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Citing Sources (Citation Styles): MLA Style, 9th Edition

MLA 9th Edition: Core Elements

The Works Cited is a list of references used throughout an assignment. This list is in alphabetical order, double spaced, and has a half-inch hanging indent. Sources should be diverse and may include book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, webpages, and videos, but all sources follow the same, universal, set of guidelines (listed below).

The Core Elements of the universal guidelines remain the same as in the 8th edition, and are listed in the same order: author, title, container, contributor, version, number, publisher, date and location. If any information is not available or missing, omit it from the works cited, as in the example below for the contributor and number elements:

Core Elements: Contents and Formatting: Example:
1. Author. Last name, First name. Trask, Haunani-Kay.
2. Title of Source. "Title of Article or Chapter." "Hawaiians and Human Rights."
3. Title of Container, Title of Book or Journal or Film, From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi,
4. Contributor, Translators, editors, directors listed First name Last name,  
5. Version, 2nd, 3rd, Expanded, Revised, or Updated, etc. abbreviated, Rev. ed.,
6. Number, vol. 1, no. 18,  
7. Publisher, Academic presses/publishers with "university" and "press" can be abbreviated, U of Hawaiʻi P,
8. Publication date, Day, Mo., year, (eg. 24 Sept. 1984), 1999,
9. Location. Page(s) or link.

pp. 25-40, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824847029.

Works Cited

Trask, Haunani-Kay. "Hawaiians and Human Rights." From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawaiʻi, Rev. ed., U of Hawaiʻi P, 1999, pp. 25-40, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824847029.
 

Works Cited entries: Format Examples

The discipline of English, as well as many other disciplines in the humanities, use MLA citation format.  Below are some examples for formatting the Works Cited page.  Look in the drop-down menu for examples of in-text citations.

Book,
Single Author

Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. Vintage, 1988.     

Book,
Two Authors

Casell, Kay Ann, and Uma Hiremath. Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction. Neal-Schuman, 2004.

Book,
Three or More Authors

Robbins, Chandler S., et al. Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification. Golden, 1966.

Book,
with Translator or other contributors

Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles, Viking, 1996.

Other common descriptions: Adapted by, Directed by, Edited by, Illustrated by, Introduction by, Narrated by, Performance by.

A work (e.g., essay, short story, chapter) within a book

Kimball, Jean. "Growing Up Together: Joyce and Psychoanalysis, 1900-1922." Joyce through the Ages: A Nonlinear View, edited by Michael Patrick Gillespie, UP of Florida, 1999, pp. 25-45.

Book,
Later Edition

Blamires, Harry. The New Bloomsday Book: A Guide through Ulysses. 3rd ed., Routledge, 1996.

Article in an Online Database

Hannah, Daniel K. "The Private Life, the Public Stage: Henry James in Recent Fiction." Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 30, no. 3, 2007, pp. 70-94. JSTOR, www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/stable/30053134.

Article in Print Journal

Hannah, Daniel K. "The Private Life, the Public Stage: Henry James in Recent Fiction." Journal of Modern Literature, vol. 30, no.3, 2007, pp. 70-94.

Article (Web Page) on a Web Site

Farkas, Meredith. "Tips for Being a Great Blogger (and a Good Person)." Information Wants to Be Free, 19 July 2011, meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2011/07/19/tips-for-being-a-great-blogger-and-good-person/. 

Website (Whole site)

Farkas, Meredith. Information Wants to Be Free. Jun. 2015, meredith.wolfwater.com.

AI Tool (eg. ChatGPT) "List the pros and cons of free college tuition" prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 14 Aug, 2024, chat.openai.com/chat.

MLA Handbook Plus

Online MLA Help

Major Changes in the 9th Edition

The updated MLA Handbook includes the following changes to the works cited list:

And in-text citation updates including:

More information can be found at "MLA 8 vs. MLA 9..." from Chegg and/or "MLA 9th Edition Changes" from Purdue Writing /lab

How do I cite generative AI in MLA style?