MLA Citation Style is maintained by the Modern Language Association and is used in a wide range of arts and humanities like literature, modern language, and theatre. For more example citations, please visit the MLA Citations by Format or the MLA Works Cited Quick Guide.
MLA Works Cited pages should be ordered alphabetically by the author's last name. In the case of works without an author or multiple works by the same author, alphabetize by the title of the work (skipping an initial A, An, or The). Entries should have a hanging indent (the first line is not indented, and all additional lines are indented .5 inches).
In the current edition of MLA, references are created using a template of core elements. Some of the core elements will describe the work being cited (like the author and title) while other elements will describe the container (like the journal title, the publisher and editors, and the publication date). To practice using MLA core elements to create citations, please visit the MLA Interactive Practice Template.
In-text citations include the author's surname and the page number when citing or quoting a specific part of the text. If the work has two authors, include both in the in-text citation separated with the word "and". If the work has three or more authors, include the first author's surname followed by "et al." When incorporating the citation into the prose of your work, use the author's full name the first time and their surname in future references.
Examples:
Author, Albert A. and Bernard B. Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Examples:
Davis, Angela Y. Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Pantheon, 1998.
Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich. The Crown of Columbus. HaperCollins Publishers, 1999.
Charon, Rita, et al. The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine. Oxford UP, 2017.
Author, Albert A. "Title of Chapter" Title of Book, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Pages of chapter.
Examples:
Harris, Muriel. "Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers." A Tutor's Guide: Helping Writers One to One, edited by Ben Rafoth, Heinemann, 2000, pp. 24-34.
Dewar, James A., and Peng Hwa Ang. "The Cutural Consequences of Printing and the Internet." Agent of Change: Print Culture Studies after Elizabeth L. Eisenstein, edited by Sabrina Alcorn Baron et al., U of Massachusetts P / Library of Congress, Center for the Book, 2007, pp. 365–77.
Author, Albert A., and Bernard B. Author. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Volume, Issue, Year, Pages.
Examples:
Boggs, Colleen Glenney. "Public Reading and the Civil War Draft Lottery." American Periodicals, vol. 26, no. 2, 2016, pp. 149-66.
Delmolino, Grace. “Fraudulent Counsel: Legal Temporality and the Poetics of Liability in Dante’s Inferno, Boniface VIII’s Liber Sextus, and Gratian’s De Penitentia.” Speculum, vol. 98, no. 3, July 2023, pp. 727–62. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1086/725297.
Author. "Title of Page." Title of Website, Date of Publication or Last Modified, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.
Examples:
Lundman, Susan. "How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow, www.ehow.com/how_10727_make-vegetarian-chili.html. Accessed 21 Oct. 2022.
"Diabetes in Older People." National Institute on Aging, 1 May 2019, https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/diabetes-older-people. Accessed 30 June 2021.