Key takeaways
- Put Works Cited on a new page, centered at the top, with double-spaced entries, a half-inch hanging indent and alphabetical order.
- Every MLA 9 entry follows the same nine core elements in order, and you leave out any element that does not apply.
- Use et al. after the first author when a source has three or more authors, in both the entry and the in-text citation.
- Access dates are optional in MLA 9; add one when a web page has no date or may change.
An MLA 9 Works Cited page is a list of every source you quote or paraphrase, placed on its own page at the end of your paper. Each entry follows the same order of parts, called core elements, so a reader can find the source. This guide covers the page layout, the order of those elements, and worked examples for a web page, a book, a journal article from a database and a YouTube video. If you only need one entry fast, the free MLA citation generator builds it in your browser.
How to format the Works Cited page
Purdue OWL's MLA guide gives the layout rules:
- New page. Start the list on a separate page after the last page of your paper. Keep the same one-inch margins and the last-name-and-page-number header.
- Title. Type Works Cited, centered at the top. No bold, no italics, no quotation marks. Only the title is centered.
- Double spacing. Double-space every entry, with no extra blank line between entries.
- Hanging indent. The first line of each entry starts at the left margin. Every line after it is indented half an inch.
- Alphabetical order. Sort entries by the first word of each entry, which is usually the author's last name. When a source has no author, it starts with its title and is sorted by that title.
Every entry on the list must match a source you actually cite in the paper, and every source you cite needs an entry.
The MLA 9 core elements, in order
MLA builds every entry from the same nine elements. Use the ones that apply and skip the rest:
- Author.
- Title of source.
- Title of container,
- Other contributors,
- Version,
- Number,
- Publisher,
- Publication date,
- Location.
A container is the larger work that holds your source. A web page sits inside a website. An article sits inside a journal. A video sits inside YouTube. Some sources have a second container, such as a journal article you read through a database. The second container's details go after the first one's.
A few rules cover most questions:
- Missing elements. If an element does not apply or you cannot find it, leave it out. With no author, start the entry with the title.
- Authors. One author is written Last, First. Two authors are Last, First, and First Last. Three or more authors become the first author's name followed by "et al.", Latin for "and others".
- Titles. Put shorter works, such as articles, web pages and videos, in quotation marks. Italicize longer works and containers, such as books, journals, websites and databases. Capitalize the main words of every title.
- Publisher. You can leave it out for journals and magazines, and for sites like YouTube or JSTOR that only host other people's work.
- URLs and DOIs. You may drop http:// or https:// from a URL. Keep a DOI whole, written as https://doi.org/ followed by the number.
- Access dates. These are optional in MLA 9. Add "Accessed" and the date when a page has no publication date or is likely to change.
Plain text cannot show italics, so each example below says which parts to italicize. The sources are made up, except the book, so you can focus on the pattern.
Example 1: A page on a website
Template: Author. "Title of Page." Website Name, Publication Date, URL.
Rivera, Ana. "Why Cities Are Planting Pocket Forests." Green Streets Journal, 3 Feb. 2025, www.greenstreetsjournal.org/pocket-forests.
Italicize: Green Streets Journal.
If the page showed no date, you would end with an access date instead: "... www.greenstreetsjournal.org/pocket-forests. Accessed 10 Oct. 2026."
Example 2: A book
Template: Author. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
Gleick, James. Chaos: Making a New Science. Penguin, 1987.
Italicize: Chaos: Making a New Science.
MLA 9 does not ask for the city of publication in most cases. Purdue OWL lists only a few exceptions, such as books published before 1900.
Example 3: A journal article from a database
A database article has two containers: the journal, then the database.
Template: Author. "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #-#. Database Name, DOI or URL.
Okafor, Ben, et al. "Sleep and Memory in First-Year Students." Journal of Campus Health, vol. 14, no. 2, 2023, pp. 45-61. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.0000/jch.2023.0042.
Italicize: Journal of Campus Health and JSTOR.
The article has three authors, so only the first is named, followed by "et al." No publisher appears, because journals and databases like JSTOR do not need one.
Example 4: A YouTube video
The MLA Style Center gives two patterns. When the creator is clear, start with the creator:
Science Made Simple. "How Vaccines Train Your Immune System." YouTube, 18 Apr. 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=abc123.
When the creator is unclear, start with the title and name the account after the container:
"Raccoon Opens a Locked Cooler." YouTube, uploaded by Dana Lee, 2 June 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyz789.
Italicize: YouTube.
How the in-text citation pairs with the entry
Each Works Cited entry has a partner in your sentences. The in-text citation gives the first thing in the entry, usually the author's last name, plus a page number when there is one. Use no comma between them.
- Book: (Gleick 112)
- Three or more authors: (Okafor et al. 50)
- Web page with no page numbers: (Rivera)
- No author: a shortened title, such as ("Raccoon Opens")
The rule is simple. A reader should be able to take the word in your parentheses and find it at the start of one entry on your Works Cited page. That is why both must start with the same word.
Using a generator, and what to check after
The MLA works cited generator on this site handles three source types: Website / Web Page, Book and Journal Article. You type the authors as First Last, separated by commas, and it reorders the first name to Last, First. Three or more names become the first author plus "et al." It runs in your browser, and the entry appears once you enter a title.
Check a few things before you paste:
- Italics. The output is plain text. Italicize the book, website or journal name yourself.
- Database and DOI. The journal form has no database or DOI field. Add "JSTOR, https://doi.org/..." at the end by hand.
- Videos. There is no video type. For a creator-led YouTube video, choose Website, put YouTube as the site name and the full date in the year field. Add "uploaded by" yourself if needed.
- Layout. Apply the hanging indent and double spacing in your word processor.
- Title case. Titles print exactly as you type them, so capitalize them properly.
Writing for a class that uses APA? The APA citation generator builds APA 7 references from the same fields. For Chicago, Harvard, IEEE and others, the citation generator lets you switch styles.
Quick checklist before you submit
- Works Cited is centered at the top of a new page.
- Entries are double-spaced with a half-inch hanging indent.
- Entries are in alphabetical order.
- Each entry follows the core-element order, with missing elements left out.
- Books, journals, websites and databases are italicized. Articles, pages and videos are in quotation marks.
- Every in-text citation matches the first word of an entry.
When you are ready to build your list, open the MLA citation generator, make one entry per source, and paste them in order.
Frequently asked questions
Start a new page at the end of your paper and center the title Works Cited at the top, with no bold or italics. Double-space every entry without extra blank lines, give each entry a half-inch hanging indent, and sort the entries alphabetically by the first word, usually the author's last name.
The nine core elements are author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date and location. Each is followed by its punctuation, mostly periods and commas. You include only the elements that apply to your source and simply leave out any that do not or that you cannot find.
No. An access date is optional in MLA 9. It is worth adding when a web page has no publication date or is likely to change or disappear. Write it at the end of the entry as the word Accessed followed by the date, for example Accessed 10 Oct. 2026.
Name only the first author, written Last, First, and follow it with et al., which is Latin for and others. For example: Okafor, Ben, et al. The in-text citation works the same way, using the first author's last name plus et al. and the page, as in (Okafor et al. 50).
No. The thetoolskit.co MLA citation generator produces plain text, so it cannot show italics. After pasting, italicize the book, website, journal or database name yourself. It also has no database, DOI or video fields, and the hanging indent and double spacing are set in your word processor.