mla format on websites

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MLA Style (9th Edition) Citation Guide: Websites

• Introduction to MLA Style
• Journal Articles
• Magazine/Newspaper Articles
• Books & Ebooks
• Government & Legal Documents
• Biblical Sources
• Secondary Sources
• Videos/DVDs/TV Shows
• How to Cite: Other
• 9th Edition Updates
• Additional Help

Table of Contents

Entire website - no separate pages or sections, page or section from a website.

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day. If the source does not include a copyright/last modified date, then omit the date and include an access date in your citation instead.

Access Date

Date of access is optional in MLA 8th/9th edition; it is recommended for pages that may change frequently or that do not have a copyright/publication date.

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows: 

January = Jan. February = Feb. March = Mar. April = Apr. May = May June = June July = July August = Aug. September = Sept. October = Oct. November = Nov. December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper. 

Author, or compiler name (if available).  Title of Website,  Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed access date.

Works Cited List Example:

Mabillard, Amanda.  Shakespeare Online,  29 Dec. 2011, www.shakespeare-online.com. Accessed 6 July 2016.

In-Text Citation Example:

(Author's Last Name)

(Mabillard)

Note: In this example, the name of the organization affiliated with the website is omitted since it is the same as the website title.

Created by an Unknown Author, or the Author is the same as the Website Title/Publisher

 "Title of Section."  Title of Website,  Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, Date of publication or last modified date, URL. Accessed Date Month (abbreviated) Year.

Note: The publisher or sponsoring organization can often be found in a copyright notice at the bottom of the home page or on a page that gives information about the site . If the website publisher is the same as the author and title of the web site , then include only the title of the web site. 

“ Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview.”  WebMD, 25 Sept. 2014, www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-topic-overview.

("Title of Section")

(“Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview”)

Created by a Known Author

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Page or Document."  Title of Website,  Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed Date Month (abbreviated) Year.

Morin, Amy. "How to Prevent the Media From Damaging Your Teen's Body Image."  Verywell Family,  About Inc., 6 Oct. 2019, www.verywellfamily.com/media-and-teens-body-image-2611245. Accessed 1 Nov. 2019.

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / MLA Format / MLA Website Citation

How to Cite a Website in MLA

If you are a student faced with creating an MLA website citation for the first time, you may be confused about where to begin. This guide is here to answer all of your questions and take the guesswork out of creating an MLA citation for websites.

All academic fields require students and researchers to document their sources. Those studying the humanities, including fields in language literature, will typically follow MLA format when structuring their papers as well as when documenting sources.

Citing your sources is a necessary part of any research paper or project. This element serves both to give credit to the researchers and authors whose work informed yours, as well as to preserve academic integrity. Any source that provided you with ideas or information that you have included in your work and which are not considered common knowledge must be included, including websites.

The Modern Language Association is not associated with this guide. All of the information, however, is based on the MLA Handbook, Ninth Edition as well as the MLA website, and is presented as guidance for students writing in this style.

If you are looking for help with APA format , our reference library can provide you with guidance for this and more styles .

What You Need

To cite a website, you should have the following information:

• Title of source.
• Title of the container ,
• Other contributors (names and roles),
• Publication date,
• Location of the source (such as DOI, URL, or page range).

The Modern Language Association refers to these guidelines as “core elements” on page 105 of the Handbook. If your teacher has asked you to cite your sources in this format, these elements will form the foundation for each MLA website citation included in your MLA Works Cited list, as well as the entries for sources in any other format.

If one of the elements does not apply, students may omit it. Supplemental items may also be included when necessary. In addition to the supplemental details discussed below, a list of additional supplemental components can be found on the MLA website.

If it’s an APA citation website page or an APA reference page you need help with, we have many other resources available for you!

Table of Contents

This guide includes the following sections:

• MLA9 Changes
• Citing websites with an author
• Citing websites with no author
• Citing websites with no formal title
• Citing social media websites
• In-text citations

Changes to MLA Citation for Websites in Ninth Edition

In previous editions, students and researchers creating an MLA website citation were not required to include the URL. However, beginning with MLA 8, it is recommended that you include the URL when creating a citation for a website unless your teacher instructs you otherwise. Even though web pages and URLs can be taken down or changed, it is still possible to learn about the source from the information seen in the URL.

When including URLs in a citation, http:// and https:// should be omitted from the website’s address ( Handbook 195). Additionally, If you are creating a citation that will be read on a digital device, it is helpful to make the URL clickable so that readers can directly access the source themselves.

If the website’s publisher includes a permalink or DOI (Digital Object Identifier), these are preferable as they are not changeable in the same manner as URLs. Whether you include a URL, permalink, or DOI, this information should be included in the location portion of your citation.

Another change that occurred with the eighth edition that impacts how to cite a website in MLA is the removal of the date the website was accessed. While you may still find it useful to include this information or your teacher may request it, it is no longer a mandatory piece of your citation. Should you choose to add this optional information, you may list it after the URL in the following manner:

• Accessed Day Month Year.
• Accessed 2 May 1998.
• Accessed 31 Apr. 2001.
• Accessed 17 Sept. 2010.

For an overview of additional formatting changes in the ninth edition, including resources to help with writing an annotated bibliography , check out the rest of EasyBib.com’s writing and citation guides, and try out our plagiarism checker for help with grammar and to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

MLA 9: Citing Websites With an Author

To make an MLA 9 citation for a website, you will need the following pieces of information:

• author’s name
• title of the article or page
• title of the website
• name of the publisher (Note: Only include the name of the publisher when it differs from the name of the website.)
• date the page or site was published (if available)

Citing a Website in MLA

Place the author’s name in reverse order, the last name first, followed by a comma, and then the first name followed by a period. The title of the web page or article is placed in quotation marks, with a period before the end quotation. The title of the website is written in italics followed by a comma. If the name of the publisher differs from the name of the website, include it after the title. Immediately following the publisher is the date that the page or article was published or posted. Finally, end with the URL, permalink, or DOI, followed by a period.

View Screenshot | Cite your source

In-text website citation with one author

The in-text citation for a website with an author is reflected as the author’s last name in parentheses, followed by a period. Unless the website includes numbered paragraphs or sections, you should not include any additional information. For the website used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

Cite your source

An APA parenthetical citation is similar, except it also includes the year the source was published.

To learn more about formatting MLA in-text & parenthetical citations , be sure to check out the rest of EasyBib.com’s resources and citation guides.

How to cite a website with two authors in MLA 9

According to Section 5.7 of the Handbook , for a website with two authors, place the authors’ names in the same order as the source (similar to an APA citation ). The first name should be formatted in reverse order as was done for a single author. The second name, however, is written as First Name Last Name and is followed by a period, as demonstrated in the template that follows:

In-text website citation with two authors

The in-text citation for a website with two authors should include both authors’ last names, in the order in which they are listed in the source and your works cited:

How to cite a website with three or more authors in MLA 9

For a source with three or more authors, you should place the authors’ names in the same order as the source. The first name is listed in reverse order and is followed by a comma and et al. Et al is the abbreviation for et alia, a gender-neutral Latin phrase meaning “and others.”

In-text website citation with 3+ authors

The in-text citation for a website with three or more authors should contain only the first author’s last name, followed by et al. ( Handbook 232):

Click on this page if you’re looking for information on how to create an APA in-text citation .

MLA 9 Citation for Websites with No Author

Sometimes, websites do not state who wrote the information on the page. When no author is listed, you may omit the author information from the MLA citation for the website and begin, instead, with the title ( Handbook 108).

Note about web pages by organizations/corporations:  Often, web pages are published by organizations or corporations with no author indicated. In these cases, you can assume that the publisher also authored the web page (like the example above). Since the author and publisher are the same in these cases, you can skip showing an author and just indicate the organization /corporation as the publisher ( Handbook 119 ).

In-text website citation with no author

The in-text citation for a website without an author is noted with the first noun phrase or words in the title in quotations and parenthesis, followed by a period. Unless the website includes numbered paragraphs or sections, you should not include any additional information. For the website used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

MLA 9 Citation for Websites Without a Formal Title

When citing a web page that does not include a formal title, it is acceptable to include a description of the page. Do not place the description in italics or quotation marks. Follow the description with the name of the website.

In-text website citation without a title

The in-text citation for a website without a formal title uses a shortened version of the webpage description for the in-text citation. Use the first noun phrase of the description from your Works Cited citation in parenthesis, followed by a period. For the website used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

MLA 9 Citation for Social Media Websites

In an increasingly digital world, social media platforms have become one of the most popular sources students turn to when writing a research paper. From Black history facts , to quotes from notable people, such as Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill , social media has become a mega influence in our world.

When citing social media in your work,  follow the same format as an MLA citation for a website. Here are some examples of ways you can cite various social media platforms in your work:

How to cite Twitter in MLA 9

Many notable individuals use Twitter as a platform to share intriguing ideas. It’s a shame Twitter was unavailable to long-gone scientists, authors, and presidents such as Albert Einstein , Mark Twain , and Abraham Lincoln . Luckily, we have the Twitter profiles of today’s great minds at our fingertips!

To cite a tweet, you will begin with the account holder’s name and their Twitter handle in square brackets, followed by a period ( Handbook 118). After this, in quotations, you should enter the full text of the tweet, including any hashtags. The publisher, Twitter, is then listed in italics, followed by the date the tweet was posted in day, month, year format. Finally, include a URL to the tweet followed by a period.

Note:  When the account name and username are similar, the username can be excluded from the citation. For example, if the account’s username was @FirstNameLastName or @OrganizationName.

In-text website citation of a Twitter post

The in-text citation for a Twitter post is reflected as the author’s last name in parentheses, followed by a period. For the tweet used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

How to cite Instagram in MLA 9

To cite an Instagram post, begin with the account holder’s name and their username in square brackets. In quotations, list the title of the photo, if it is given. If there is no title, write a brief description of the picture but do not place it in italics or quotation marks. The publisher, Instagram, is then listed in italics. Any other contributors (such as the photographer, if it is not the same as the account holder) are then listed, after which you will add the date the photo was published and the URL.

In-text website citation of an Instagram post

The in-text citation for an Instagram post is reflected as the author’s last name or the name of the account in parentheses, followed by a period. For the Instagram post used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

How to cite Facebook in MLA 9

To cite a Facebook post, begin with the account holder’s name or username. In quotations, list the title or caption of the post, if it is given. If there is no title or caption, write a brief description of the post, but do not place it in italics or quotation marks. Examples: Image of Malcolm X, or, Muhammed Ali headshot.

The publisher, Facebook, is then listed in italics, after which you will add the date posted and URL.

In-text website citation of a Facebook post

The in-text citation for a Facebook post is reflected as the author’s last name or the name of the account in parentheses, followed by a period. For the Facebook post used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

Social media and website comments

Citing the comments left on social media or a website begins with the commenter’s name or username. To indicate that you are citing a comment, follow the name with a period and then the words Comment on , followed by the title of the source (for example, the name of the article) in quotation marks. This is then followed by the title of the website in italics, and the publisher, if applicable. The date is then listed, followed by the URL, permalink, or DOI.

In-text citation of a social media comment

The in-text citation for a social media comment is reflected as the author’s last name in parentheses, followed by a period. For the post used in the example above, the in-text citation would be written as follows:

In-text Citations for Websites

In-text citations generally consist of parentheses and the last names of the authors or the first few words of the web page title.

Since there are no page numbers, unless the web page includes numbered paragraphs or sections, you don’t need to include any additional information.

When you have multiple authors, place them in the same order they are listed in the source.

If what you really need is an APA book citation or a reference for an APA journal , there are more guides on EasyBib.com for you to explore.

Visit our EasyBib Twitter feed to discover more citing tips, fun grammar facts, and the latest product updates.

Troubleshooting

Solution #1: when and how to reference entire websites versus specific pages in mla.

Reference an entire website when your information comes from multiple pages or if you are describing the entirety of the website. If your information is only from one page, only cite the singular page.

Whole website, author known

• Write the author’s name in last name, first name format with a period following.
• Next, write the name of the website in italics.
• Write the contributing organization’s name with a comma following.
• List the date in day, month, year format with a comma following.
• Lastly, write the URL with a period following.

Works cited example:

Night, Samuel. Food Creations , International Hypothetical Chefs’ Club, 21 May 2021,                 www.foodcreationshypotheticalwebsite.com/best_macaroni_recipe.

In-text example:

Whole website, author unknown

• If there is no specific author, begin the citation by writing the website name in italics.

Food Creations , International Hypothetical Chefs’ Club, 21 May 2021, www.foodcreationshypotheticalwebsite.com/best_macaroni_recipe.

( Food Creations )

Webpage, author known

If information is from only a few pages or the pages cover multiple topics, reference each page

• If an author is named, write the author’s name in last name, first name format.
• If a title is not provided, create your own description of the page.
• List the title of the website in italics with a comma following.
• Write the date that the page was created followed by a comma.
• Lastly, list the URL followed by a period.

Blake, Evan. “Best Southern Macaroni Recipe.” Food Creations , International Hypothetical Chefs’ Club, 21 May 2021, www.foodcreationshypotheticalwebsite.com/best_macaroni_recipe.

Webpage, author unknown

If an author is not named, write the name of the page in quotation marks with a period following.

“Best Southern Macaroni Recipe.” Food Creations , International Hypothetical Chefs’ Club, 21 May 2021, www.foodcreationshypotheticalwebsite.com/best_macaroni_recipe.

(“Best Southern Macaroni Recipe”)

Solution #2: Referencing a conversation on social media in MLA

The in-text citation should identify the author and talk about the format (e.g., video, post, image, etc.) in prose.

Lilly West’s photo of traditional Japanese sweets shows an example of nature influencing Japanese design.

The basic structure of a works-cited reference for social media stays the same no matter the format or the social media service (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). Here are works- cited-list entry guidelines:

• The name is listed in last name, first name format with a period following. If an organization, just write the organization’s name as it’s usually presented.
• If the username is very different from the author’s real name, include it in brackets after the user’s real name but before the period.
• Write the title, post text, or description of the post in quotation marks. End it with a period.
• Write the website name in italics with a comma afterward.
• List the day, month, and year that the post was created followed by a comma.
• List the URL followed by a period. Leave out “https://” and “http://”.

Facebook example:

West, Lily. “Kyoto Japanese sweets.” Facebook , 30 May 2021, www.facebook.com/hypotheticalexample/thispostisnotreal.

Twitter reference example:

West, Lily [@lilianhypotheticalwestbest]. “Kyoto Japanese sweets.” Twitter, 30 May 2021, www.twitter.com/hypotheticalexample/thispostisnotreal.

Instagram reference example:

West, Lily [@lilianhypotheticalwestbest]. “Kyoto Japanese sweets.” Instagram , 30 May 2021,            www.instagram.com/hypotheticalexample/thisphotoisnotreal.

Solution #3: How to cite a social media post without a title or text

If there is no text or title where the title element usually goes, instead describe the post without quotation marks. Example:

West, Lily [@lilianhypotheticalwestbest]. Photo of traditional Japanese sweets on a green plate. Instagram , photographed by Bethany Lynn, 30 May 2021,   www.instagram.com/hypotheticalexample/thisphotoisnotreal.

Solution #4: How to cite a social media post with a long title or text

If the text is very long, you can shorten it by adding ellipsis at the end of the text. Example:

West, Lily [@lilianhypotheticalwestbest]. “Nothing is better in life than feeling like all of the effort you’ve invested has finally. . . .” Twitter, 17 Feb. 2021, www.twitter.com/hypotheticalexample/thispostisnotreal.

• Works Cited

MLA Handbook . 9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

Published October 31, 2011. Updated June 5, 2021.

Written and edited by Michele Kirschenbaum and Elise Barbeau. Michele Kirschenbaum is a school library media specialist and the in-house librarian at EasyBib.com. Elise Barbeau is the Citation Specialist at Chegg. She has worked in digital marketing, libraries, and publishing.

MLA Formatting Guide

MLA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Sample Paper
• MLA 8 Updates
• MLA 9 Updates
• View MLA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all MLA Examples

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No matter what citation style you’re using (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.), the EasyBib Citation Generator can help you create the right bibliography quickly.

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Yes! Whether you’d like to learn how to construct citations on your own, our Autocite tool isn’t able to gather the metadata you need, or anything in between, manual citations are always an option. Click here for directions on using creating manual citations.

If any important information is missing (e.g., author’s name, title, publishing date, URL, etc.), first see if you can find it in the source yourself. If you cannot, leave the information blank and continue creating your citation.

It supports MLA, APA, Chicago, Harvard, and over 7,000 total citation styles.

If there is no author, the title becomes the website page’s identifier.

In-text example (no author): ( Honey Bee Medley )

Works cited example (no author): Honey Bee Medley . Hivemind Press, 2018, www.hivebees.com/honey-bees.

If there is no publication date, include an accessed date instead.

Works cited example (no author, no date): Honey Bee Medley . Hivemind Press, www.hivebees.com/honey-bees. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

If there is no title, briefly describe the source.

Works cited example (no author, no date, no title): Collage of honey bees. Hivemind Press, www.hivebees.com/honey-bees. Accessed 17 Nov. 2020.

To cite a website that has no page number in MLA, it is important that you know the name of the author, title of the webpage, website, and URL. The templates for an in-text citation and works-cited-list entry of a website that has no page number, along with examples, are given below:

In-text citation template and example:

You can use a time stamp if you are referring to an audio or video. Otherwise, use only the author’s surname.

(Author Surname)

Works-cited-list entry template and example:

Author or Organization Name. “Title of the Webpage.” Website Name . Publication Date, URL.

Dutta, Smita S. “What is Extra Sensory Perception?” Medindia . 16 Nov. 2019, www.medindia.net/patients/patientinfo/extra-sensory-perception.htm#3 .

Abbreviate the month in the date field.

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How to cite a website in a bibliography using MLA

The most basic entry for a website consists of the author name(s), webpage title, website title, *sponsoring institution/publisher, publication date, and DOI or URL.

Author Last Name, First Name. “Webpage Title.” Website Title , *Sponsoring Institution/Publisher, Publication Date, DOI or URL.

Owoseje, Toyin. “Britney Spears Apologizes to Fans for ‘Pretending’ to be OK in her Conservatorship.” CNN , 25 June 2021, cnn.com/2021/06/25/entertainment/britney-spears-conservatorship-instagram-intl-scli/index.html.

*If the sponsoring institution or publisher’s name is the same as the website title, do not include it. MLA prefers to avoid duplicating information in citations.

The first author’s name should be reversed, with a comma after the last name, followed by a period after the first name (or any middle name). The name should not be abbreviated and should be written exactly as it appears on the website. Titles and affiliations associated with the author should generally be omitted. A suffix, such as a roman numeral or Jr./Sr. should appear after the author’s given name, preceded by a comma.

For a page with two or more authors, list them in the order they appear on the website. Only the first author’s name should be reversed, while the others are written in normal order. Separate author names by a comma, and place the word “and” before the last author’s name.

Sanchez, Ray, and Eric Levenson. “Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22.5 Years in Death of George Floyd.” CNN , 25 June 2021, cnn.com/2021/06/25/us/derek-chauvin-sentencing-george-floyd/index.html.

For pages with three or more authors, reverse the first author’s name as described above and follow it with a comma and the abbreviation “et al.” Do not italicize “et al.” in parenthetical citations or works-cited list entries.

Rebaza, Claudia, et al. “John McAfee Was Not Suicidal, Says Widow of Antivirus Software Magnate.” CNN , 25 June 2021, cnn.com/2021/06/25/tech/john-mcafee-wife-janice-intl/index.html.

If the article was written by a news service or organization, include the name in the author position and remove any introductory articles (e.g.,  A, An, The) from the name.

Associated Press. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , 21 Jan. 2009, cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html.

If no author is available, begin the citation with the webpage title.

“Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , 21 Jan. 2009, cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html.

The webpage title should be placed within quotation marks. Place a period after the webpage title within the quotation marks. The webpage title is followed by the name of the larger website container in italics, and it’s usually followed by a comma and any additional information such as version, number, publisher, publication date, or URL. The punctuation before the version element varies depending on whether the webpage is part of a larger work or “container.” When it is part of a larger work, use a comma followed by the version. When it is a work that stands alone, use a period followed by the version.

Smith, John. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , Version 12.1.1., 21 Jan. 2009, cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html.

Include the sponsoring institution or publisher with a comma after the website title (or version number, if available). The sponsoring institution/publisher can usually be found at the bottom of the website in the footer. You may omit the publisher’s name when there is no publisher or when the publisher name isn’t required (for example, when the publisher title matches the website title or the website doesn’t list the publisher responsible for producing the work).

Smith, John. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , 21 Jan. 2009, cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html.

Next, state the publication date of the webpage.  In works-cited list entries, use only the day-month-year style. Month names should be abbreviated, except for May, June, and July, and followed by a period. In some cases, a specific date might not be available, and the date published may only be specific to a month or even year. Provide whatever date information is available. When using seasons in the date, lowercase the season (spring 2021 not Spring 2021). If there is no date available, you may omit the publication date element from your citation. However, you may wish to include an access date in the supplemental element slot after the URL.

Smith, John. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html.

Smith, John. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , cnn.com/2009/01/21/politics/obama-inaugurated-as-president/index.html. Accessed 21 Jan. 2021.

According to MLA’s 9th edition, updated in 2021, you may usually leave out http:// or https:// from URLs unless you want to hyperlink them or unless instructed otherwise. When in doubt, ask your instructor. If a DOI is available, use that instead of the URL. For DOIs, use http:// or https:// before the DOI: https://doi.org/xx.xxxx/xxx.xxxx.xxxx. Use a period after the DOI and the URL.

Smith, John. “Obama Inaugurated as President.” CNN , 21 Jan. 2009, https://doi.org/12.3456/789.1011.1213.

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For an online news source with more than two authors (3+), use “ et al ” after the first author to indicate “ and others ” in your works cited entry. With this format, you do not have to write all the authors’ names since you are indicating the same using “et al.”

Last Name, First Name1, et al. “Title of the article.” Title of the newspaper , Date of publication, URL.

Kamelion, North, et al. “How do Zebras stay awake in the forest amidst a scavenger hunt?” Taj Road Journal , 9 Aug. 2020, www.tajroadjournal.com/posts/253839.

If you have the same author as the first author in more than one entry, then distinguish these entries by listing two authors in the entries and using “et al” for the other authors.

If there is no author given for an online news source, then the in-text citation should include the first main word or words of the article title within the quotation marks. For example:

In a works-cited entry, you will include the article title, newspaper name, publication date, and URL. See below for the format and example.

“Article Title.” Newspaper , Date, URL.

“High Winds Blow Michigan Anglers, Ice Shanty about a Mile across Saginaw Bay.” Detroit Free Press , 2022 March 7, https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/03/07/saginaw-bay-ice-shanty-winds/9411709002/.

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• MLA: Works Cited
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MLA Style Works Cited Examples

Select a resource type from the box below for an example of an MLA formatted resource for your Works Cited page. 

MLA Style Reference for a Video:

Last name, First name of creator. "Title of Video." Website, Day Month Year of publication, URL.

Doe, John. "Exploring the Universe." YouTube, 15 Mar. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example.

MLA Style Reference for a Photograph:

Last name, First name of creator. "Title of Photograph." Website, Day Month Year of publication, URL.

Smith, Jane. "Sunset over the Mountains." Nature Photography, 20 May 2020, https://www.example.com.

MLA Style Reference for a Book with DOI:

Last name, First name of author. Title of Book . Publisher, Year. DOI.

Smith, John. Understanding Psychology . Psychology Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1000/xyz123.

MLA Style Reference for an Authored Book with DOI:

Jones, Robert. Advanced Mathematics . Academic Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1000/abc456.

MLA Style Reference for One Volume of a Multivolume Work:

Last name, First name of author. Title of Work . Vol. number, Publisher, Year.

Miller, Lucy. History of Ancient Civilizations . Vol. 2, History Press, 2018.

MLA Style Reference for a Work in an Anthology:

Last name, First name of author. "Title of Work." Title of Anthology , edited by Editor's Name, Publisher, Year, pages.

Davis, Paul. "Modern Poetry." Anthology of Contemporary Poetry , edited by Robert Carter, Poetry Press, 2019, pp. 34-56.

MLA Style Reference for a Paper Presentation or Poster Session:

Last name, First name of author. "Title of Paper or Poster." Title of Conference, Date, Location.

Lee, Mark. "Innovations in Education." Annual Education Conference, 15 Mar. 2022, Boston, MA.

MLA Style Reference for a Data Set:

Last name, First name of creator. "Title of Data Set." Name of Database, Publisher, Year. DOI or URL.

Johnson, Henry. "Global Temperature Data." Climate Research Institute, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1000/data123.

MLA Style Reference for a Dissertation:

Last name, First name of author. Title of Dissertation . Year. University, Publication Database, DOI or URL.

Martinez, Rosa. Social Dynamics in Urban Areas . 2020. Harvard University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1000/diss123.

MLA Style Reference for a Policy Brief:

Last name, First name of author. Title of Policy Brief . Organization, Year, DOI or URL.

Brown, Karen. Health Policy Recommendations . World Health Organization, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1000/policy789.

MLA Style Reference for a Journal Article with DOI:

Last name, First name of author. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical , vol. number, no. issue, Year, pages. DOI.

Doe, John. "Cognitive Development in Children." Journal of Psychology , vol. 25, no. 3, 2021, pp. 123-145, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsycho.2021.03.002.

MLA Style Reference for a Journal Article without DOI:

Last name, First name of author. "Title of Article." Title of Periodical , vol. number, no. issue, Year, pages.

Lee, Sarah. "Effects of Sleep on Memory." Health Journal , vol. 34, no. 2, 2020, pp. 78-89.

MLA Style Reference for a MOOC:

Instructor's Last name, First name. "Title of Course." Platform, Year, URL.

Anderson, Thomas. "Introduction to Sociology." Coursera, 2021, https://www.coursera.org/learn/sociology.

MLA Style Reference for an OER (Open Educational Resource):

Author's Last name, First name. Title of OER . Publisher, Year, DOI or URL.

Williams, James. Introduction to Economics . OpenStax, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1000/oer456.

MLA Style Reference for a Webpage (Individual Author, Dated):

Author's Last name, First name. "Title of Webpage." Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.

Thompson, Laura. "How to Learn Python." Programming Blog, 5 May 2020, https://www.example.com.

MLA Style Reference for a Webpage (Group Author, Dated):

Organization Name. "Title of Webpage." Website Name, Day Month Year, URL.

World Health Organization. "Global Health Initiatives." World Health Organization, 15 June 2021, https://www.who.int/initiatives.

MLA Style Reference for a Webpage (Group Author, Undated):

Organization Name. "Title of Webpage." Website Name, URL.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Preventing Chronic Diseases." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/preventing.

General Format

General Elements of a Cited Source

• Title of source
• Title of container
• Other contributors
• Publication date
• Date Accessed

General Format for Works Cited Resources

Author. Title. Title of container, Other contributors, Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs, URL or DOI). 2 nd  container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

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Free MLA Citation Generator

Generate accurate citations in MLA format automatically, with MyBib!

😕 What is an MLA Citation Generator?

An MLA citation generator is a software tool designed to automatically create academic citations in the Modern Language Association (MLA) citation format. The generator will take information such as document titles, author, and URLs as in input, and output fully formatted citations that can be inserted into the Works Cited page of an MLA-compliant academic paper.

The citations on a Works Cited page show the external sources that were used to write the main body of the academic paper, either directly as references and quotes, or indirectly as ideas.

👩‍🎓 Who uses an MLA Citation Generator?

MLA style is most often used by middle school and high school students in preparation for transition to college and further education. Ironically, MLA style is not actually used all that often beyond middle and high school, with APA (American Psychological Association) style being the favored style at colleges across the country.

It is also important at this level to learn why it's critical to cite sources, not just how to cite them.

🙌 Why should I use a Citation Generator?

Writing citations manually is time consuming and error prone. Automating this process with a citation generator is easy, straightforward, and gives accurate results. It's also easier to keep citations organized and in the correct order.

The Works Cited page contributes to the overall grade of a paper, so it is important to produce accurately formatted citations that follow the guidelines in the official MLA Handbook .

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's MLA Citation Generator?

It's super easy to create MLA style citations with our MLA Citation Generator. Scroll back up to the generator at the top of the page and select the type of source you're citing. Books, journal articles, and webpages are all examples of the types of sources our generator can cite automatically. Then either search for the source, or enter the details manually in the citation form.

The generator will produce a formatted MLA citation that can be copied and pasted directly into your document, or saved to MyBib as part of your overall Works Cited page (which can be downloaded fully later!).

MyBib supports the following for MLA style:

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): Websites

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General Guidelines

The basic guideline for citing a website is:

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Website,  Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed access date (optional).

Mabillard, Amanda.  Shakespeare Online,  29 Dec. 2011,  www.shakespeare-online.com . Accessed 6 July 2016.

An author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website. It can be difficult to find out who the author is and sometimes one is not listed. If there is no known author, use the title of the website in place of an author's name.

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day.

Specific Page or Document on Website

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Page or Document." Title of Website,  Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL.

(Author's Last Name).

Poncelet, Barbara. "Mom Am I Fat?: Helping Your Teen Have a Positive Body Image."  Verywell.com,  About Inc., 20 Apr. 2016, www.verywell.com/mom-am-i-fat-3200843.

Unknown Author

When there is no known author, begin with the title of the page, document or website.

"Title of Page or Document." Title of Website,  Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. 

("Title of Page or Document")

"How to Teach Yourself Guitar." eHow,  Demand Media, www.ehow.com/how_5298173_teach-yourself-guitar.html.

(" How to Teach Yourself Guitar ")

Website Created by a Corporation, Institution, or Group

Name of Corporation/Group/Organization. "Title of Section." Title of Website,  Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, Date of publication or last modified date, URL. Accessed access date.

"Audit and Assurance."  Chartered Professional Accountants Canada , 2016, www.cpacanada.ca/en/business-and-accounting-resources/audit-and-assurance. Accessed 6 July 2016.

 Note : The publisher or sponsoring organization can often be found in a copyright notice at the bottom of the home page or on a page that gives information about the site.  When the page is authored and published by the same corporation/group/organization, begin your citation with the section title.

 Note : The publisher may be omitted from the citation if the website title is essentially the same as the publisher name.

Looking for Something Else?

For information about Wikipedia, see the Encyclopedia and Dictionary page. 

For information about social media, see the Social Media page.

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Using MLA Format

Document Sources

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Get our guidelines for setting up academic research papers.

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Learn how to format captions.

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Read sample papers written in MLA style.

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Learn how to set up an annotated bibliography.

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Test your knowledge with these fun quizzes.

Recent questions from Ask the MLA

When do i capitalize the first letter of a quotation.

Whether you capitalize the first letter of a quotation depends on how the quotation fits into your sentence. Capitalize the first letter of a quotation,… Read More

How do I cite quotations from different pages of a work?

This post explains how to cite quotations from different pages of a work. Read More

How do I cite a playlist?

Cite a playlist by following the MLA template of core elements. In the Title of Container element, include the name of the playlist surrounded in… Read More

How do I alphabetize Irish surnames in the works-cited list?

This post explains how to alphabetize Irish surnames Read More

How do I alphabetize a works-cited-list entry that begins with a hashtag or another symbol?

The MLA recommends that writers should “ignore symbols when alphabetizing” (“How”). This includes hashtags. Thus, if an entry begins with a hashtag or another symbol,… Read More

How do I cite a work accessed through Wayback Machine ?

Wayback Machine is an archive of websites that lives on the Internet Archive ’s site, so you would treat the Internet Archive as the container of… Read More

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Building confidence in the information and ideas we share with one another is perhaps more important today than ever before, and for nearly a century it has been the driving principle behind MLA style, a set of standards for writing and documentation used by writers to find and evaluate information, alert their audience to the trustworthiness of their findings through citation, and shape the expression of their ideas in conversation with others. 

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MLA Handbook , 9th Edition

The ninth edition of the MLA Handbook , published in spring 2021, builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements—facts common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date—that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today. The new edition offers

• New chapters on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, numbers, italics, abbreviations, and principles of inclusive language
• Guidelines on setting up research papers in MLA format with updated advice on headings, lists, and title pages for group projects
• Revised, comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for creating a list of works cited in MLA format that are easier to learn and use than ever before
• A new appendix with hundreds of example works-cited-list entries by publication format, including websites, YouTube videos, interviews, and more
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The MLA Style Center offers free online resources on MLA style, including an interactive MLA format template, answers to common questions on Ask the MLA, advice from the MLA editors, and more. Get updates by signing up for The Source newsletter, and follow us on X @MLAstyle .

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How to Cite a Website Using MLA Format

Last Updated: February 14, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 276,712 times.

The Modern Language Association (MLA) citation style is used for journals and research papers in the humanities. When making a citation, you must include a full citation on your works cited page, as well as a shorter in-text citation where you reference information from the website. The 8th edition of the MLA Handbook focuses on you providing as much information as you can based on a set of 8 core elements: the author, the title of the source, the title of the container, other contributors, the version, the number, the publisher, the publication date, and the location; less emphasis is put on formatting than on consistency. However, you will not be able to find all this information when you're making a citation for a website, so you only put in what you can find.

Citing an Entire Website

• When listing the name, put the last name first, followed by a comma and the first and middle names (if available).
• It should look like the following name: Roberts, Rebeca Jean.
• Put a period after the name.
• In the case of authors, you're now allowed to use a handle (such as a Twitter handle) rather than the author's name if you can't find a name, such as @felinesforthewin.

• The name of the website should be in italics.
• It should look like the following citation: Roberts, Rebeca. Cats Who Sleep,
• Use a comma after the website title.

• Add contributors in using the following method: Roberts, Rebeca Jean. Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs and Joseph George,
• Put a comma after the contributors.
• If the website doesn't have other contributors, leave this part out.

Warning! Remember to indent the second line. Without an indent, it is incorrect. This is called a hanging indentation.

• The publisher will follow the comma after the other contributors: Roberts, Rebeca Jean. Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs and Joseph George, The Cat Institute,
• If there are no other contributors, follow the website title with the publisher: Roberts, Rebeca Jean. Cats Who Sleep, The Cat Institute,
• Follow it with a comma.

• Don't use the "http://" or "https://" before the website. Instead, begin with "www."
• Add the website after the publisher: Roberts, Rebeca Jean. Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs and Joseph George, The Cat Institute, www.thewebsiteforsleepingcats.com.

• You can add the date you viewed the page if you wish, but you aren't required to include it. The date goes before the location.

Citing a Page From a Website

• Start with the last name first, followed by the first and middle names, if applicable: Fitzgerald, Rosa.
• Use a period after the name.
• If you can't find the author's name, you can use a handle in place of the name.

• Put the page title in quotation marks: Fitzgerald, Rosa. "The Sleeping Habits of Elderly Felines."
• Use a period before the final quotation mark.

• Put the website name in italics: Fitzgerald, Rosa. "The Sleeping Habits of Elderly Felines." Cats Who Sleep,
• Use a comma after the website name.

• The contributors come after the website name: Fitzgerald, Rosa. "The Sleeping Habits of Elderly Felines." Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs,
• Put a comma after the contributor.
• If you don't have other contributors, leave this part out.

• Add the publisher after the contributors. If there are no other contributors, add it after the website name: Fitzgerald, Rosa. "The Sleeping Habits of Elderly Felines." Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs, The Cat Institute,
• Use a comma afterwards.

• Place the website's URL after the publisher: Fitzgerald, Rosa. "The Sleeping Habits of Elderly Felines." Cats Who Sleep, edited by John Jacobs, The Cat Institute, www.thewebsiteforsleepingcats.com/sleeping-habits-of-elderly-felines.

Creating an In-Text Citation

• If you use information from other sources without citing it, it's considered plagiarism, with the exception of factual, common knowledge.
• Citing your sources is also a courtesy to your readers. It lets them know where they can find more information on the topic.

• You can also add a citation directly after the citation, preferably before a comma or other punctuation mark, if you're citing more than one source in a sentence.

Tip : There is no need to recite the publisher's name if you already mentioned it when introducing the quote. So, if you said "According to Purdue...", there isn't a need to re-add the author's name at the end. You can just finish the citation/quote without adding (Purdue...).

• Therefore a citation would look like the following in a sentence: Cats enjoy sleeping for many hours a day (Fitzgerald).
• You only use the last name when using the author's name.
• Use a shortened form of the title. Try to stick to 3 or 4 words that will lead the reader directly to the citation at the end. If you are using the page title (because the author's name is not available), it would look like the following sentence: Cats enjoy sleeping for many hours a day ("Sleeping Habits of Felines").

Community Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html
• ↑ https://guides.library.unr.edu/mlacitation
• ↑ https://libguides.up.edu/mla/common/websites
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_in_text_citations_the_basics.html

About This Article

To cite a website in your bibliography using Modern Language Association format, start by writing the author’s surname then first name. If the author’s name isn’t listed on the page, you might be able to find it in an about page. If you’re referencing a specific page from a website, put this next in quotation marks. Follow with the website name in italics. If the website has a separate publisher, include this next. Then, put the full URL at the end. Always start with WWW. instead of HTTP. For more tips from our Teaching co-author, including how to include multiple authors or editors in a website citation, read on! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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MLA Style Guide and Examples

The Modern Language Association uses the MLA Handbook to provide guidelines on MLA Style, which is the citation style you will be using in this class to format your papers and cite your sources. Included on this page are important documents and links that will help you to use MLA properly.

New MLA 9 rules state that the citation should NOT include http:\\ 

For example, https://roadtrippers.com/the-ultimate-guide-route-66/  should be changed to roadtrippers.com/the-ultimate-guide-route-66/

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• Purdue OWL Use this to double-check your citations.

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· The CSN Centers for Academic Success is offering online tutoring to CSN Students through Brainfuse .

Brainfuse offers free online tutoring, writing services and homework assistance 24/7.  Certified Brainfuse tutors provide live, on-demand tutoring and assignment help in a variety of subjects. Brainfuse tutors meet students where they are at in order to effectively help students of all skill levels. To access services, students can log into their GoCSN account and then into Canvas. Students can choose a listed course on the left and then click on Brainfuse Online Tutoring.

For more information, watch the video below:

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Guidelines for referring to the works of others in your text using MLA style are covered throughout the  MLA Handbook  and in chapter 7 of the  MLA Style Manual . Both books provide extensive examples, so it's a good idea to consult them if you want to become even more familiar with MLA guidelines or if you have a particular reference question.

Basic in-text citation rules

In MLA Style, referring to the works of others in your text is done using parenthetical citations . This method involves providing relevant source information in parentheses whenever a sentence uses a quotation or paraphrase. Usually, the simplest way to do this is to put all of the source information in parentheses at the end of the sentence (i.e., just before the period). However, as the examples below will illustrate, there are situations where it makes sense to put the parenthetical elsewhere in the sentence, or even to leave information out.

General Guidelines

• The source information required in a parenthetical citation depends (1) upon the source medium (e.g. print, web, DVD) and (2) upon the source’s entry on the Works Cited page.
• Any source information that you provide in-text must correspond to the source information on the Works Cited page. More specifically, whatever signal word or phrase you provide to your readers in the text must be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of the corresponding entry on the Works Cited page.

In-text citations: Author-page style

MLA format follows the author-page method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase is taken must appear in the text, and a complete reference should appear on your Works Cited page. The author's name may appear either in the sentence itself or in parentheses following the quotation or paraphrase, but the page number(s) should always appear in the parentheses, not in the text of your sentence. For example:

Both citations in the examples above, (263) and (Wordsworth 263), tell readers that the information in the sentence can be located on page 263 of a work by an author named Wordsworth. If readers want more information about this source, they can turn to the Works Cited page, where, under the name of Wordsworth, they would find the following information:

Wordsworth, William. Lyrical Ballads . Oxford UP, 1967.

In-text citations for print sources with known author

For print sources like books, magazines, scholarly journal articles, and newspapers, provide a signal word or phrase (usually the author’s last name) and a page number. If you provide the signal word/phrase in the sentence, you do not need to include it in the parenthetical citation.

These examples must correspond to an entry that begins with Burke, which will be the first thing that appears on the left-hand margin of an entry on the Works Cited page:

Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method . University of California Press, 1966.

In-text citations for print sources by a corporate author

When a source has a corporate author, it is acceptable to use the name of the corporation followed by the page number for the in-text citation. You should also use abbreviations (e.g., nat'l for national) where appropriate, so as to avoid interrupting the flow of reading with overly long parenthetical citations.

In-text citations for sources with non-standard labeling systems

If a source uses a labeling or numbering system other than page numbers, such as a script or poetry, precede the citation with said label. When citing a poem, for instance, the parenthetical would begin with the word “line”, and then the line number or range. For example, the examination of William Blake’s poem “The Tyger” would be cited as such:

The speaker makes an ardent call for the exploration of the connection between the violence of nature and the divinity of creation. “In what distant deeps or skies. / Burnt the fire of thine eyes," they ask in reference to the tiger as they attempt to reconcile their intimidation with their relationship to creationism (lines 5-6).

Longer labels, such as chapters (ch.) and scenes (sc.), should be abbreviated.

In-text citations for print sources with no known author

When a source has no known author, use a shortened title of the work instead of an author name, following these guidelines.

Place the title in quotation marks if it's a short work (such as an article) or italicize it if it's a longer work (e.g. plays, books, television shows, entire Web sites) and provide a page number if it is available.

Titles longer than a standard noun phrase should be shortened into a noun phrase by excluding articles. For example, To the Lighthouse would be shortened to Lighthouse .

If the title cannot be easily shortened into a noun phrase, the title should be cut after the first clause, phrase, or punctuation:

In this example, since the reader does not know the author of the article, an abbreviated title appears in the parenthetical citation, and the full title of the article appears first at the left-hand margin of its respective entry on the Works Cited page. Thus, the writer includes the title in quotation marks as the signal phrase in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader directly to the source on the Works Cited page. The Works Cited entry appears as follows:

"The Impact of Global Warming in North America." Global Warming: Early Signs . 1999. www.climatehotmap.org/. Accessed 23 Mar. 2009.

If the title of the work begins with a quotation mark, such as a title that refers to another work, that quote or quoted title can be used as the shortened title. The single quotation marks must be included in the parenthetical, rather than the double quotation.

Parenthetical citations and Works Cited pages, used in conjunction, allow readers to know which sources you consulted in writing your essay, so that they can either verify your interpretation of the sources or use them in their own scholarly work.

Author-page citation for classic and literary works with multiple editions

Page numbers are always required, but additional citation information can help literary scholars, who may have a different edition of a classic work, like Marx and Engels's  The Communist Manifesto . In such cases, give the page number of your edition (making sure the edition is listed in your Works Cited page, of course) followed by a semicolon, and then the appropriate abbreviations for volume (vol.), book (bk.), part (pt.), chapter (ch.), section (sec.), or paragraph (par.). For example:

Author-page citation for works in an anthology, periodical, or collection

When you cite a work that appears inside a larger source (for instance, an article in a periodical or an essay in a collection), cite the author of the  internal source (i.e., the article or essay). For example, to cite Albert Einstein's article "A Brief Outline of the Theory of Relativity," which was published in  Nature  in 1921, you might write something like this:

See also our page on documenting periodicals in the Works Cited .

Citing authors with same last names

Sometimes more information is necessary to identify the source from which a quotation is taken. For instance, if two or more authors have the same last name, provide both authors' first initials (or even the authors' full name if different authors share initials) in your citation. For example:

Citing a work by multiple authors

For a source with two authors, list the authors’ last names in the text or in the parenthetical citation:

Corresponding Works Cited entry:

Best, David, and Sharon Marcus. “Surface Reading: An Introduction.” Representations , vol. 108, no. 1, Fall 2009, pp. 1-21. JSTOR, doi:10.1525/rep.2009.108.1.1

For a source with three or more authors, list only the first author’s last name, and replace the additional names with et al.

Franck, Caroline, et al. “Agricultural Subsidies and the American Obesity Epidemic.” American Journal of Preventative Medicine , vol. 45, no. 3, Sept. 2013, pp. 327-333.

Citing multiple works by the same author

If you cite more than one work by an author, include a shortened title for the particular work from which you are quoting to distinguish it from the others. Put short titles of books in italics and short titles of articles in quotation marks.

Citing two articles by the same author :

Citing two books by the same author :

Additionally, if the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, format your citation with the author's name followed by a comma, followed by a shortened title of the work, and, when appropriate, the page number(s):

Citing multivolume works

If you cite from different volumes of a multivolume work, always include the volume number followed by a colon. Put a space after the colon, then provide the page number(s). (If you only cite from one volume, provide only the page number in parentheses.)

Citing the Bible

In your first parenthetical citation, you want to make clear which Bible you're using (and underline or italicize the title), as each version varies in its translation, followed by book (do not italicize or underline), chapter, and verse. For example:

If future references employ the same edition of the Bible you’re using, list only the book, chapter, and verse in the parenthetical citation:

John of Patmos echoes this passage when describing his vision (Rev. 4.6-8).

Citing indirect sources

Sometimes you may have to use an indirect source. An indirect source is a source cited within another source. For such indirect quotations, use "qtd. in" to indicate the source you actually consulted. For example:

Note that, in most cases, a responsible researcher will attempt to find the original source, rather than citing an indirect source.

Citing transcripts, plays, or screenplays

Sources that take the form of a dialogue involving two or more participants have special guidelines for their quotation and citation. Each line of dialogue should begin with the speaker's name written in all capitals and indented half an inch. A period follows the name (e.g., JAMES.) . After the period, write the dialogue. Each successive line after the first should receive an additional indentation. When another person begins speaking, start a new line with that person's name indented only half an inch. Repeat this pattern each time the speaker changes. You can include stage directions in the quote if they appear in the original source.

Conclude with a parenthetical that explains where to find the excerpt in the source. Usually, the author and title of the source can be given in a signal phrase before quoting the excerpt, so the concluding parenthetical will often just contain location information like page numbers or act/scene indicators.

Here is an example from O'Neill's  The Iceman Cometh.

WILLIE. (Pleadingly) Give me a drink, Rocky. Harry said it was all right. God, I need a drink.

ROCKY. Den grab it. It's right under your nose.

WILLIE. (Avidly) Thanks. (He takes the bottle with both twitching hands and tilts it to his lips and gulps down the whiskey in big swallows.) (1.1)

Citing non-print or sources from the Internet

With more and more scholarly work published on the Internet, you may have to cite sources you found in digital environments. While many sources on the Internet should not be used for scholarly work (reference the OWL's  Evaluating Sources of Information  resource), some Web sources are perfectly acceptable for research. When creating in-text citations for electronic, film, or Internet sources, remember that your citation must reference the source on your Works Cited page.

Sometimes writers are confused with how to craft parenthetical citations for electronic sources because of the absence of page numbers. However, these sorts of entries often do not require a page number in the parenthetical citation. For electronic and Internet sources, follow the following guidelines:

• Include in the text the first item that appears in the Work Cited entry that corresponds to the citation (e.g. author name, article name, website name, film name).
• Do not provide paragraph numbers or page numbers based on your Web browser’s print preview function.
• Unless you must list the Web site name in the signal phrase in order to get the reader to the appropriate entry, do not include URLs in-text. Only provide partial URLs such as when the name of the site includes, for example, a domain name, like  CNN.com  or  Forbes.com,  as opposed to writing out http://www.cnn.com or http://www.forbes.com.

Miscellaneous non-print sources

Two types of non-print sources you may encounter are films and lectures/presentations:

In the two examples above “Herzog” (a film’s director) and “Yates” (a presentor) lead the reader to the first item in each citation’s respective entry on the Works Cited page:

Herzog, Werner, dir. Fitzcarraldo . Perf. Klaus Kinski. Filmverlag der Autoren, 1982.

Yates, Jane. "Invention in Rhetoric and Composition." Gaps Addressed: Future Work in Rhetoric and Composition, CCCC, Palmer House Hilton, 2002. Address.

Electronic sources

Electronic sources may include web pages and online news or magazine articles:

In the first example (an online magazine article), the writer has chosen not to include the author name in-text; however, two entries from the same author appear in the Works Cited. Thus, the writer includes both the author’s last name and the article title in the parenthetical citation in order to lead the reader to the appropriate entry on the Works Cited page (see below).

In the second example (a web page), a parenthetical citation is not necessary because the page does not list an author, and the title of the article, “MLA Formatting and Style Guide,” is used as a signal phrase within the sentence. If the title of the article was not named in the sentence, an abbreviated version would appear in a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence. Both corresponding Works Cited entries are as follows:

Taylor, Rumsey. "Fitzcarraldo." Slant , 13 Jun. 2003, www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/fitzcarraldo/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2009. 

"MLA Formatting and Style Guide." The Purdue OWL , 2 Aug. 2016, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/. Accessed 2 April 2018.

Multiple citations

To cite multiple sources in the same parenthetical reference, separate the citations by a semi-colon:

Time-based media sources

When creating in-text citations for media that has a runtime, such as a movie or podcast, include the range of hours, minutes and seconds you plan to reference. For example: (00:02:15-00:02:35).

When a citation is not needed

Common sense and ethics should determine your need for documenting sources. You do not need to give sources for familiar proverbs, well-known quotations, or common knowledge (For example, it is expected that U.S. citizens know that George Washington was the first President.). Remember that citing sources is a rhetorical task, and, as such, can vary based on your audience. If you’re writing for an expert audience of a scholarly journal, for example, you may need to deal with expectations of what constitutes “common knowledge” that differ from common norms.

Other Sources

The MLA Handbook describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the handbook does not describe, making the best way to proceed can be unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of MLA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard MLA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source. For example, Norquest College provides guidelines for citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers⁠ —an author category that does not appear in the MLA Handbook . In cases like this, however, it's a good idea to ask your instructor or supervisor whether using third-party citation guidelines might present problems.

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Cite a Website in MLA8

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, consider your source's credibility. ask these questions:, contributor/author.

• Has the author written several articles on the topic, and do they have the credentials to be an expert in their field?
• Can you contact them? Do they have social media profiles?
• Have other credible individuals referenced this source or author?
• Book: What have reviews said about it?
• What do you know about the publisher/sponsor? Are they well-respected?
• Do they take responsibility for the content? Are they selective about what they publish?
• Take a look at their other content. Do these other articles generally appear credible?
• Does the author or the organization have a bias? Does bias make sense in relation to your argument?
• Is the purpose of the content to inform, entertain, or to spread an agenda? Is there commercial intent?
• Are there ads?
• When was the source published or updated? Is there a date shown?
• Does the publication date make sense in relation to the information presented to your argument?
• Does the source even have a date?
• Was it reproduced? If so, from where?
• If it was reproduced, was it done so with permission? Copyright/disclaimer included?
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MLA In-text Citations | A Complete Guide (9th Edition)

Published on July 9, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on March 5, 2024.

An MLA in-text citation provides the author’s last name and a page number in parentheses.

If a source has two authors, name both. If a source has more than two authors, name only the first author, followed by “ et al. ”

If the part you’re citing spans multiple pages, include the full page range. If you want to cite multiple non-consecutive pages at the same time, separate the page numbers with commas.

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Table of contents

Where to include an mla in-text citation, citing sources with no author, citing sources with no page numbers, citing different sources with the same author name, citing sources indirectly, frequently asked questions about mla in-text citations.

Place the parenthetical citation directly after the relevant quote or paraphrase , and before the period or other punctuation mark (except with  block quotes , where the citation comes after the period).

If you have already named the author in the sentence, add only the page number in parentheses. When mentioning a source with three or more authors outside of parentheses, use “and others” or “and colleagues” in place of “et al.”

• MLA is the second most popular citation style (Smith and Morrison 17–19) .
• According to Smith and Morrison , MLA is the second most popular citation style (17–19) .
• APA is by far “the most used citation style in the US” (Moore et al. 74) , but it is less dominant in the UK (Smith 16) .
• Moore and colleagues state that APA is more popular in the US than elsewhere (74) .

Combining citations

If a sentence is supported by more than one source, you can combine the citations in a single set of parentheses. Separate the two sources with a semicolon .

Livestock farming is one of the biggest global contributors to climate change (Garcia 64; Davies 14) .

Consecutive citations of the same source

If you cite the same source repeatedly within a paragraph, you can include the full citation the first time you cite it, then just the page number for subsequent citations.

MLA is the second most popular citation style (Smith and Morrison 17–19) . It is more popular than Chicago style, but less popular than APA (21) .

You can do this as long as it remains clear what source you’re citing. If you cite something else in between or start a new paragraph, reintroduce the full citation again to avoid ambiguity.

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For sources with no named author , the in-text citation must match the first element of the Works Cited entry. This may be the name of an organization, or the title of the source.

If the source title or organization name is longer than four words, shorten it to the first word or phrase in the in-text citation, excluding any articles ( a, an, and the ). The shortened title or organization name should begin with the word the source is alphabetized by in the Works Cited.

Follow the general MLA rules for formatting titles : If the source is a self-contained work (e.g. a whole website or an entire book ), put the title in italics; if the source is contained within a larger whole (e.g. a page on a website or a chapter of a book), put the title in quotation marks.

If a source does not have page numbers but is divided into numbered parts (e.g. chapters, sections, scenes, Bible books and verses, Articles of the Constitution , or timestamps), use these numbers to locate the relevant passage.

If the source does not use any numbering system, include only the author’s name in the in-text citation. Don’t include paragraph numbers unless they are explicitly numbered in the source.

Note that if there are no numbered divisions and you have already named the author in your sentence, then no parenthetical citation is necessary.

If your Works Cited page includes more than one entry under the same last name, you need to distinguish between these sources in your in-text citations.

Multiple sources by the same author

If you cite more than one work by the same author, add a shortened title to signal which source you are referring to.

In this example, the first source is a whole book, so the title appears in italics; the second is an article published in a journal, so the title appears in quotation marks.

Different authors with the same last name

To distinguish between different authors with the same last name, use the authors’ initials (or, if the initials are the same, full first names) in your in-text citations:

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Sometimes you might want to cite something that you found quoted in a secondary source . If possible, always seek out the original source and cite it directly.

If you can’t access the original source, make sure to name both the original author and the author of the source that you accessed . Use the abbreviation “qtd. in” (short for “quoted in”) to indicate where you found the quotation.

In these cases, only the source you accessed directly is included in the Works Cited list.

You must include an MLA in-text citation every time you quote or paraphrase from a source (e.g. a book , movie , website , or article ).

Some source types, such as books and journal articles , may contain footnotes (or endnotes) with additional information. The following rules apply when citing information from a note in an MLA in-text citation :

• To cite information from a single numbered note, write “n” after the page number, and then write the note number, e.g. (Smith 105n2)
• To cite information from multiple numbered notes, write “nn” and include a range, e.g. (Smith 77nn1–2)
• To cite information from an unnumbered note, write “un” after the page number, with a space in between, e.g. (Jones 250 un)

If a source has two authors, name both authors in your MLA in-text citation and Works Cited entry. If there are three or more authors, name only the first author, followed by et al.

If a source has no author, start the MLA Works Cited entry with the source title . Use a shortened version of the title in your MLA in-text citation .

If a source has no page numbers, you can use an alternative locator (e.g. a chapter number, or a timestamp for a video or audio source) to identify the relevant passage in your in-text citation. If the source has no numbered divisions, cite only the author’s name (or the title).

If you already named the author or title in your sentence, and there is no locator available, you don’t need a parenthetical citation:

• Rajaram  argues that representations of migration are shaped by “cultural, political, and ideological interests.”
• The homepage of The Correspondent describes it as “a movement for radically different news.”

Yes. MLA style uses title case, which means that all principal words (nouns, pronouns , verbs, adjectives , adverbs , and some conjunctions ) are capitalized.

This applies to titles of sources as well as the title of, and subheadings in, your paper. Use MLA capitalization style even when the original source title uses different capitalization .

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MLA Style Sheet

General guidelines.

Please also visit the Academic Integrity LibGuide , which provides a Citation guide for your information.

• Everything in the paper is double-spaced : works cited, indented quotes, etc.
• Pagination: student's last name and the page number are placed on each page's upper right-hand corner.
• Quotes that are more than four lines long are indented one inch from the left margin only.
• Title Page: ask the professor for his or her preference.
• Punctuation: the period always goes after the documentation parentheses except in an indented quote, where it goes before.

MLA Works Cited

A BOOK BY A SINGLE AUTHOR Sayers, Dorothy L. The Nine Tailors. San Diego: Harcourt, 1962. Print.

A BOOK BY MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR (OR EDITOR) Kerrigan, William, and Gordon Braden. The Idea of the Renaissance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1989.Print. 

Dyal, James A.,William C. Corning, and Dale M. Willows. Readings in Psychology: The Search for Alternatives.  3rd ed. New York: McGraw, 1975. Print.

WORKS BY MORE THAN THREE AUTHORS (OR EDITORS) Nielsen, Niels C., Jr., et al. Religions of the World. 3rd ed. New York: St. Martin's, 1992. Print.

A BOOK COMPILED BY AN EDITOR(S) Arp, Thomas R. and Greg Johnson, eds. Perrine's Story and Structure. 12th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage  Learning, 2009. Print.

A WORK IN AN ANTHOLOGY OR A COLLECTION Fairbairn-Dunlop, Peggy. "Women and Agriculture in Western Samoa." Different Places, Different Voices. Ed.

Janet H. Momsen and Vivian Kinnaird. London: Routledge, 211-26. Print.

AN ARTICLE WITHOUT AN AUTHOR IN A REFERENCE BOOK "Hadadrimmon." Davis Dictionary of the Bible. John D. Davis, ed. 4th ed. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1972. Print.

AN ARTICLE FROM A WEEKLY OR BIWEEKLY MAGAZINE Glastris, Paul. "The New Way to Get Rich." U.S. News & World Report 7 May 1990: 26-36. Print.

AN ARTICLE FROM A DAILY NEWSPAPER Wilford, John N. "Corn in the New World: A Relative Latecomer." New York Times 7 Mar. 1995, late ed.:  C1+. Print.

AN ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL Rosen, Jonathan. "The Celestial Rolodex." The American Scholar 73 (Autumn 2004): 115-118. Print.

AN ANONYMOUS ARTICLE "Awash in Garbage." New York Times 15 Aug. 1987, sec. 1: 26. Print.

INTERNET AND OTHER SOURCES

INTERNET SOURCE (without author) "Bertha Advances toward Bahamas." CNN WORLD News. 9 July 1996. Web. 21 March 2011.

ARTICLE FROM A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ONLINE Brittain, Clark M. "The Architecture of Redemption: Spatiality in the Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor."  The Journal of Southern Religion 4 (2001). 25 July 2005. Web. 25 March 2011.

MATERIAL FROM A DATABASE ON CD-ROM Grych, John H. "Patterns of Adjustment among Children of Battered Women." Journal of Consulting and Clinical  Psychology 68 (2000): 84-94. Abstract. PsycLIT. CD-ROM. Silverplatter. 23 July 2003.

FILM, VIDEO, OR FILM CLIP ONLINE "The Glory Suffered: The Transfiguration of the Cross." The History of the Orthodox Christian Church. 2003.  GoTelecom Online. 24 Oct. 2003. Web. 5 April 2011.

BIBLE Bible. Revised Standard Version. Cleveland: Word Publishing Company, 1962. Print.

LECTURE Mitten, David M. "Greek Art and Architecture in the West: Southern Italy, Sicily, and Campania." Class lecture.  Harvard University. Cambridge, 15 May 1989.

MUSIC Sting, narr. Peter and the Wolf, op. 67. By Sergei Prokofiev. Chamber Orch. of Europe. Cond. Claudio Abbado.  Deutsche Grammophon, 1990.

Parenthetical Documentation

BASIC FORM (last name and page number) Dr. James is described as a "not-too-skeletal Ichabod Crane" (Johnson 68).

AUTHOR'S NAME IN TEXT Johnson describes Dr. James as a "not-too-skeletal Ichabod Crane" (68).

SOURCE BY TWO OR THREE AUTHORS The Authority-Rebel "tends to see himself as superior to other students in the class" (Dyal, Corning, and Willows 4).

A MULTIVOLUME WORK In the middle of several volumes of modern literary criticism, Rene Wellek admits, "An evolutionary history of criticism must fail. I have come to this resigned conclusion" (5: xxii).

ONE OF TWO (or more) WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR A friend of C. S. Lewis once said that Lewis "gave me not only love, but wisdom and understanding and, when necessary, severity" (Vanauken, Severe 21).

WORK LISTED ONLY BY THE TITLE (magazine article) An international pollution treaty would prohibit plastic garbage from being dumped at sea ("Awash" 26).

SECONDARY SOURCE THAT QUOTES THE ORIGINAL E. M. Forster says, "The collapse of all civilization, so realistic for us, sounded in Matthew Arnold's ears like a distant and harmonious cataract" (qtd. in Trilling 11).

INTERNET SOURCE Often there are no page numbers for the source, so indicate in the text who the author is. For example, Hershel Winthrop interprets Hawthorne's stories as the search for holiness in a corrupt Puritan society.

May 2012, compiled and updated by Karyn Hecht at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago 

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Have you ever wondered, why can’t there be one writing style for everything? It’s a good question. We often hear this version: “Why learn APA Style if I already know MLA style?”

The short answer is that writing styles were developed within specific domains. MLA style, which comes from the Modern Language Association, is used in the humanities in subjects such as English and other modern languages. APA Style, which comes from the American Psychological Association, is used in the behavioral sciences in subjects such as psychology, education, and nursing, and even in subjects like business and engineering.

Scholars and students in these fields have different needs that are reflected in their writing styles. This post explores key similarities and differences between APA Style and MLA style and provides resources for writers learning APA Style.

Writing styles: More the same than different

APA Style and MLA style share a lot in common with not only each other but also other writing styles such as Chicago style and American Medical Association (AMA) style. Indeed, most writing styles address areas such as these:

• how to format your paper so it looks professional and is easy to read
• what information to include in your paper so that readers understand your work and can evaluate its credibility
• what language to use to describe other people with dignity and respect
• how to present information contained in other sources through quotations and paraphrases
• how to credit those sources through in-text citations and references to avoid plagiarism
• how to attend to the smaller details, such as how to spell and capitalize words; use punctuation , italics and quotation marks , and abbreviations ; and present numbers and statistics so that readers are not distracted by inconsistencies within a paper and among different papers in the field

Thus, once you have learned one writing style, learning another writing style is relatively straightforward. Although the exact details may differ, the overarching considerations are similar. This makes it easier to mentally organize your understanding of what it means to follow a writing style.

But why APA Style?

Simply put, APA Style is designed for writing and understanding scientific literature about people. Here are some of the ways the needs of the behavioral science community of scholars show in the style:

Journal article reporting standards

APA Style provides specific directions on what information to include in certain kinds of papers. Specifically, if you are conducting and reporting the results of experiments, you should follow APA’s journal article reporting standards, or APA Style JARS . JARS ensure that all researchers consistently report the same kinds of information, which allows readers to evaluate the work as well as to make comparisons between works, such as in a meta-analysis.

If you are a student writing a simpler APA Style paper, for example, a reaction or response paper, annotated bibliography, or literature review, we recommend first focusing on fulfilling the assignment requirements set by your instructor.

To learn how JARS can be relevant to you, check out this blog post about APA Style JARS for high school students .

Bias-free and inclusive language

APA provides detailed, science-backed guidelines on how to describe people with dignity and respect in the form of the bias-free language guidelines and the Inclusive Language Guide (2nd ed.) . The guidelines cover topics including age , disability , gender , race and ethnicity , sexual orientation , and socioeconomic status .

If you’re new to this topic, start with the Brief Guide to Bias-Free and Inclusive Language (PDF, 316KB) .

Emphasis on paraphrasing rather than quotation

When writing in APA Style, paraphrase rather than quote in most cases. Whereas in literature it is often important to respond to the exact wording an author used, in science you should primarily respond to the ideas, which means restating them in your own words.

For help on learning to paraphrase, including how to cite a long paraphrase, check out our page on paraphrasing .

Page numbers not in every in-text citation

In-text citations of paraphrased material in APA Style consist of the author and year, whereas in MLA style they consist of the author and page number. Page numbers (or other location information for works without page numbers ) are required in APA Style citations only for direct quotations.

If you are paraphrasing in APA Style, it is optional to include a page number (although read your assignment guidelines, because your instructor may request page numbers regardless).

In-text citations include the year

APA Style in-text citations include the year, whereas MLA citations do not. Each style suits its discipline. Whereas literature is evergreen, science progresses. Older science may be out of date and thus not of use to readers, so having a year in the citation allows readers to quickly understand how old the source is.

Although APA Style does not have formal requirements for how old (or rather, young) your sources have to be, instructors may require you use only sources published within the last 5–10 years or similar, so check your assignment guidelines carefully. And regardless of any requirements, try to use the most current information possible because this is best for advancing the scholarship in your field.

References contain similar information, presented differently

References in APA and MLA styles usually include information about the author, date, title, and source of a work , which allows readers to identify and locate the work. However, the information is presented in a different order and with different capitalization and punctuation depending on the style.

For a step-by-step guide to the different formats for common sources such as journal articles, books, edited book chapters, and webpages, check out the APA Style and MLA Style Reference Comparison Guide (PDF, 104KB) .

How to learn more about APA Style

If you’re at the beginning of your APA Style journey, fear not. This website has a wealth of free and authoritative resources designed to help you. We recommend that you check out our APA Style for Beginners landing page , which curates resources appropriate for an audience new to APA Style.

We are also happy to hear your feedback, so if you have ideas or suggestions on this topic, please leave a comment below.

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APA Style Guidelines

Browse APA Style writing guidelines by category

• Abbreviations
• Bias-Free Language
• Capitalization
• In-Text Citations
• Italics and Quotation Marks
• Punctuation
• Research and Publication
• Spelling and Hyphenation
• Tables and Figures

Full index of topics