On this page you will find formatting examples for MLA citations, as well as additional resources to help you cite in MLA.
MLA Style Center - Answers frequently asked questions and provides a practice template to help you build an MLA citation
MLA Citation Style from Cornell University - This document provides clear examples of in-text citations as well as Works Cited references
Purdue OWL, MLA Style - Comprehensive information and examples of formatting your paper and citing sources in MLA style
A DOI number is a journal article's "digital object identifier." This is a unique number assigned to the article, which doesn't change, even if the URL does. It helps other researchers find the article later. Most new journal articles that you access online have a DOI number. Articles that you access in print will not have one, and many older articles also don't have one. The DOI number is often at the very bottom of the pages, near the page numbers. It may also be in the article's abstract. For more info, see the MLA website.
In-Text Citations
MLA uses an author-page format for in-text citations. The citation should be in parentheses at the end of your sentence, before the period. It lists the author's last name, followed by the page number. An example is at the end of this sentence (Author, 122). MLA also includes the option to mention the author in your text, and then put the page number in the citation. For example:
In her book Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble argues that Google search results promote racist ideas (20).
Works Cited
At the end of your paper you should include a Works Cited Page, which lists all of the references you cited within the document. This list should be alphabetical by the author's last name. Examples for different sources are below.
The basic formatting for a journal article is:
Smith, John and Emma Watson, "Article Title," Journal Title, Vol. #, no. #, December 2018, pp.100-123.
Variations depend on whether your article has a DOI number and whether you found it online or in print. Examples of these variations are below. See "What is a DOI Number?" on the left side of this page.
Article with a DOI Number
Article without a DOI Number
Full Print Book
Online News Article
Yaffe-Bellany, David. “Bulletproof Backpacks in Demand for Back-to-School Shopping.” The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2019.
NYTimes.comhttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/business/bulletproof-backpack.html
