9th edition

MLA Citation Generator

Works Cited entries in MLA 9, built from the nine core elements, with the day-month-year dates and abbreviations MLA asks for.

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MLA 9 · Works Cited entry

Your MLA citation appears here as you type. Start with a URL, DOI or ISBN above, or fill in the title.

Saved sources: 0 in “My paper”

MLA style, the short version

MLA style comes from the Modern Language Association’s MLA Handbook (9th edition, 2021). Literature, languages, cultural studies and many high-school English classes use it.

The core elements

MLA builds every entry from the same list, in order: Author. Title of source. Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. Leave out anything that doesn’t apply.

Full names, “et al.” at three

Write the first author as Surname, First name. Two authors: Surname, First, and First Surname. Three or more: the first author followed by et al.

Quotes versus italics

Titles of short works inside a container (articles, web pages, chapters, videos) go in quotation marks. The container itself (journal, website, book, YouTube) goes in italics.

Dates and abbreviations

Dates run day, month, year: 14 Mar. 2023. Abbreviate months longer than four letters, and write vol., no., pp. in lower case.

URLs and access dates

Drop “https://” from URLs (keep full DOIs as links). Add “Accessed 2 Feb. 2025.” only when a web source has no publication date.

In-text citations

MLA uses author and page with no comma: (Morrison 42). Two authors: (Lunsford and Connors 118). Three or more: (Booth et al. 57). No page for a web source? Just give the author.

MLA examples

websiteHow to cite a website →

“Physical Activity.” World Health Organization, 26 June 2024, www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity.

bookHow to cite a book →

Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.

journal articleHow to cite a journal article →

Twenge, Jean M., and W. Keith Campbell. “Associations Between Screen Time and Lower Psychological Well-Being Among Children and Adolescents: Evidence from a Population-Based Study.” Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 271–283, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.003.

YouTube videoHow to cite a YouTube video →

TED-Ed. “How to Spot a Misleading Graph.” YouTube, 6 July 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=E91bGT9BjYk.

Examples are generated by the same code as the tool above, so what you see is what you get.

Questions students ask

What is the difference between a bibliography and Works Cited in MLA?

Works Cited lists only sources you actually cite in the paper. A bibliography, or “Works Consulted”, can include everything you read. Most instructors ask for Works Cited.

Does MLA 9 still need access dates?

Only when the source has no publication date, or when your instructor asks for them. Put it at the end: Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.

How do I format the Works Cited page?

Start a new page titled “Works Cited” (centred, not bold), double-space everything, use a 0.5-inch hanging indent, and alphabetise by the first word of each entry.

Is MLA 8 different from MLA 9?

The core elements are the same. MLA 9 adds guidance on inclusive language, clarifies when to use “et al.”, and gives more help with sources such as social media and AI tools.

Other citation styles

7th editionAPAPsychology, education, social sciencesOpen generator →17th edition, notes & bibliographyChicagoHistory, arts, some humanitiesOpen generator →9th edition, notes & bibliographyTurabianStudent papers using ChicagoOpen generator →Cite Them Right, 12th editionHarvardUK & Australian universities, businessOpen generator →IEEE Reference GuideIEEEEngineering, computer science, ITOpen generator →