MLA Style: Using Source Material: The Works Cited List

MLA Style is the format used by the Modern Language Association. Most papers written for classes in the arts and humanities use MLA style; instructors in other disciplines may also prefer MLA format.

For additional information on MLA Style, consult

• MLA Handbook, 8th Edition
• The MLA Style Center at https://style.mla.org/mla-format/

Center the title Works Cited at the top of the page. Use double spacing and a hanging indent for entries; list sources in alphabetical order by the authors’ last names; alphabetize unsigned articles by the first word of the title (except for A, An, and The).

Each entry should contain as many of the following elements as are available:

Author's Name

• One Author: Write the name in inverted order, last name first:  Macdonald, Helen.
• Two Authors: Use inverted order for the first author and normal order for the second:  Stevenson, Robert Louis, and Lloyd Osbourne.
• Three or More Authors: Follow the first author's name with the abbreviation et al.:  Dunne, Peter, et al.
• No surname given: Keep the information in conventional order: Elizabeth I; United Nations
• Multiple works by the same author: Use the full name on the first entry for the author but use three em dashes or three hyphens in place of the author's name on subsequent entries. Alphabetize by title.

Title of Source and Container

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of a title, and every important word thereafter (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, subordinating conjunctions).

Titles of self-contained works should be written in italics; titles of shorter works contained in a longer work should be placed in quotation marks.

Other Contributors

Editors and translators should be named, as well as other significant contributors.

Version and Number

For sources released in more than one edition, include the version; for sources that are part of sequential series, include the volume/issue number.

Publisher and Date of Publication

The publisher of a book or website, if available, should be named, omitting business words like Inc. or Company. If the name of a website is the same as the publisher, leave the publisher space blank. If a nongovernmental agency is both the author and the publisher, list it only as the publisher.

The date of publication for a book will usually appear on the title page or the copyright page (on the back of the title page). Use the most recent date shown. Use only the year even if a full date is provided.

Dates for articles in periodicals normally appear on the cover of the periodical in the print version, near the author's name in an online version, and on the results list for the article in a research database. Use the most specific date provided, and write the full date in day-month-year style, abbreviating months except May, June, and July: 14 Oct. 2020, fall 2021

Include an access date at the end of the entry only for undated sources: Accessed 13 Oct. 2021.

Location

The location for a book chapter or journal/magazine article is the page range.

• Use only the last two digits of the second number in a page range, unless more digits are needed for clarity: 226-48, 397-405
• If an article in a periodical is not printed on consecutive pages, include only the first page number and a plus sign: 18+

The location for a website is the URL or DOI. Always use a DOI if one is available.

• If a DOI is not preceded by http:// or https://, precede it with: https://doi.org
• If a URL begins with the file protocol (http:// or https://), you may omit it
• Do not modify a URL by adding a space or a hyphen even if a long URL produces uneven line breaks