MLA 9th edition: how to format a Works Cited page

By Learning Media Publication · Updated 5 November 2026

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is common in English literature, languages and the humanities. The 9th edition (2021) is current. Like other styles, it has short citations in your text and a full list at the end, called Works Cited.

In-text citations

MLA uses the author's surname and the page number, with no comma and no "p.":

  • (Tagore 34)
  • If you name the author in the sentence, give only the page: "Tagore describes the river as a teacher (34)."
  • Two authors: (Mehta and Rao 12). Three or more: (Kapoor et al. 88).
  • No page numbers (most websites): give only the author: (Desai).

The core elements

MLA builds every entry from the same list of elements, in this order, leaving out any that don't apply:

  1. Author.
  2. Title of source.
  3. Title of container, (the journal, book, website or show that holds the source)
  4. Other contributors, (editor, translator)
  5. Version, (edition)
  6. Number, (volume and issue)
  7. Publisher,
  8. Publication date,
  9. Location. (pages, DOI or URL)

Examples

Book

Premchand. Godaan. Translated by Gordon C. Roadarmel, Permanent Black, 2002.

Journal article

Menon, Anjali. "Memory and Migration in Partition Fiction." Indian Literature, vol. 64, no. 3, 2020, pp. 140–55.

Web page

Kumar, Ravi. "How to Read a Poem Closely." Learning Media Blog, 12 Jan. 2024, learningmedia.in/blog/read-a-poem.

Film

Pather Panchali. Directed by Satyajit Ray, Government of West Bengal, 1955.

Formatting the Works Cited page

  • Start a new page titled Works Cited, centred, not bold.
  • Arrange entries alphabetically by the first word of each entry (usually the author's surname).
  • Use a hanging indent and double spacing.
  • Use Title Case for titles. Put titles of whole works (books, journals, films, websites) in italics and titles of parts (articles, chapters, poems) in "quotation marks".

Need it quickly? The MLA citation generator creates entries from a DOI, ISBN or title. Check each one against the rules above before you submit.

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