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MLA Citation Generator
MLA 9th edition works cited entries and in-text citations, assembled from the source record.
Paste a DOI, ISBN, or title
Enter the details yourself
Use this for a web page, a lecture, or anything the databases do not hold. A browser cannot read another site's page details, so a URL has to be filled in by hand.
Your reference list
The container system
MLA 9 does not keep a separate template for every source type. It asks the same nine questions of everything: author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location. A journal article sits inside a journal; that journal may sit inside a database. Each is a container, and each gets its own run through the list.
This is why MLA handles new formats without new rules. A podcast episode inside a series inside an app is three containers, described the same way as an essay inside a collection inside an archive.
Author names and when they shorten
One author is inverted: Wineburg, Sam. Two are joined by "and", with only the first inverted: Wineburg, Sam, and Sarah McGrew. Three or more collapse to the first name followed by et al.
MLA prefers full first names where the source gives them. A database that stores only initials will produce initials here, which is accurate to the record but worth completing by hand if the article itself shows the full name.
In-text citations point at a page
MLA's parenthetical gives the author's surname and a page number with no comma between them: (Wineburg 14). If the author is already named in your sentence, only the page goes in brackets. A source with no pages — a web page, a film — gives the surname alone.
Where the author is unknown, a shortened form of the title takes the surname's place, in quotation marks for an article and italics for a longer work.
The Works Cited page
The list is titled Works Cited, centered, on a new page. Entries are alphabetical by the first element of each — usually the surname, otherwise the title with any leading article ignored. Double spacing throughout, half-inch hanging indent.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the MLA 9 format for a journal article?
Author Last, First. "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. X, no. Y, Year, pp. xx-xx. DOI or URL — with the journal name in italics and the article title in quotation marks.
How do I cite three or more authors in MLA?
Give the first author inverted, then et al.: Wineburg, Sam, et al. The same shortening applies in the text.
What is a container in MLA 9?
The larger work holding the source — the journal an article appears in, the collection holding an essay, the site hosting a page. A source can sit in more than one container.
Do MLA in-text citations use a comma?
No. Surname and page number sit side by side with only a space: (Wineburg 14).
How do I cite a source with no page numbers?
Give the author's surname alone. Do not substitute a paragraph or screen number unless the source itself numbers them.
Is it Works Cited or Bibliography in MLA?
Works Cited. It lists only the sources actually cited in the paper.
Does MLA 9 require the URL?
MLA 9 recommends including it, without the http:// prefix. Where a DOI exists, give that instead as it is more stable.