MLA Style Guide

As part of MLA style, you are required to have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. This is important because it gives credit to the original content creators and allows readers to locate sources you referenced in your paper by providing complete publication information for each of those resources.

Formatting

For your Works Cited page:

• Include the words "Works Cited" centered at the top of the page (NOT bolded, underlined, italicized, in a larger font, or in quotation marks)
• Double-space, alphabetize, and apply a hanging indent (all but the first line is indented) to each entry
• For works with 3 or more authors, use the first author's full name followed by "et al."
• Italicize larger works and use quotation marks for shorter works
• Use "p." for a single page, and "pp." for a range of pages
  • Ex: "p. 3" vs. "pp. 20-25"
• Include website URLs or DOI numbers
• For journals, use the season or month in addition to the volume and issue numbers
  • Ex: vol. 22, no. 4, June 2016

Citations may vary here and there depending on the source or the amount of publication information you have available to you, but they all follow the same formula:

Author. Title of Source. Title of Container (such as a journal title), Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.

This guide covers some common examples below. Always refer to MLA Style Central or the MLA Handbook for the most accurate citation guidelines.

Book with One Author

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

• Sword, Helen. Stylish Academic Writing. Harvard U, 2012.

Book with Two Authors

Last Name, First Name, and FirstName LastName. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

• Morentson, Greg and David Oliver Relin. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a Time. Penguin Books, 2007.

Book with Three or More Authors

Last Name, First Name, et al.. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

• Howe, Roger J., et al. Quality on Trial. West Publishing Company, 1993.

Reference Book, such as a print encyclopedia

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection, edited by Editor's Name(s), Publisher, Year, Page range of entry.

• "Neurodevelopmental Disorders." American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-5. 5th ed., American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 31-86.
• Booker, Keith M. "English Dystopian Satire in Context." A Companion to the British and Irish Novel: 1945-2000, edited by Brian W. Shaffer, Blackwell, 2005, pp. 32-44.

When the reference book is part of a multi-volume set:

If you only use one volume:

• "Rabies." Infectious Diseases. Edited by Brenda Wilmoth Lerner and K. Lee Lerner. Vol 2, Thompson/Gale, 2008.

If you use two or more volumes from the same set:

• Taruskin, Richard, editor. The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford U P, 2005. 6 vols.

General eBook Format

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. E-book Ed., Publisher, Publication Date.

• Lupi, Giorgia and Stefanie Posavec. Dear Data. Kindle ed., Princeton Architectural Press, 2016.

An eBook from Library Database

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Edition, if given, Publisher, Date of Publication. Name of Library Database, Permalink URL.

• Benson, Michael. Why the Grateful Dead Matter. ForeEdge, 2016, EBSCO eBook Collection, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1090847

An eBook from Google Books

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication Date. Google Books, Permalink URL. Accessed Date.

• Curtin, Jeremiah. Hero-Tales of Ireland. Little, Brown, 1921. Google Books. books.google.com/books?
       id=2zHaAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=ireland&f=false.

An Introduction, Preface, Forward, or Afterward

Author of section's Last Name, First Name. Title of section used. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication date, Page range of entry.

• Hardy, Doug. Introduction. Career wisdom for college students: Insights you won't get in class, on the Internet, or from your parents. Ferguson, 2007, pp. vii-x.

A Short Story or Poem

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Short Story or Poem." Title of Book, edited by FirstName LastName, City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

• Sexton, Anne. "Funnel." To Bedlam and Part Way Back."  Houghton Mifflin Company, 1960, pp. 28-29.

A Work in an Anthology

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection, edited by FirstName LastName, City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date, Page range of entry.

• Zaimof, Gueni. "The Star Obscure." Women on War: An International anthology of writings from Antiquity to the present, edited by Daniela Gioseffi, Feminist Press at the City U of New York, 2003, p. 131.

The Bible

The Bible. Name of Version, Edition, Publisher, Publication Date.

Include editor's information, if known.

Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.

• The Bible. The New American version, Catholic Bible, 1991.
• The New Jerusalem Bible. Edited by Susan Jones, Doubleday, 1985.

Article in a Scholarly Journal

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, Date of Publication, Page(s).

• Bathgate, Meghan E., et al. “Children’s Motivation Toward Science Across Contexts, Manner of Interaction, and Topic.” Science Education, vol. 98, no. 2, Mar. 2014, pp. 189–215. 

Article in a Magazine or Newspaper

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, vol. #, no. # (or newspaper edition, such as early or late), Date of Publication, Page(s).

If the magazine you are citing is published every week or every other week, give the complete date in the citation. if not, include the month and year.

• Brindley, David. “Forests, For Life.” National Geographic, vol. 241, no. 5, 1 May 2022, pp. 4–5.
• Houser, Mark, et al. “A History of Pittsburgh in 50 Artifacts.” Pittsburgh Magazine, Mar. 2017, pp. 42–73.

Article from Library Database

Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal, vol. #, no. #, Date of Publication, Page(s). Database Used, Permalink URL.

Make a note of which database you are searching and the date you accessed the information, as you will need to include this information in your reference list.

• Strach, Patricia, and Kathleen S. Sullivan. “The Tradeoff Between Corruption and Capacity: The Case of Nineteenth Century St. Louis and Pittsburgh.” Public Integrity, Jan. 2025, pp. 1–13. EBSCOhost, https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=712a5605-ab99-35cf-8196-7d4caae4c00c.
• Barrett, James R. “Americanization from the Bottom Up: Immigration and the Remaking of the Working Class in the United States, 1880-1930.” The Journal of American History, vol. 79, no. 3, 1992, pp. 996–1020. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2080796.

Reference Database, such as Issues & Controversies

Author(s). "Title of Entry." Title of Encyclopedia or Dictionary, edited by FirstName LastName, Edition if given and not first edition, Publisher Name, Date of Publication, Page(s). Name of Database, Permalink URL.

Note that you may not have all of the information listed above.

• “Cell Phone Bans.” Issues & Controversies, Infobase, 2 June 2025, https://icof.infobase.com/articles/QXJ0aWNsZVRleHQ6NTU0MzQxNg==?aid=95504.
• "Caravaggio." Britannica Academic, Encyclopædia Britannica, 13 Feb. 2025. academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Caravaggio/20229. 

Article on a Website

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Title of Website, Publication Date, URL Permalink.

• Deresiewicz, William. "The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur." The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/ the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-thecreative-entrepreneur/383497/.

Online Video

Last Name, First Name. "Title of Video." Title of Website. Date of Publication, Permalink URL.

• Hendren, Robert L. "Robert Hendren, D.O.: Autism." American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. May 2008, www.aacap.org/AACAP/Families_and_Youth/Resource_Centers/Autism_Resource_Center/Home.aspx.

YouTube Video

Name of Author. "Title of Video." YoutTube, uploaded by Name, Upload Date, Permalink URL.

• "Dixmont: Breakdown of Mental Hospital." YouTube, uploaded by WQED, 13 May, 2020, https://youtu.be/LkyZWMvnLWI?si=xRpGKoi0Ktvy7K3I.