MLA Format Guide (9th Edition): Rules, Examples, and Works Cited

What Is MLA Format?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association. The organization has published formatting guidelines for academic writing since 1951, and the current standard is the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, released in April 2021. If your instructor in an English, literature, writing, or humanities course asks for "MLA format," this is the edition they expect.

MLA is the citation system of the humanities. While APA format governs the social sciences and Chicago style covers history and some professional publishing, MLA is the default for literary analysis, rhetoric, composition, and most writing courses at the high school and college level.

The system has two components that always work together. In-text citations identify sources briefly within the body of the paper, and the Works Cited page at the end gives readers the full details they need to find every source you used. Neither component works without the other.

General Formatting Rules

Before writing a word of actual content, configure your document correctly. These rules apply to every page of an MLA paper.

Margins, Font, and Spacing

• Margins: 1 inch on all four sides. Most word processors default to this, so you may not need to change anything.
• Font: 12-point Times New Roman is the traditional choice and still the most widely accepted. Some instructors permit other legible fonts (Calibri 11pt, Arial 11pt), but when in doubt, use Times New Roman 12pt.
• Line spacing: Double-space the entire document, including the header, body text, block quotations, and Works Cited page. Do not add extra space between paragraphs or between Works Cited entries.
• Paragraph indentation: Indent the first line of every body paragraph by 0.5 inches (one Tab stop). Do not use extra blank lines between paragraphs.
• Alignment: Left-align all body text. Do not right-justify or fully justify the text.

Page Header

MLA uses a running header, not a title page. Set up a right-aligned header in your word processor that shows your last name followed by the page number: Smith 1, Smith 2, and so on. This header appears on every page, including the first. The font and size should match the rest of the document.

First-Page Header (No Separate Title Page)

Unlike APA, MLA does not require a title page for most student papers. Instead, place the following information in the upper-left corner of the first page, double-spaced, each item on its own line:

1. Your full name
2. Your instructor's name
3. The course name and number
4. The date (written as Day Month Year: 13 March 2026)

Center your paper's title on the next line. Use standard title capitalization: capitalize the first and last words and all major words, but not articles (a, an, the), prepositions, or coordinating conjunctions unless they open the title. Do not bold, italicize, underline, or put quotation marks around your own title. The only exception: if your title quotes or refers to another work, apply the appropriate formatting to that portion only (e.g., Memory and Forgetting in Toni Morrison's Beloved).

The body of the paper begins on the next line after the title, with the first paragraph indented normally.

MLA Headings

Short papers, such as a five-page literary analysis, typically need no internal headings at all. For longer papers, the MLA Handbook permits headings but provides only broad guidance rather than a fixed five-level system like APA uses.

If you do use headings, apply them consistently. A common approach for MLA papers:

• Level 1: Bold, centered, title case
• Level 2: Bold, left-aligned, title case
• Level 3: Bold italic, left-aligned, title case

Do not number headings in most humanities papers. Always follow your instructor's preferences over the default MLA guidance if the two differ.

In-Text Citations: The Author-Page System

MLA in-text citations work by the author-page method. You give the author's last name and the page number where the quoted or paraphrased material appears, with no comma between them. The citation goes inside the sentence's closing punctuation.

Basic Format

The narrator describes the house as "a living, breathing thing" (Nguyen 47).

If you already named the author in your signal phrase, omit the name from the parentheses and give only the page number:

Nguyen describes the house as "a living, breathing thing" (47).

Both forms are correct. The signal-phrase version tends to read more smoothly in literary analysis.

When There Is No Author

If a source has no named author, use a shortened version of the title in the parenthetical citation. Italicize it if the full title is italicized (a book or film); put it in quotation marks if the full title would be in quotes (an article or web page):

Enrollment in online programs grew by 18 percent last year ("Distance Learning Report" 12).

Multiple Authors

Two Sources by the Same Author

When your Works Cited page includes two works by the same author, add a shortened title to the in-text citation to distinguish between them:

(Morrison, Beloved 88) and (Morrison, Song of Solomon 14)

Multiple Sources in One Citation

If a single claim is supported by two or more sources, separate them with a semicolon inside one set of parentheses:

(Morrison 88; Faulkner 204)

Sources Without Page Numbers

Many online sources have no page numbers. In that case, simply give the author's name (or a shortened title) with no number at all. Do not use "n.p." or substitute paragraph numbers unless your instructor specifically requires them. The goal is to point the reader to the right Works Cited entry.

The report found that urban tree canopy reduces surface temperatures (Wolch).

Signal Phrases

A signal phrase introduces a quotation or paraphrase by naming the source before it appears. Good signal phrases help integrate sources into your own argument rather than dropping them in abruptly.

Common signal phrase verbs: argues, asserts, claims, contends, demonstrates, explains, notes, observes, states, suggests, writes. Choose a verb that accurately reflects what the author is doing. An author who presents data "demonstrates" or "shows"; an author advancing a debatable position "argues" or "contends."

When a signal phrase names the author, move the page number to the end of the quoted or paraphrased material only:

In her analysis of American Gothic fiction, Weinstock argues that "the ghost always returns because the living refuse to mourn" (33).

When paraphrasing, you still need a citation even though the words are your own. Paraphrasing without citation is plagiarism just as much as copying without attribution. A paraphrasing tool can help you rework source material into your own voice, but you still need to cite the original idea.

Block Quotations

Any prose quotation of more than four lines of your text, or any quotation of more than three lines of poetry, becomes a block quotation. The rules differ from inline quotations in a few important ways:

• Start the block quotation on a new line.
• Indent the entire block 0.5 inches from the left margin (one Tab stop). The right margin stays the same.
• Do not use quotation marks around the block quotation.
• Maintain double-spacing throughout the block.
• Place the parenthetical citation after the closing punctuation of the block, not before it.

Example structure:

Achebe addresses the tension between oral tradition and the written word directly:

     The white man had indeed brought a lunatic religion, but he had also built a trading store and for the first time palm-oil and kernel became things of great price, and much money flowed into Umuofia. And even in the matter of religion there was a growing feeling that there might be something in it after all, something vaguely akin to method in the overwhelming madness. (Achebe 174)

This moment marks a shift in how Okonkwo's community perceives the colonial presence.

Works Cited Page Formatting

The Works Cited page is a separate page at the end of the paper. It lists every source you cited in the text, and only those sources. Here are the baseline formatting rules:

• Start on a new page after the final page of the paper body.
• Center the heading "Works Cited" at the top of the page. Do not bold, italicize, or put it in quotation marks.
• List entries alphabetically by the first element (usually the author's last name).
• Double-space all entries, with no extra space between them.
• Use a hanging indent: the first line of each entry is flush with the left margin, and every subsequent line is indented 0.5 inches. Set this in your word processor's paragraph settings rather than using spaces or tabs manually.
• Titles of long, standalone works (books, films, albums, journals) are italicized. Titles of shorter works contained within a larger work (articles, short stories, poems, episodes) go in quotation marks.

The MLA Core Elements Framework

One of the most important changes in the 8th and 9th editions of the MLA Handbook is the shift to a "core elements" system. Instead of memorizing a separate template for every source type, you build each Works Cited entry from a standard set of nine elements, in a fixed order, and omit any element that does not apply to your source.

Each element is followed by a specific punctuation mark before the next element begins. A period ends elements 1, 2, and 9. A comma separates an author's last and first name. All other elements within a container end with a comma. When a source has two containers (for example, an article in a journal accessed through an online database), you list the first container's elements and close them with a period, then begin the second container's elements.

How to Cite Books in MLA

Single-Author Book

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

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Knopf, 1987.

Two-Author Book

For two authors, reverse only the first author's name; write the second in normal order.

Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. Yale UP, 1979.

Edited Book or Anthology

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr., editor. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 3rd ed., W. W. Norton, 2014.

Chapter or Essay in an Edited Collection

Cite the individual chapter as the source, and the book as the container:

Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. "Paranoid Reading and Reparative Reading." Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity, Duke UP, 2003, pp. 123–151.

Book with an Edition Number

Booth, Wayne C., et al. The Craft of Research. 4th ed., U of Chicago P, 2016.

Translated Book

Camus, Albert. The Stranger. Translated by Matthew Ward, Vintage International, 1989.

How to Cite Journal Articles in MLA

Journal articles follow the core elements pattern, with the article title as the source and the journal as the container.

Print Journal Article

Chuh, Kandice. "It's Not About Anything." Social Text, vol. 30, no. 4, 2012, pp. 79–95.

Journal Article Accessed Online (with DOI)

When a DOI is available, use it as the location element. Present it as a full URL beginning with https://doi.org/.

Felski, Rita. "Context Stinks!" New Literary History, vol. 42, no. 4, 2011, pp. 573–591. https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2011.0045

Journal Article from a Database (No DOI)

When there is no DOI, use the article's stable URL if one exists, or the database name as a second container:

Lee, Rachel C. "Notes from the (Non)Field: Teaching and Theorizing Women of Color." Meridians, vol. 1, no. 1, 2000, pp. 85–109. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40338430.

How to Cite Websites and Online Sources

Web sources require particular care because they vary so widely: some have named authors and dates, others have neither. For a fuller treatment of digital source citation, see our guide on how to cite online sources correctly.

Standard Webpage

Author Last, First. "Title of Page." Name of Website, Publisher (if different from site name), Date, URL.

Greenfield, Rebecca. "Why Offices Became Open Plan." Bloomberg, Bloomberg L.P., 15 July 2014, www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-07-15/open-plan-offices-were-invented-by-robert-propst.

Webpage with No Author

Begin with the title of the page. In the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title in quotation marks.

"Global Surface Temperature." NASA Global Climate Change, NASA, 12 Jan. 2024, climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/.

Webpage with No Date

Omit the date element. Some instructors ask you to add an access date at the end when the content may change over time. If so, write: Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "About Chronic Disease." CDC, www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/index.htm. Accessed 13 Mar. 2026.

Online News Article

Mele, Christopher. "The Best Advice for Eating Well on a Budget." The New York Times, 11 Mar. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/dining/budget-eating-advice.html.

DOI and URL Handling in MLA

The 9th edition recommends including a DOI or URL whenever a source was accessed digitally, so readers can locate it. A few practical rules:

• Prefer a DOI over a URL when both are available. DOIs are permanent; page URLs can change or break.
• Present DOIs as full URLs: https://doi.org/10.xxxx/xxxxx. Do not use the older "doi:" prefix.
• For URLs, you may omit "https://www." from the beginning to keep entries readable, but your instructor may prefer the full URL. Check their preference.
• Do not end a URL or DOI with a period. A trailing period can break a link and misleads readers into thinking it is part of the address.
• MLA does not generally require an access date unless the source content is unstable or the instructor requests it.

For more guidance on using proper citations across source types, including social media and multimedia, visit our blog.

Numbers and Abbreviations in MLA

MLA conventions for numbers are fairly straightforward:

• Spell out numbers that can be written in one or two words: five, twenty-three, three hundred. Use numerals for numbers that require more than two words: 3,456.
• Always use numerals for page numbers, addresses, dates, and statistics: page 47, 300 BCE, 5 percent.
• Do not begin a sentence with a numeral. Rewrite the sentence or spell out the number.
• MLA uses the abbreviations p. (page) and pp. (pages) in Works Cited entries, and vol. and no. for volume and issue numbers. Spell out these words in the body of the paper.
• Publisher names: abbreviate "University" as "U" and "Press" as "P" in Works Cited entries (e.g., U of Chicago P, Oxford UP), but spell them out in the body text.
• Months with five or more letters are abbreviated in Works Cited entries: Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec. May, June, and July are not abbreviated.

What Changed from the 8th to the 9th Edition

The 9th edition, published in 2021, refined rather than overhauled the 8th edition's core elements system. Here are the most significant changes:

Inclusive Language Guidance

The 9th edition added a chapter on inclusive language. Key recommendations include using the singular "they" for a person whose gender is unknown or nonbinary, avoiding gendered professional titles when gender-neutral alternatives exist, and following an individual's stated preferences for how they are referred to.

Clarified Guidance on Containers

The 9th edition offered more detailed examples of nested containers: situations where a source appears inside one container (a journal) that itself sits inside another (a database). Each container gets its own set of core elements before the entry moves to the next level.

New Guidance on Annotated Bibliographies

For the first time, the MLA Handbook dedicated a full chapter to annotated bibliographies: what they are, when professors assign them, and how to format the annotation (indented, beginning on a new line after the Works Cited entry).

Expanded Advice on Quotation Integration

The 9th edition expanded its discussion of how to integrate quoted material, including how to use ellipses, brackets for clarification, and the distinction between quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing. These distinctions matter for plagiarism avoidance: summarizing condenses the overall argument; paraphrasing restates a specific passage in new words; quoting reproduces exact language. All three require citation.

Updated URL and DOI Formatting

The 9th edition continued the shift toward full URL-style DOIs (https://doi.org/...) rather than the older "doi:" prefix, bringing MLA into alignment with the conventions that APA also adopted.

MLA vs. APA: Key Differences

Students who use both styles often confuse the two. The table below highlights the most important distinctions:

For a full breakdown of APA rules, see our APA format guide.

Common MLA Mistakes

These are the errors instructors see most often in student papers.

Missing Hanging Indent on Works Cited

The hanging indent is non-negotiable in MLA format, and the most reliable way to apply it is through your word processor's paragraph settings, not by pressing Tab or the spacebar. In Microsoft Word, highlight all Works Cited entries, open the Paragraph dialog box, and under "Indentation" set "Special" to "Hanging" with a value of 0.5 inches.

Putting "Works Cited" in Bold or Quotes

The heading "Works Cited" is centered and in normal weight. No bold, no italics, no quotation marks. It matches the rest of the document's formatting.

Alphabetizing by First Name

Always alphabetize by the author's last name, not first name. When a source has no author, alphabetize by the first significant word of the title, ignoring "A," "An," and "The."

Adding a Page Number When None Exists

Never invent a page number or use "n.p." in the parenthetical citation for a web source that has no page numbers. Simply use the author's name (or short title) alone. The Works Cited entry makes clear it is a web source.

Confusing Italics and Quotation Marks

Italics go around the titles of works that stand alone: books, films, albums, journals, magazines, newspapers, websites, and TV shows. Quotation marks go around titles of works contained within something else: articles, short stories, poems, episodes, and songs. Applying these backward is one of the most frequent formatting errors in MLA papers.

Omitting the Author from In-Text Citations

If you named the author in a signal phrase, you do not need to repeat the name in the parentheses. But if you did not name them in the sentence, the parenthetical citation must include the last name. A citation like (47) with no author name tells the reader nothing about which Works Cited entry it refers to.

Using "qtd. in" for Firsthand Sources

The label "qtd. in" (quoted in) is only for secondary sources: material you found quoted within another author's work, where you have not read the original. If you are citing a primary source directly, there is no need for "qtd. in."

Wrong Punctuation with Block Quotations

For regular inline quotations, the citation goes before the period. For block quotations, the citation goes after the period. This is opposite from what many students expect and is a reliable indicator of whether a writer knows MLA formatting.

Citing Every Sentence in a Long Paraphrase

If you are paraphrasing a sustained passage from one source across multiple sentences, you do not need a citation after every sentence. Introduce the source clearly at the beginning of the passage, and place one citation at the end of the last sentence drawn from that source.

MLA Paper Checklist

Run through this list before submitting any MLA-formatted paper:

1. 1-inch margins on all sides.
2. 12-point Times New Roman (or approved font) throughout.
3. Double-spacing everywhere, with no extra blank lines.
4. Last name and page number in the upper-right header on every page.
5. First-page header: your name, instructor's name, course, and date (no title page).
6. Paper title centered, in standard title case, with no special formatting.
7. All paragraphs indented 0.5 inches; no extra spacing between paragraphs.
8. In-text citations follow the author-page format: (Author page).
9. Block quotations used for prose over four lines; citation placed after the closing period.
10. Works Cited begins on a new page, headed by "Works Cited" (centered, no formatting).
11. Works Cited entries alphabetized by the first element.
12. Hanging indent applied to all Works Cited entries.
13. Italics used for standalone works; quotation marks for shorter contained works.
14. DOIs formatted as full URLs (https://doi.org/...) with no trailing period.
15. Paper checked against a plagiarism checker before submission.

Frequently Asked Questions About MLA Format

Does MLA require a title page?

No. For most student papers, MLA uses a four-line header in the upper-left corner of the first page (your name, instructor, course, date), followed by the centered paper title. A separate title page is only required when your instructor specifically asks for one.

What is the difference between a Works Cited page and a bibliography?

A Works Cited page lists only the sources you actually cited within the paper. A bibliography lists all sources you consulted during research, whether or not you cited them. MLA papers end with a Works Cited page. If your instructor asks for a bibliography, they want the broader list.

How do I cite a source with no author in MLA?

Start the Works Cited entry with the title of the source, and alphabetize it by the first significant word of the title (ignoring "A," "An," and "The"). In the in-text citation, use a shortened version of the title in place of an author name, in italics or quotation marks as appropriate.

Do I need a DOI or URL for every online source?

The 9th edition recommends including a DOI or URL so readers can locate the source. If a DOI is available, use it. If not, include the URL. Some instructors or style contexts ask you to omit URLs for sources that are easily found through a library search; always follow your instructor's guidance.

How do I cite a book I read as an e-book?

If the e-book is identical to the print edition, cite it the same way you would the print book. If there are differences (a Kindle edition with different formatting, for instance), note the version: add "Kindle ed." or "E-book" in the Version element (element 5) of the citation. Include a URL if the e-book was accessed through a specific platform.

What does "et al." mean and when do I use it?

"Et al." is Latin for "and others." In MLA, use it in the in-text citation whenever a source has three or more authors: list only the first author's last name, then "et al." In the Works Cited entry, list the first author's name in full (reversed), followed by "et al." instead of listing every additional author.

How do I cite a webpage that has been updated?

Use the most recent update date shown on the page. If the page shows both a publication date and a "last updated" date, use the one that is most relevant to the information you are citing. If neither date appears, see if a date appears in the URL structure, in the page's source code, or through a search result. If no date can be found at all, omit the date element from the entry.

Can I use MLA for a science paper?

You can format any paper in MLA, but most science disciplines use APA or their own field-specific styles (CSE for biology, ACS for chemistry, AMA for medicine). Use MLA when your instructor or publication requires it. If you are unsure which style to use, ask before you start formatting.