MLA 9th Edition — Complete Citation Guide

MLA 9th edition — overview

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is the standard citation format in the humanities — particularly English literature, literary criticism, languages, film studies, and cultural studies. The 9th edition was published in 2021 and refined the container model introduced in the 8th edition.

MLA uses an author–page in-text citation system: in-text citations consist of the author's surname and the page number, placed in parentheses. The Works Cited page lists all sources in full.

• In-text: (Smith 45) or Smith argues that… (45)
• Works Cited: Alphabetical by author surname, hanging indent
• Titles: Italicise books, journals, films, websites; quote shorter works (articles, chapters, poems, episodes)

The MLA container system

The core innovation of MLA 8th and 9th is the container system: every source element is placed into one of nine standard slots, and larger works that "contain" a source (a journal contains articles; a website contains pages; a streaming platform contains films) are called containers. This makes one template work for every source type.

Omit any element you don't have. Some sources have two containers (e.g. a journal article accessed through a database: Container 1 = the journal; Container 2 = the database). Repeat the container elements for the second container.

In-text (parenthetical) citations

Standard — author surname + page number

Narrative citation — author named in sentence

No page number — use paragraph number, section, or timestamp

No author — use shortened title

Two authors

Three or more authors — first author + "et al."

Works Cited rules

• Title the page Works Cited (centred, not bold or italicised)
• Double-space all entries; use a hanging indent
• Alphabetise by author's last name (or by title if no author)
• Capitalise titles in Title Case (all major words)
• Italicise titles of independent works (books, journals, websites, films)
• Put titles of shorter works in quotation marks (articles, chapters, episodes, poems)
• End each element with a period (or comma before a container)

Journal article

Book

Chapter in an edited book

Website / webpage

Film / streamed video

Key changes in MLA 9th edition

• Inclusive language guidance: New section on using person-first and identity-affirming language
• Works Cited vs Bibliography: "Works Cited" remains the standard; "Bibliography" is only used for annotated bibliographies
• URLs: Include when stable; omit "http://" but keep "https://"
• City of publication: Still omitted (as in 8th edition)
• Social media: New examples for tweets, Instagram posts, etc.
• Annotations: Guidance on how to add annotations to Works Cited entries for annotated bibliographies

Common MLA mistakes

• Using the author–date format (APA style) instead of author–page
• Forgetting to italicise journal/book titles and quote shorter work titles
• Not including the volume and issue number for journal articles
• Capitalising only the first word of titles (APA style) instead of all major words (MLA Title Case)
• Omitting the access date for websites that change frequently
• Putting a comma instead of a period after the author's name in Works Cited