citation serves two purposes: it gives credit to the original authors and allows readers to locate the exact sources you used. Failing to cite is plagiarism even if you paraphrase, so correct citation is both an academic and an ethical requirement.

Part 1: In-Text Citations

Every time you quote, paraphrase, or summarise someone else's work in your paper, you add a brief parenthetical citation immediately after the information. The basic format is:

(Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example: "The mind is its own place" (Milton 254).

Key rules:

  • No comma between the author's name and the page number.
  • The parenthetical goes before the sentence's closing punctuation, not after.
  • If you name the author in the sentence itself, you only need the page number in the parenthetical: Milton describes the mind as "its own place" (254).
  • If there is no author, use a short version of the title: ("Photosynthesis" 12).
  • For websites and sources without page numbers, the author's name alone is sufficient: (Smith).
Two or Three Authors

For two authors, list both: (Lee and Kim 45). For three or more authors, list the first author followed by "et al.": (Johnson et al. 78). "Et al." is Latin for "and others."

Part 2: The Works Cited Page

At the end of your paper, on a new page headed Works Cited (centred, not bold or underlined), you list every source you cited in alphabetical order by the author's last name. Each entry uses a hanging indent — the first line is flush left and all subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.

MLA 9 uses a universal "container" structure. Every entry builds from the same nine core elements, and you include only the elements that apply to your source:

  1. Author.
  2. Title of source.
  3. Title of container (e.g. journal, website, anthology).
  4. Other contributors (editors, translators).
  5. Version or edition.
  6. Number (volume, issue).
  7. Publisher.
  8. Date.
  9. Location (page numbers, URL, DOI).

Formatted Examples

Book by One Author

Last, First. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.

Example: Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Secker & Warburg, 1949.

Book by Two Authors

Last, First, and First Last. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.

Example: Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. Yale UP, 1979.

Journal Article

Last, First. "Article Title." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #–#.

Example: Chen, Wei. "Climate Feedback Loops in Arctic Systems." Journal of Geophysical Research, vol. 128, no. 4, 2023, pp. 1102–1119.

Website

Last, First. "Page Title." Site Name, Publisher, Date, URL.

Example: Smith, Andrea. "How Vaccines Work." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Dept. of Health, 12 Mar. 2024, www.cdc.gov/vaccines/how-work.html.

Note: If no individual author is listed, begin with the page title. If no date is available, add "Accessed" followed by the date you viewed the page at the end of the entry.

Article in an Edited Anthology

Last, First. "Essay Title." Book Title, edited by First Last, Publisher, Year, pp. #–#.

Example: Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay, Norton, 1997, pp. 1267–1271.

Italics vs. Quotation Marks

Titles of long, standalone works (books, films, journals, websites) are italicised. Titles of short works contained within a larger work (articles, chapters, poems, episodes) go in "quotation marks."

Formatting the Paper Itself

MLA has requirements beyond citations:

  • 12-point Times New Roman font; 1-inch margins on all sides.
  • Double-spaced throughout, including the Works Cited page.
  • Header in the top-left corner: your name, instructor's name, course, and date (day Month year format: 15 June 2025).
  • Page numbers in the top-right corner preceded by your last name (Smith 3).
  • No separate title page unless your instructor requires one.

Summary

MLA citation is a two-part system. In the body of your paper, brief parenthetical citations — typically (Author Page) — point readers to full entries on your Works Cited page, which lists every source in alphabetical order with a hanging indent. MLA 9's container model applies the same nine-element framework to every source type: fill in what applies and omit what does not. Correctly formatting in-text citations and the Works Cited page shows academic integrity and makes your research verifiable.