If you are writing in the humanities — literature, languages, cultural studies, philosophy, or the arts — the odds are high that your instructor, journal, or publisher requires MLA format. The MLA Handbook, now in its 9th edition (Modern Language Association, 2021), is the standard citation system for these disciplines, used across thousands of journals, university departments, and scholarly presses worldwide.
MLA 9 introduced a container-based model that fundamentally changed how citations are structured. Rather than memorizing separate templates for every source type — book, journal article, website, podcast — you learn one flexible framework and apply it to everything. This guide explains that framework, walks through the most common source types with examples, and flags the mistakes that cost students and researchers marks.
MLA 9 organizes every citation around the idea of containers. A container is the larger work that holds the source you are citing. An article (your source) sits inside a journal (the container). A chapter sits inside a book. A page sits inside a website.
Some sources have nested containers. An article in a journal that you accessed through a database has two containers: the journal and the database.
The citation template follows this structure:
Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container, other contributors,
version, number, publisher, publication date, location.
When there is a second container, the pattern repeats:
Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container 1, other contributors,
version, number, publisher, date, location. Title of Container 2,
location (URL or DOI).
Key insight: You do not need to memorize dozens of format templates. Learn the container model, and you can cite any source — including types that did not exist when the handbook was published.
MLA uses a Works Cited page (not "Bibliography" or "References") at the end of the document, listing every source cited in the text.
In-text citations use the author-page format — no year:
(Smith 42)
If the author's name appears in the sentence:
Smith argues that "the archive resists simple categorization" (42).
For sources without page numbers (websites, films, performances), use the author's name alone or include a timestamp, paragraph number, or section heading if available:
(García, par. 7)
(National Gallery)
| Authors | In-text format |
|---|---|
| 1 | (Smith 42) |
| 2 | (Smith and Jones 42) |
| 3+ | (Smith et al. 42) |
MLA 9 change: The 8th edition required listing all authors up to three before using "et al." The 9th edition simplifies this: three or more authors always use "et al." in-text, though you may list all authors in the Works Cited entry.
The Works Cited page starts on a new page, with the heading "Works Cited" centered at the top (not bold, not underlined). Entries are double-spaced with a hanging indent of 0.5 inches. Entries are ordered alphabetically by the first element (usually the author's last name).
Author names: Last name first for the first author, then normal order for subsequent authors.
Titles: Italicize titles of containers (books, journals, websites). Use quotation marks for titles of sources within containers (articles, chapters, pages).
Capitalization: Title case for all titles — capitalize all major words.
URLs and DOIs: Include a URL or DOI as the final element of the citation. MLA prefers DOIs when available. Omit "https://" from URLs unless the instructor requires it.
Author(s). "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year,
pp. #–#. Database Name, DOI or URL.
Example:
Felski, Rita. "Context Stinks!" New Literary History, vol. 42, no. 4,
2011, pp. 573–91. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.1353/nlh.2011.0045.
Author(s). Title of Book. Edition (if not first), Publisher, Year.
Example:
Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Vintage International, 2004.
For an edited collection:
Rivkin, Julie, and Michael Ryan, editors. Literary Theory: An Anthology.
3rd ed., Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
Author. "Title of Chapter." Title of Collection, edited by Editor Name,
Publisher, Year, pp. #–#.
Example:
Butler, Judith. "Performative Acts and Gender Constitution." Literary
Theory: An Anthology, edited by Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan, 3rd ed.,
Wiley-Blackwell, 2017, pp. 900–11.
Author. "Title of Page." Title of Website, Publisher (if different from
website name), Date, URL.
Example:
Rothman, Joshua. "The History of 'Loneliness.'" The New Yorker,
19 Dec. 2022, www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-history-of-loneliness.
If no author is listed, begin with the title. If no date is available, omit it.
Title of Film. Directed by Director Name, performances by Lead Actors,
Production Company, Year.
Example:
Parasite. Directed by Bong Joon-ho, performances by Song Kang-ho
and Park So-dam, Barunson E&A, 2019.
For a television episode:
"Episode Title." Series Title, created by Creator, season #, episode #,
Network or Streaming Service, Year.
"Episode Title." Podcast Name, hosted by Host Name, season #, episode #,
Publisher, Date. URL.
Example:
"The Myth of Meritocracy." Hidden Brain, hosted by Shankar Vedantam,
NPR, 4 Sept. 2023, www.npr.org/podcasts/510308/hidden-brain.
MLA uses author-page, not author-date. Writing "(Smith, 2020, p. 42)" is an APA habit that marks your paper as improperly formatted in MLA.
MLA calls it "Works Cited." The terminology matters and is one of the first things instructors and editors check.
A journal article cited without the journal name, or a chapter cited without the book title, is incomplete. The container is not optional — it tells the reader where to find the source.
MLA uses title case for all titles. Switching to sentence case (an APA convention) within an MLA paper signals unfamiliarity with the style.
Every Works Cited entry after the first line should be indented 0.5 inches. This is a formatting requirement, not a suggestion.
MLA 9 expects a location element — typically a URL or DOI — for online sources. Omitting it makes the source harder to verify.
The definitive source for MLA 9 rules is the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), published in 2021 by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA, 2021). The MLA Style Center at style.mla.org provides free guidance, FAQs, and examples. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) at owl.purdue.edu offers a comprehensive, freely accessible guide that tracks updates to the handbook.
When in doubt, consult the handbook itself. Citation generators frequently produce MLA entries with errors — especially around containers and contributor roles. Always verify.
Formatting a Works Cited page manually for a long paper or thesis is slow and error-prone — especially when you are juggling sources across multiple containers and contributor types. DEEPNOTIS automates MLA 9 formatting: import your sources by DOI, file, or manual entry, and the platform generates correctly structured Works Cited entries that follow the container model, apply title case, and format URLs and DOIs according to MLA conventions.
With citation labels, you can organize sources by theme, chapter, or argument before exporting — making it practical to manage large reference lists without losing track of which sources belong where.
Whether you are writing a seminar paper, a thesis, or a journal article in the humanities, getting MLA right is the baseline expectation. The container model is straightforward once you understand it; having a tool that applies it consistently is what saves you time.
Modern Language Association. (2021). MLA handbook (9th ed.). Modern Language Association of America.
Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). MLA formatting and style guide. Purdue University. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html
MLA Style Center. (n.d.). How do I cite a source? Modern Language Association. https://style.mla.org