Citation Styles

The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a MLA Formatting and Style Guide.

Use Purdue OWL for help with:

• In-text citations
• Examples of citations by source
• Works Cited formatting
• Paper formatting

Research Toolkit - How to Cite Sources with MLA 

MLA Escape Room

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MLA style was updated to the 8th edition in 2016.

Now included in citations are:

• Permalinks, URLS, and digital object identifiers (DOIs)
  • When putting a permalink, URL, or DOI in a citation, remove http:// or https:// from it.
• Abbreviations for volume (vol.), issue number (no.), and pages (p. for one page and pp. for two pages)

No longer included in citations are:

• Place (i.e. city) of publication
• Medium, like print or web

• Start the Works Cited on a new page after the end of your paper.
• Use 1-inch margins.
• Name it Works Cited. Center the words, "Work Cited," on the top of the page.
• Set to double space.
• Use a hanging indentation.
  • The first line of each citation is left aligned. If the citation continues on a second line(s), indent the second and subsequent lines by one (1) inch.
  • Use the hanging indentation feature in your word processor for easier formatting. 
• Keep numbering the pages consecutively.
  • Use the running head with the format of Last Name Page Number (e.g. Smith 5).
  • Don't use the abbreviation of p. before the number in your header.
  • Don't restart the count for the Works Cited page(s).

In MLA 8th edition, sources are described by their "containers," meaning the resource(s) that houses the source. For example, a scholarly article is in a journal, which is its "first container." A database containing that article and the journal issue in which it was published is its "second container." Details about a container (e.g. a journal issue) are separated by commas. Different containers are indicated by periods (e.g. between information about a journal issue and information about a database).

• Put the in-text citation at the end of the sentence and before the period.
• Last names of author(s) can go in your sentence or in the parentheses. 
  • Format in-text citations as: (Last Name of Author(s) Page Number(s) ).
  • For example: (Smith 280).
• Page numbers must go in the parentheses.
  • Do not write page numbers in the text of your sentence. Only put them in the in-text citation.
  • For example: (157). 
• When there is no author name, put the business or organization name in place of the last name(s) in the parentheses.
  • For example: (Central Intelligence Agency 50).
• When there is no known author(s), business, or organization responsible for the work that you are citing, put the title of the work in the parentheses. 
  • For titles of articles and other short works, put the title in quotation marks. For example: ("Environment" 32).
  • For titles of books, websites, and other longer sources, put the title in italics. For example: (Environment 422). 
• For 2 authors, include both last names in the parentheses.
  • For example: (Miller and Miller 75).
• For  3 authors, use only the first author's last name. After the first author's last name, put a comma and et al.
  • For example: (Yan, et al. 82).
• For media, like films and music, include the time in hours, minutes, and seconds. For a clip, indicate the time as a range. 
  • For example: (Othello 00:22:05-15).
• When you have two authors with the same last name, use the first initial to differentiate them. When the first initial is the same, include the authors' full first names. 
  • For example: (J. Doe 24)
  • For example: (John Doe 24). 
• When you are referring to multiple sources in one sentence, put the in-text citations in the same parentheses and separate them by semicolons. 
  • For example: (Kratz 89; Smith 280).