MLA 9th edition citation guide
Used in: English, literature, languages, philosophy, and the humanities.
MLA (Modern Language Association) style uses author–page citations in the text and a “Works Cited” list at the end. The 9th edition builds on the container model — every source is described by a consistent set of elements (author, title, container, version, number, publisher, date, location).
In-text citations
Parenthetical
(Smith and Lee 215)Author surname and page number — no comma, no year.
Narrative
Smith and Lee argue that attention is finite (215).Author named in the sentence; page number in parentheses.
No page number
(Khan)For sources without pages (e.g., websites), use the author alone.
Reference list examples
Generated by Folio's citation engine — the same one that formats your bibliography as you write.
Journal article
Smith, Jane, and Robert Lee. “Working Memory Capacity and the Control of Attention.” Journal of Cognitive Science, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 210–225, https://doi.org/10.1000/jcs.2021.0123.
Book
García, Maria. The Architecture of Memory. Academic Press, 2019.
Book chapter
Chen, Liang. “Attention and Encoding.” Handbook of Cognition, edited by Dana Park, University Press, 2020, pp. 88–110.
Website
Khan, Aisha. Understanding Research Methods. 2023, https://example.org/research-methods.
Quick checklist
Do
- Title the list “Works Cited.”
- Use title case for titles; italicize containers (journals, books, websites).
- List a DOI (preferred) or a stable URL as the “location.”
- Use a hanging indent and alphabetize by author surname.
Don't
- Don’t include the year in the in-text citation — only author and page.
- Don’t abbreviate months in the date as you would in APA.
- Don’t prefix URLs with “http://” in the entry — MLA omits the protocol.
Cite in MLA automatically
Paste a DOI into the free generator, or cite as you write in Folio.