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MLA 9 Citation Samples

This page explains core elements of MLA 9th edition citations and how to format a Works Cited page. It also provides full citation examples of commonly cited sources.

MLA 9 Core Elements

MLA 9th edition focuses on clarification, guidance, and expansion of MLA 8, an edition that featured extensive changes. MLA 8 was designed to be more user-friendly, with built-in flexibility that allowed writers to cite their sources in ways that work best for their specific projects. MLA 9 was created in response to feedback asking for clarification and expansion on the meaning of each category or core element in different contexts of documentation. 

MLA 9 requires researchers to locate all “core elements” provided for each source used, and list them in the following order with the accompanying punctuation:

List of Core Elements

  1. Author Last Name, (The person(s) or organization that created the source.)
  2. First Name, Middle Name or Initial.
  3. Title of Longer Work or “Title of Shorter Work.” (The specific name of the source. Book and movie titles are in italics but article titles, chapter titles, episode titles, etc. are in quotation marks.)
  4. Title of Container (if the cited work is shorter). (When the source is part of a larger whole (ex. an article in a journal), the larger whole can be thought of as a container that holds the source.)
  5. Publisher, (Organization responsible for producing the source.)
  6. Year. (Date that the source/container was published.)
  7. Location, URL or DOI. (Page number, chapter, section, DOI, website URL or permalink.)

Works Cited Page Format

MLA citations are listed in a bibliography called the Works Cited page, which typically appears at the end of a paper or presentation. List citations alphabetically by the last name of the first author, or if no author then by the letter of the first word in a title. The font should be 12 pt Times New Roman. For more formatting information see the sample below. For a screen-reader friendly version of a sample Works Cited page, visit the “MLA Sample Works Cited Page” on the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL).

Screenshot of MLA 9 Works Cited page. Visit links surrounding this image for screenreader friendly or audio description versions of an MLA 9 Works Cited page.

Here is an audio/video description of how to format a Works Cited page from Purdue OWL.

Citation Examples

Print Book

  1. Author(s). Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, subsequent authors names should be First Name Last Name.
  2. Title of the Book. Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Edition If there are multiple editions, use the format 1st/2nd/3rd ed.,
  4. Publisher,
  5. Publication date.

Example:

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 1st ed., J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1960.

eBook

  1. Author(s). Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, subsequent authors names should be First Name Last Name.
  2. Title of the Book, Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Editors, If there is one editor, use the format edited by Last Name, First Name. If there are multiple editors, subsequent editors names should be First Name Last Name.
  4. Publisher,
  5. Publication date.
  6. Database, Use italics for names of databases.
  7. URL or permalink.

Example:

Davis, Cynthia, and Verner Mitchell. Literary Sisters: Dorothy West and Her Circle, a Biography of the Harlem Renaissance. Rutgers University Press, 2011. Ebook Central University Press, alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/j0np4a/CP71344215450001451.

Journal article

  1. Author(s). Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, subsequent authors names should be First Name Last Name.
  2. “Title of the Article.” Include the title of a shorter work like an article in a journal in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Journal, Use italics for the title of a longer work like a journal and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. vol. #, Sometimes the volume and issue number will be presented like this: 12:2. The first is the volume number, the second the issue.
  5. no. #, If there is no additional number after the volume, only include the volume number.
  6. Publication date,
  7. pp. xxx-xxx.

If accessed online or in a library database…

  • Database, Note: Use italics for names of databases.
  • URL or permalink.

Example: 

Gosine, Kevin, and Emmanuel Tabi. “Disrupting Neoliberalism and Bridging the Multiple Worlds of Marginalized Youth via Hip-Hop Pedagogy: Contemplating Possibilities.”Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, vol. 38, no. 5, 2016, pp. 445-467. ResearchGate, doi: 10.1080/10714413.2016.1221712.

News/

News/Magazine article

  1. Author(s). Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, subsequent authors names should be First Name Last Name.
  2. “Title of the Article.” Include the title in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Newspaper or Magazine, Use italics for the title of a longer work like a newspaper or online publication and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. Publication date, Note: Use the format Date Abbreviated Month Year.
  5. URL.

Example: 

Cochrane, Emily, and Noah Weiland. “Hillary Clinton, the N.F.L., Roy Moore and Other Asides from the President.” The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2018, https://nyti.ms/2zf1TPB.

Book Chapter

  1. Author(s) of the Chapter. Use the format Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial. If there are multiple authors, subsequent authors’ names should be First Name Last Name.
  2. “Title of the Chapter.” Include the title of the chapter in quotation marks and use headline-style capitalization.
  3. Title of the Book, Use italics for the title of a longer work like a book and use headline-style capitalization.
  4. Editors, If there is one editor, use the format edited by Last Name, First Name. If there are multiple editors, subsequent editors’ names should be written First Name Last Name.
  5. Publisher,
  6. Publication date,
  7. pp. xxx-xxx.
  8. Database, Note: Use italics for names of databases.
  9. URL or permalink.

Example: 

Green, David. “Supporting the Academic Success of Hispanic Students.”College Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know, edited by Andrew D. Asher and Lynda M. Duke, ALA Editions, 2011. Ebook Central Academic Complete, https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/j0np4a/CP71189527330001451.

Web Page

  1. Author. If there is no individual author, begin the citation with “Title of the Page.”
  2. “Title of Page, Section, or Document.”
  3. Publisher, The name of the website usually.
  4. URL,
  5. (Optional) Accessed Date. Add the date you viewed the web page if the information on the page seems likely to change.Ex: accessed August 1, 2024.

Example:

“Interactive Practice Template.” MLA Style Center, https://style.mla.org/interactive-practice-template/. Accessed August 1, 2024.

More information on citations can be found at the PCC Library website.
Information and examples used in this handout are from Purdue Online Writing Lab and University of West Florida.

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