Author, title, container
MLA 9 builds every entry from the same core elements: the author, the title of the source, then the container it sits in and its details, separated by commas. The first author is written last name first, a second is written in full after and, and three or more become the first author and et al. A book: Levitt, Steven D., and Stephen J. Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. William Morrow, 2005.
Articles, pages and videos
A part of something bigger, such as an article, a web page or a video, has its title in quotation marks, and the journal, website or platform it sits in is in italics. Months are shortened (Sept., Dec.), the second number of a page range over 99 keeps only the digits that change, at least two, and a plain URL loses its https://: Walker, Matthew P., and Robert Stickgold. “Sleep-Dependent Learning and Memory Consolidation.” Neuron, vol. 44, no. 1, Sept. 2004, pp. 121-33, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2004.08.031. A page published by the organisation that wrote it starts with its title instead of an author.
Title case and the access date
MLA capitalises the main words of every title, as in Pride and Prejudice, and the generator keeps your capitals as typed, so write titles that way. For a web page or a video it ends the entry with Accessed 14 Oct. 2026. from the Accessed box, which starts on today's date. MLA 9 calls the access date optional; clear the box to leave it out.
Questions
How do I cite it in the text?
MLA puts the author's last name and the page number in brackets, with no comma between them: (Levitt and Dubner 45). Three or more authors become (Zed et al. 12), and a web page with no page numbers gets the name alone: (Byron). The short form is the first word or two of the Works Cited entry.
How should the Works Cited page look?
Title it Works Cited, centred, list the entries in alphabetical order, double-space everything and give each entry a half-inch hanging indent. The list on this page is kept in alphabetical order and headed Works Cited, and Copy all pastes into Word or Google Docs with the hanging indent already set; the double spacing you set in the document.
Is this MLA 8 or MLA 9?
MLA 9, published in 2021. It kept the core elements of MLA 8 and added guidance and examples rather than new rules, so for the books, articles, pages and videos made here the two editions give the same entry.