MLA Style Guide

Brush up on MLA basics and break down citations for multiple source types each with a real-life citation example to help you learn.

MLA style citations are commonly used by students and academics in the humanities. This guide follows the 9th edition (the most recent) of the MLA Handbook, published by the Modern Language Association in 2021.

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MLA style uses parentheses to cite sources. This is why it is called a parenthetical documentation system. To cite a source, the last name of the author (or the title of the article in quotation marks if no author is named) and the page number (or indicator of place in work), are used in sentences that contain a quote, paraphrasing, or a summary. One way of citing is to put the last name (or title in quotes if no author) and the page number in parentheses at the end of a sentence with information from a source whether it is a quote, paraphrase, or summary. If the last name of the author is used in the sentence as part of a narrative in-text citation, then only the page number is put in parentheses, if available.

Welcome to an overview of “What is MLA Format?” in relation to paper formatting. You’ll find in-depth guidelines, examples, and visual samples to help you easily format your paper. This guide does not serve as a reference for MLA citation format.

The MLA Style Center is the only authorized website on MLA style. A companion to the MLA Handbook, the site provides students and educators with a host of free resources for teaching and learning the MLA’s approach to research, writing, and documentation. It offers a quick guide to citing any source according to the MLA format template, a practice template, a Q&A feature with hundreds of citation examples, a blog of writing tips, guidelines for formatting a paper and avoiding plagiarism, sample papers, lesson plans, worksheets, and other classroom resources submitted by users. Additional teaching resources are in development.

APA (American Psychological Association) style is most commonly used to cite sources within the social sciences. This resource, revised according to the 7th edition of the APA manual, offers examples of the general format of APA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the reference page.Quick Introduction to the Purdue OWL

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BibGuru wants you to keep your focus on your citations and nothing else! Whether you need a bibliography for APA or a works cited page for MLA, BibGuru has got you covered.

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Just need one quick source citation? Create a single MLA, APA, or Chicago-style reference and copy and paste it into your document. No login required.

TypeCite allows you to quickly switch between MLA, APA, and Harvard styles, compiling citations for print books, ebooks, journal articles, and websites.

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