In MLA style, the sources you cite in your paper are listed all together at the end in the Works Cited section.
Follow this guide to create a citation for your works cited page in MLA style (8th edition).
Nine Core Elements of an MLA Citation
To create a citation, you need to look for the nine core elements of a Works Cited entry:
- Author.
- Title of source.
- Title of container,
- Other contributors,
- Version,
- Number,
- Publisher,
- Publication date,
- Location.
Each element is followed by a comma or a period (as shown), though the final element in a Works Cited entry is always followed by a period.
Only the elements relevant to a particular source should be included in its Works Cited entry.
A brief explanation of each of the nine elements follows. Consult the MLA Handbook, 8th Edition for more information. The MLA website also contains a helpful guide, including a practice template:
Works Cited: A Quick Guide: Writing Resources from the Modern Language Association
Note: The citation examples below are shown without a hanging indent, which is required on the completed works cited page. Hanging indents are explained near the bottom of the next section, followed by an example works cited page.
1. Author.
If the source is written by one author, the citation should begin with the author’s last name, a comma, the rest of the author’s name, and then a period. For example, if you’re citing a source written by Zadie Smith, the citation should begin:
Smith, Zadie.
If the source is written by two authors, the citation should begin with the first author’s last name, a comma, the rest of the first author’s name, a comma, the second author’s full name (in the normal order), and then a period. For example, if you’re citing a source written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, the citation should begin:
Twain, Mark, and Charles Dudley Warner.
If the source is written by three or more authors, the citation should begin with the first author’s last name, a comma, the rest of the first author’s name, a comma, and then et. al., which means “and others.” For example, if you’re citing a source written by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams, the citation should begin:
Booth, Wayne C., et al.
2. Title of Source.
If the source is what the MLA Handbook describes as “self-contained and independent,” such as a book or a collection of essays, stories, or poems by multiple authors, include the title in italics, followed by a period. For example, if you’re citing Zadie Smith’s novel Swing Time, the citation should begin:
Smith, Zadie. Swing Time.
If the source, on the other hand, is a work that appears within a larger work, such as a poem that appears with an anthology, include the title in quotations marks instead. (Make sure that the period following the title appears inside the closing quotation mark.) For example, if you’re citing Seamus Heaney’s poem “Digging” from his collection Death of Naturalist, the citation should begin:
Heaney, Seamus. “Digging.”
3. Title of Container,
A container, in this context, is the larger work that contains the shorter work being cited. Seamus Heaney’s poetry collection Death of a Naturalist, for example, is the container for his poem “Digging.”
If the source you’re citing appears within a container, continue the citation by including the title of the container in italics, followed by a comma:
Heaney, Seamus. “Digging.” Death of a Naturalist,
Here’s another example. In this case, the website Slate is the container for the article “Hackers Breached San Francisco’s Transit System and Demanded a Ransom”:
Grabar, Henry. “Hackers Breached San Francisco’s Transit System and Demanded a Ransom” Slate,
4. Other contributors,
Sometimes there are other contributors to a work—in addition to the author or authors—who should be included in the Works Cited entry. Include a contributor if their contribution helps further identify the work or if their contribution is particularly relevant to your research.
If you include a contributor in your work Cited entry, add a description of the contribution ( “adapted by,” “directed by,” “edited by,” “illustrated by,” etc.), followed by the full name of the contributor and a comma.
For example, if you’re citing a work that has been translated from another language, continue the citation by including the phrase “translated by” followed by the full name of the translator and a comma:
Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities. Translated by William Weaver,
Or, for example, if your research relates to the illustrations contained within a work, continue the citation by including the phrase “Illustrated by” followed by the full name of the illustrator and a comma:
Bloom, Amy Beth. Little Sweet Potato. Illustrated by Noah Z. Jones,
5. Version,
Some works are published in different versions or editions. If you’re citing a particular version of a work, continue the citation by including the version followed by a comma. Here are two examples:
Nelson, Philip. Biological Physics: Energy, Information, Life. Updated Version,
King, Laura A. The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative Review. 3rd ed.,
6. Number,
Similarly, some works are published in multiple numbers, volumes, issues, episodes, or seasons. If you’re citing a particular number of a work, continue the citation by including the number followed by a comma. Here are a few examples:
“Indigenous Rights in Canada: Contested Wilderness.” The Economist, Vol. 421, Number 9017,
Kirkman, Rodman. The Walking Dead. Illustrated by Charlie Adlard and Cliff Rathburn, Vol. 4: The Heart’s Desire,
“Airport 2010.” Modern Family. Written by Dan O’Shannon and Bill Wrubel, season 1, episode 22,
7. Publisher,
If the source is distributed by a publisher, blog network, or other organization, continue the citation by including the publisher, followed by a comma. Here are two examples:
Miranda, Lin-Manuel, and Jeremy McCarter. Hamilton: The Revolution. Grand Central Publishing,
McMillan, Robert. “Her Code Got Humans on the Moon—and Invented Software Itself.” Wired, Condé Nast,
8. Publication Date,
Continue the citation by including the available publication date information most relevant to your source, followed by a comma. If you’re citing a book, for example, a copyright year will suffice:
Fish, Stanley. How Milton Works. Belknap Press, 2001,
If you’re citing a tweet, on the other hand, provide the day, month, year, and time, as some people and organizations tweet more than once a day:
@POTUS. “This Thanksgiving, we give thanks for our blessings, and work to fulfill the timeless responsibility we have as Americans to serve others.” Twitter, 24 Nov. 2016, 2:05 p.m.,
9. Location.
Location, in this context, refers to the location (e.g. page number(s), DOI, URL, etc.) of a source within a container or the physical location of a live performance, lecture, or presentation. If applicable, continue the citation by including the location information, followed by a period. Here are a few examples:
Heaney, Seamus. “Casualty.” Field Work: Poems, Farrar, Straux, and Giroux, 2009, pp. 13-16.
Grabar, Henry. “Hackers Breached San Francisco’s Transit System and Demanded a Ransom,” Slate, TheSlateGroup, 28 Nov. 2016, slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2016/11/28/san_francisco_muni_hacked_for_a_ransom_payment.html.
Ernst, Steve, and Liza Neustaetter. “Empowering Faculty and Students with High Quality Modular Courseware.” OLC Accelerate, 18 Nov. 2016, Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort, Orlando.
Formatting the Works Cited Section
Your Works Cited entries should be listed in alphabetical order.
Each reference should be formatted with what is called a hanging indent. This means the first line of each citation should be flush with the left margin (i.e., not indented), but the rest of that citation should be indented a half an inch from the left margin. Any word-processing program will let you format this automatically so you don’t have to do it by hand. (In Microsoft Word, for example, you simply highlight your citations, click on the small arrow right next to the word “Paragraph” on the home tab, and in the popup box choose “hanging indent” under the “Special” section. Click OK, and you’re done.)
Multiple Publications by the Same Author
If you are referencing multiple publications by the same author (or group of authors), there is a special rule for denoting this. You should first order those articles alphabetically by source title in the Works Cited section. Then, replace the author’s name (or list of names) with three hyphens, followed by a period, for all but the first entry by that author:
Achenbach, Thomas M. “Bibliography of….
—. “School-Age…
Sample MLA Works Cited Page
Works Cited : A properly formatted Works Cited page
Summary Points
- In MLA style, all the sources you cite throughout the text of your paper are listed together at the end, in the Works Cited section.
- There are nine core elements of a Works Cited entry: Author. Title of source. Title of container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. Each element is followed by a comma or a period (as shown), though the final element in a Works Cited entry is always followed by a period.
- Only the elements relevant to a particular source should be included in its Works Cited entry.
- The Works Cited section is arranged alphabetically. In addition, the first and subsequent lines of each citation should be indented a half an inch from the left margin.
In MLA style, all the sources you cite throughout the text of your paper are listed together in full in the Works Cited section, which comes after the main text of your paper.
License and Attribution
