The MLA 9th Edition is an expansion of the updated style rules developed for the 8th Edition. It is largely the same as the 8th Edition (the 9th Edition of the Manual has more detail than the 8th Edition, but did not change the style itself).
Some citation management tools (including EndNote and Word's Citations & Bibliography) do not have a style for the 9th Edition of MLA - if you can find a style for the 8th Edition, you can use that. Similarly, some search tools (including One Search) currently only offer MLA 8th for their citation formats, but this can be used instead of MLA 9th if no 9th Edition style is not available.
MLA 7th Edition and older editions were noticably different from the current MLA style, so if the only style options available are MLA 7th or older, these will not be suitable. Only use an older version of MLA if you have been instructed to by your lecturer.
The Works Cited list appears at the end of the paper, after any appendices and endnotes. For student papers, start the Works Cited list on a new page. Title the list "Works Cited", with the title at the top of the page, centred, and in Title Case (not in quotation marks).
Double space the entire list (including the title)
Order the list alphabetically by author (in the first instance) and then by title for works by the same author, or works without an author. When alphabetising by title, ignore words like "an, a, the" at the start of the title.
When citing multiple works by the same author(s), give the author's name in the first entry, and then replace their name with three em dashes for subsequent entries.
Use a hanging indent.
MLA 9th Edition works on a "recipe" for constructing all references our of elements and containers. The Core Elements are the author and title of the work. You then outline the elements for the "container" of that work (e.g., a journal article is "contained" in a journal, a book chapter is "contained" in a book). There may be multiple containters (e.g. a journal is "contained" in a database)
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Core Elements: |
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1. Author. |
This is the person whose work you are citing. It might be a writer, director, illustrator, actor, etc. The first author's name is inverted (i.e., surname first) but subsequent authors are not inverted. If it is a role other than author, include that role after the names. End this field with a full stop. Kimber, Gerri and Janet Wilson. |
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2. “Title of Source.” |
Use “quotation marks” for works that are part of a larger work (e.g., journal article, book chapter). If this is the title of a major work (e.g. the whole book) it is "self-contained" and you should use italics instead of quotation marks. End this field with a full stop. "Story as World Making." |
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Container details: |
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3. Title of Container, |
For works like journal articles or book chapters, this is the title of the journal or book. For "self-contained" works (e.g. books) where you have already used the title of the “container” as the title of the source, do not include it again but skip straight to the next piece of information. End this field with a comma Language Arts, |
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4. Contributor, |
These are other people who have contributed substantially to the work. It may be the editor or translator, or another contributor, like an illustrator. It is also where you would mention the author, if they were not the person who's work you were citing (e.g., if you used the illustrator as the “author”, because you were referencing the illustrator's work, or if you were citing the editor's introduction of an edition of an author's book). End this field with a comma. translated by H. L. Hix and Jüri Talvet, |
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5. Version, |
This is the edition number for books. Do not use for the first edition. You can include in this section that you are using the e-book version. End this field with a comma. 11th ed., |
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6. Number, |
This is the volume number (and issue numbers for journals). End this field with a comma. vol. 2, |
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7. Publisher, |
Do not include publishers for journal articles, magazines or newspapers. If the publisher is the same as the author, for corporate authors, do not include it in both places, but omit the author. End this field with a comma. Cambridge UP,
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8. Publication Date, |
Give as much date information as you have in the source. End this field with a comma 2018, |
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9. Location. |
This is a pin-point location, such as a page number or URL. Do not use page numbers for complete books. End this field with a full stop. pp. 9-17. |
Repeat the container details for all relevant containers. For example, a journal article hosted on a database has two containers: the journal and the database. Give all of the relevant details for the first container (the journal) and then all of the relevant details for the second container (the database).
Notes:
In text:
Kathy Short noted that story is a "mode of knowing" (10).
OR
Story is a "mode of knowing" (Short 10).
Notes:
In text:
As mentioned by Aquarini Priyatna ... (234).
OR
Women are often presented as transgressive if they do not conform to normative standards and constructions (Priyatna 234).
N.B.: For journal articles (and newspapers, magazines, etc.), include more details for the date of publication if they are available.
For example:
Do not capitalise the names of seasons (spring, summer). Abbreviate months.
Notes:
In text:
According to Jennifer Smith, Bradbury's short story cycles are linked by a "grotesque force of nostalgia" (61).
OR
A "grotesque force of nostalgia" links the stories in Bradbury's books (Smith 61).
Notes:
In text:
Pauline Kaldas and Khaled Mattawa made the observation that Arab American writers tended to lean towards lyric poems over fiction and prose narratives (xviii).
OR
Arab American writers tended to lean towards lyric poems over fiction and prose narratives (Kalda and Mattawa xviii).
Notes:
In text:
Noemi Pereira-Ares noted Shahraz used clothing to show the conflicting multiple identities of young British-Muslim women (155).
OR
Shahraz used clothing to show the conflicting multiple identities of young British-Muslim women (Pereira-Ares 155).
In text:
Even though depictions of homosexuality became more open in the 20th century, "tactful ambiguity" was still commonplace, as noted by Brett Grubisic and Carellin Brooks (312).
OR
Even though depictions of homosexuality became more open in the 20th century, "tactful ambiguity" was still commonplace (Grubisic and Brooks 312).
Notes:
In text:
The challenges presented by reading in a minority language can, as Darmon-Shimamori noted, make reading a hurdle, even though it is beneficial.
OR
The challenges presented by reading in a minority language can make reading a hurdle, even though it is beneficial (Darmon-Shimamori).
Notes:
Notes:
In text:
The Department of Communications and the Arts specifically notes that no literary "merit" is required for a work to be considered a "literary work" for copyright purposes.
OR
No literary "merit" is required for a work to be considered a "literary work" for copyright purposes (Department of Communications).
Notes:
Notes:
In text:
The article "International Mother Language Day" encourages multilingual education with a mother-tongue basis as a way of safeguarding linguistic diversity.
OR
The United Nations encourages multilingual education with a mother-tongue basis as a way of safeguarding linguistic diversity ("International").
MLA is an author-centric style. In text, you include the author's name and, if relevant, a page number to pinpoint the location of the information used (or another pinpoint, such as a line number).
If mentioning the author's name in the text of the sentence, use the full name (given name and surname) in the first instance, and then refer to them by their surname for subsequent mentions. Any page numbers or other pinpoints are included in parentheses at the end of the sentence or clause. For example:
Kathy Short notes that "story is the way we make sense of the world" (10). Books are beneficial to children, but, as Short explains, it is how a child interacts with books, not the books themselves, that is important (14).
Corporate authors are referred to by their full name in the first instance, but can be shortened for subsequent citations. For example:
The Modern Languages Association of North America notes that in-text citations should be "brief and unobstrusive" (227)... According to the Modern Languages Association, you do not include a p. or pp. for page numbers in the parenthetical citations, but you would include a label (such as ch. for chapter or sc. for scene) when the pinpoint is not a page number (230).
If the author(s) names are not mentioned as part of the sentence, include their name and any page numbers/pinpoints in parentheses at the end of the sentence or clause.
For example:
Author name, no page number – (Short)
Author name with page number – (Short 12)
If the author's name is not mentioned in the sentence, refer to them by surname only, unless more than one author has the same surname - in which case give the author's initials as well as the surname. If both authors have the same initial, give full names for those authors.
For example:
Kathy G. Short becomes
For corporate authors, if the name is longer than one simple noun phrase, shorten the name to the shortest noun phrase.
For example:
The Modern Languages Association of North America – (Modern Languages Association 233)
The Children's Book Council of Australia – (Children's Book Council)
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts – (Department of Infrastructure)
Sometimes you will need to use a title in your in-text citations - either because you have no author and your Works Cited entry starts with a title, or because you have multiple works by the same author and need to use the title to distinguish which work you are referring to.
If referring to the title in the prose of the text (a narrative citation), give the title (but not the subtitle) in full the first time. Subsequent citations may abbreviate to the first phrase/noun phrase, as long as you are clearly referring to the same work. If the title is in "quotations marks" in your Works Cited list, it should be in quotation marks in text. If the title is in italics in your Works Cited list, it should be in italics in text.
Example of a work with no author:
In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Gawain is specifically called a "god mon" - that is, a "good man" (88).
OR
Gawain was specifically described as a "good man" (Sir Gawain).
Full citation:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A Close Verse Translation, translated by Larry D. Benson, edited by Daniel Donoghue, West Virginia UP, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/jcu/detail.action?docID=3417022.
Example of author's name and title used:
Short noted in "The Dangers of Reading Globally" that readers have a social responsibility to "remain open" to differing cultural perspectives (5).
OR
Readers have a social responsibility to "remain open" to differing cultural perspectives (Short, "Dangers" 5).
Full citation:
Short, Kathy G. "The Dangers of Reading Globally." Bookbird, vol. 57, no. 2, 2019, pp. 1-11, Proquest Central, http://doi.org/10.1353/bkb.2019.0025.
When citing a work with two authors, name both authors both in both the in-text citation and the Works Cited entry.
For example:
In text:
(Kimber and Wilson 5-6)
OR
Gerri Kimber and Janet Wilson noted that... (5-6)
In the Works Cited list:
Kimber, Gerri and Janet Wilson, editors. Re-Forming World Literature: Katherine Mansfield and the Modernist Short Story. Ibidem P, 2018.
If you have more than three authors, list the first author and use et al. (in italics) instead of naming the other authors in the Works Cited list. In text, use et al. in parenthetical citations, but use something like "and colleagues" or "and others" in narrative citations.
For example:
In text:
(Ainsworth, et al. 122)
OR
Ainsworth and colleagues noted that... (122).
Ainsworth and others noted that... (122).
In the Works Cited list:
Ainsworth, Peter et al. "The Photogrammetric Image and Black-Boxed Mutative Automation Considered through Philip K. Dick’s The Preserving Machine." Visual Resources, vol. 37, no. 2, 2021, pp. 121-38, http://doi.org/10.1080/01973762.2022.2159152.
The style listed in EndNote as "MLA" is for the 7th Edition. The latest version of EndNote 21 has a style for MLA 9th edition, but if you have an older version of EndNote you will need to choose MLA 8th.
N.B.: You will need to check the references generated by EndNote for accuracy.
Notes:
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