MLA 9 Works Cited Examples
Updated November 6, 2026
An MLA 9 works cited entry follows one pattern: the author, the title, the container it appeared in, and then details like the publisher, date, and location. Below are examples for books, journal articles, websites, and more.
Entries marked “(made-up example)” only show the format. The journal articles with DOIs are real, and we checked their details against Crossref.
The MLA 9 pattern
Every entry uses these parts, in this order:
Author. “Title of Source.” Title of Container, Other Contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.
A container is the larger thing that holds your source, like a journal or a website. Skip any part that doesn’t apply, and end with a period.
Books
Book with one author
Rivera, Ana. The Quiet River. Lantern Hill Press, 2021. (made-up example)
Book with two authors
Rivera, Ana, and Marcus Bell. Maps of the Old Coast. Lantern Hill Press, 2019. (made-up example)
Flip only the first author’s name.
Book with three or more authors
Bell, Marcus, et al. Learning to Read the Weather. Lantern Hill Press, 2020. (made-up example)
Later edition of a book
Bell, Marcus. Writing about Science. 3rd ed., Lantern Hill Press, 2022. (made-up example)
Translated book
Moreau, Claire. The Last Train. Translated by Ana Rivera, Lantern Hill Press, 2017. (made-up example)
Chapter in an edited book
Bell, Marcus. “Letters Home.” Stories from the Road, edited by Ana Rivera, Lantern Hill Press, 2018, pp. 24-34. (made-up example)
Journal articles
Article with one author
Cronon, William. “The Trouble with Wilderness: Or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.” Environmental History, vol. 1, no. 1, 1996, pp. 7-28, https://doi.org/10.2307/3985059.
Article with two authors
Mueller, Pam A., and Daniel M. Oppenheimer. “The Pen Is Mightier than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand over Laptop Note Taking.” Psychological Science, vol. 25, no. 6, 2014, pp. 1159-68, https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614524581.
Article with three or more authors
Vosoughi, Soroush, et al. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science, vol. 359, no. 6380, 2018, pp. 1146-51, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aap9559.
If the journal gives a month or season, put it before the year, as in “June 2014.” Page numbers are optional for online articles, but they help your reader.
Article from a database, with no DOI
Okafor, Lena. “Reading Maps in Early American Novels.” American Journal of Narrative Maps, vol. 12, no. 2, 2019, pp. 101-19. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/00000000. (made-up example)
The database is a second container. Put a period after the page numbers, then the database name in italics. Use a permalink if you can. If the article has a DOI, use that instead. Our guide on what a DOI is shows where to find one.
Websites
Web page with an author
Chen, Maya. “How Campus Food Pantries Work.” Student Voices Online, 12 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/food-pantries. (made-up example)
Web page with no author
“How Campus Food Pantries Work.” Student Voices Online, 12 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/food-pantries. (made-up example)
Start with the title, and file the entry by its first main word.
Web page with no date
Chen, Maya. “Study Tips for Finals.” Student Voices Online, www.example.org/study-tips. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. (made-up example)
News and magazines
Newspaper article, in print
Patel, Riya. “City Adds Late-Night Bus Route for Students.” Lakeside Times, 3 Feb. 2025, p. A4. (made-up example)
Newspaper article, online
Patel, Riya. “City Adds Late-Night Bus Route for Students.” Lakeside Times, 3 Feb. 2025, www.example.org/bus-route. (made-up example)
Magazine article
Lopez, Daniel. “Why Bees Matter.” Field Notes Monthly, Apr. 2024, pp. 70-71. (made-up example)
Videos and AI
YouTube video
“How Bees Find Their Way Home.” YouTube, uploaded by Campus Science Club, 14 May 2024, www.youtube.com/watch?v=example. (made-up example)
If a different person created the video, put that name first.
AI tool
“Explain the water cycle in two sentences” prompt. ExampleBot, version 2, Example AI, 8 Mar. 2026, www.example.org/chat. (made-up example)
The MLA doesn’t treat an AI tool as an author. Describe the prompt in the title spot instead. Follow your school’s rules on AI, too.
How to format your Works Cited page
These rules come from Purdue OWL and the MLA Style Center.
| Rule | What to do |
|---|---|
| Title | Center the words Works Cited at the top of a new page, with no bold or italics |
| Spacing | Double-space everything, with no extra space between entries |
| Indent | Use a 0.5-inch hanging indent |
| Order | List entries alphabetically by the author’s last name |
| Titles | Italicize books and journals. Put articles and web pages in quotation marks. |
| Capitals | Capitalize major words. Lowercase prepositions, conjunctions, and “a,” “an,” and “the” unless they start a title or subtitle. |
| Months | Shorten all months except May, June, and July |
| Publishers | Drop words like Inc. and Co. Write Oxford UP, not Oxford University Press. |
| Page ranges | Use a hyphen and shorten the second number: pp. 225-50 |
| DOIs | Always start with https://doi.org/ |
| URLs | You can usually leave off https:// |
Each entry needs a matching in-text citation in your paper. In MLA, that’s the author’s last name and the page you used, with no comma. It looks like this: (Mueller and Oppenheimer 1160).
A free citation generator can give you a first draft. Compare the result with the examples above before you turn in your paper. Need to add notes under each entry? See our guide to the annotated bibliography. If your class uses a different style, see our Chicago style examples.
Common questions
Do I need an access date in MLA 9?
Usually not. Add one when a web page has no date, or when the page is likely to change.
Should I include https:// in a URL?
You can usually leave it off a regular web address. A DOI is different. Always keep https://doi.org/ in front of it.
How do I cite a source with no author?
Start the entry with the title. Then put it in alphabetical order by the first main word, skipping “a,” “an,” and “the.”