MLA referencing (9th ed.)
MLA citation Style
Download the MLA 9th Quick Guide at the bottom of this page
The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. The following examples are based on the MLA Handbook (9th ed., 2021).
MLA uses a two-part system of citation:
- In-text citation: short parenthetical citations, embedded within the text of the essay itself.
- A “Works Cited” list that follows up these references with fuller details of the sources, in an alphabetically ordered list. This includes both primary and secondary texts you used in writing your assignment. All entries in the Works Cited page must correspond to the works cited in your main text.
Note:
- Titles of whole books, plays, films and artworks should be in italics. In the context of using EndNote, this style is referred to MLA-italics.
- Titles of chapters, articles, essays and poems that are part of longer works should be in “quotation marks” with no italics.
- ‘Title case’ should be used, i.e. capitalise each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalise articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
- The first line of a reference should have a hanging indent.
In-text citation
The usual information included in an in-text citation is (Author’s surname and page number), or just (page number) if the author is named in the sentence. No commas and/or ‘p.’ or ‘pg’ are needed. The reference appears in brackets at the end of the sentence that contains the quotation from or reference to your source. Punctuation comes after the citation. A full reference to the resource should then be included in the Works Cited page at the end of the essay. For example:
- Author mentioned in text: Jones emphasises this point (156-7).
- Author mentioned only in reference: This point has been emphasised (Jones 156-7).
- Material found in indirect source: Greenwood supports this view (in Jones 66).
With some electronic sources, you will have page numbers to refer to (especially PDF format files), but if the source isn’t paginated, don’t worry about providing page numbers in the in-text citation for that source. Instead, you may include section (sect./sects.), chapter (ch./chs.) or paragraph (par./pars.) numbers if they are given in the source. If the author’s name is not mentioned in your prose, include the name in the citation followed by a comma, e.g.
There is little evidence here for the claim that “Eagleton has belittled the gains of postmodernism” (Chan, par. 41).
When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference, like so (00:02:15-00:02:35).
If you are dealing with more than one source by the same author, include a short version of the title of the text within the citation to help distinguish between the sources. For example:
“Montaigne’s understanding of the potential for barbarity within “civilisation” is portrayed, for instance, in examining the relative associations with ostentatious transport (“Of Coaches” 439-45), perfume and cosmetics used to cover commonplace stench (“Of Smells” 213), and the primitive understanding of medicine in the France of his day (“Of Experience” 520-22).”
