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ENGL 01A Daughdrill

College Composition and Reading

MLA 9

MLA style is a citation style usually used in English and the humanities. MLA stands for the Modern Language Association.

Current Version

  • The 9th edition (2021) of MLA is very similar to that of the 8th edition (2016).

Official Guidance

Introduction to MLA

"Introduction to Citation Styles: MLA 9th ed." (3:38) by CSUDH Library is licensed under CC BY 3.0

Interactive Tutorial

Workshop Recording & Materials

Basic Guidelines

  • Use a legible typeface, such as Times New Roman
  • Use size 12
  • Double-space the entire paper
  • Use 1 inch margins
  • Use one space after periods and other punctuation marks
  • Indent paragraphs with the tab key on your computer keyboard

Guidance from MLA & Purdue OWL

How to Set Up in Microsoft 365

"Format an Office 365 Document in MLA" (4:58) is by lsccyfairlibrary. 

"This video walks you through setting up a blank Office 365 document in MLA format." The video also shares how to create a page break for a Works Cited page. Although this video is from 2020, paper formatting is the same between the 8th (2016) and 9th (2021) editions. Please note that Office 365 was rebranded as Microsoft 365, but the instructions shown in the video are not affected by the rebranding.

Why Cite?

  • To give credit to others for their ideas
  • To provide support for your argument
  • To help your reader find and read the sources you used

When to Cite

  • Paraphrasing, summarizing, or directly quoting from any source
  • Acknowledging another person for an idea
  • Using your own previous work

How to Cite

MLA citation requires two parts:

  1. In-Text Citations - brief citations included within the text of your paper. They point your reader to the full citation at the end of your paper.
  2. Work Cited Page - a page at the end of your paper listing all the sources you used.

General Information

  • In-text citation refers to the brief citations included within the text of your paper. They point your reader to the full citation at the end of your paper.
  • In MLA, the in-text citation is: generally placed in parentheses at the end of your sentence with the author's last name and page number.
  • The period goes on the outside of the parentheses.
  • You can also include the author's name in the text itself and simply place the page number in parentheses.

Guidance from MLA & Purdue OWL

Examples

1 Author
  • Author's last name followed by page number(s) with the period outside the parentheses
    • (Davis 145).
  • Author's last name may be excluded if it's in the introductory text
    • Richard Davis found that "…" (145).
2 Authors from Same Source
  • If referring to two authors of the same text, join the authors' last names with the word and
    • (Bullock and Merritt 219).
Authors from More Than One Source
  • If referring to more than one source in the same citation, separate the author last names with a semi-colon
    • (García 18-20; Ryan 302).
No Authors
  • If there is no author, use the first part of the citation that would be found in the Works Cited page
    • (National Committee 37).
No Pages
  • Leave it off
    • (Nguyen) 

General Information

  • Works Cited refers to the page at the end of your paper listing all the sources you used.
  • Works Cited should be centered at the top of the page
  • Order citations alphabetically, typically by author last name
  • Format author(s) in citations as follows:
    • 1 author: last name, first name.
      •  Reddy, Anisha.
    • 2 authors: last name, first name, and first name last name.
      • Reddy, Anisha, and Nate Conner. 
    • 3 authors or more: last name, first name, et al.
      • Jones, Steve, et al.
  • For citations that are longer than one line, include a hanging indent after the first line
  • Place quotation marks around sources in containers, such as a poem, short story, book chapter, journal article, etc.
  • Italicize sources for standalone items, such as a novel, play, journal, book, etc.
  • Capitalize main words in a title and subtitle
    • don't capitalize words like a, an, the, is, etc., unless it's the first word in the title or subtitle
  • DOIs are preferred over permalinks for scholarly journal articles. If the DOI doesn't have https://, precede the DOI with https://doi.org/
    • https://doi.org/10.1002/tox.20155
  • You can usually omit the http:// or https:// from URLs (keep for DOI, though)
  • The access date is a supplemental element.
    • Access date is not needed for content from library databases.
    • Access date is recommended for online sources that don't have a publication date / can be removed or changed. If included, add the access date at the end of your citation as follows:
      • Accessed Day Mon. Year.

Guidance from MLA & Purdue OWL