MLA Citation Generator

Paste a link, DOI or ISBN, or type a title, and get the Works Cited entry and the in-text citation in MLA 9th edition. Free, with no ads and no account needed.

Check each one against its source before you hand it in.

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Formatted in MLA 9th edition.

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Select a citation type to begin entering details. Choose the kind of source. “” goes into its form as the title.

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Citation Style

Modern Language Association 9th edition (in-text citations)

Choose Citation Style

Search from over 10,640 citation styles

Choosing a citation style Check your assignment guidelines or consult your university's style guide. Common styles include APA (sciences and psychology), MLA (humanities), and Chicago (history and arts). When in doubt, ask your instructor.

Learn MLA

MLA style is the Modern Language Association’s way of citing sources, used in school and university courses on literature, language, film and media. Here is how a Works Cited entry is built and what to check before you hand it in.

Read the full MLA guide

A reference in MLA, part by part

Watson and Crick's 1953 paper on the structure of DNA, as Citation Creation sets it in MLA 9th edition.

Watson, James D., and Francis H. C. Crick. “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.” Nature, vol. 171, no. 4356, Apr. 1953, pp. 737-38, https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
Watson, James D., and Francis H. C. Crick.
only the first author reversed
“Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.”
the article in quotes
Nature,
the journal in italics
vol. 171, no. 4356, Apr. 1953, pp. 737-38,
vol., no., date, then pp.
https://doi.org/10.1038/171737a0.
the DOI, with https://doi.org/
In brackets, with a page
(Watson and Crick 737)
In your sentence
Watson and Crick then (737) after the quotation

Three quick checks

Surname and page

In your text, a citation is just the surname and the page, as in (Lee 23).

Quotation marks or italics

A part of something larger, such as an article or a web page, takes quotation marks, and a whole book, journal or website takes italics.

Works Cited, in order

End with a Works Cited list of every source you cite, in alphabetical order, each entry with a hanging indent.

The rest, from citing in your text to what changed in the latest edition, is in the MLA 9th edition guide.

How to cite each source in MLA

Website Journal Article Book Book Chapter Newspaper Article Video Report Thesis/Dissertation

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