MLA Format: The Complete Guide
MLA format — from the MLA Handbook, 9th edition — covers how your paper looks, how you cite in the text, and how the Works Cited page is built. It's the standard for English, literature, languages, and much of the humanities.
MLA's defining idea is the container system: every source, from a sonnet to a TikTok, is described by the same nine core elements. Master the pattern once and every source type follows.
Paper formatting rules
- Margins: 1 inch all around. Font: legible, 11–13pt — Times New Roman 12 is the safe default.
- Spacing: double-spaced throughout, including Works Cited.
- No title page (unless required): instead, a four-line header on page one — your name, instructor, course, date — flush left, then the centered title.
- Running head: your surname + page number, top right of every page.
- First-line indent: ½ inch on every paragraph.
MLA in-text citations (author–page)
MLA cites with author and page number — no comma, no year: (Rasch and Born 685). If the author is named in your sentence, only the page goes in parentheses. Sources without pages (most web pages) cite the author alone: (Alvarez).
Two authors: (Rasch and Born 685). Three or more: (Harris et al. 360). No author: a shortened title — quoted for articles, italicized for books: ("Sleep and Memory"). Full patterns: MLA In-Text Citations.
The Works Cited page
Titled Works Cited (centered, not bold, not underlined), starting on a new page, alphabetized by author surname, double-spaced, hanging indents. Only sources actually cited belong on it — that's what "works cited" means. Full walkthrough: What Is a Works Cited Page?
Citation formats by source type
The three formats that cover most papers, generated by our engine:
Rasch, Björn, and Jan Born. "About sleep's role in memory." Physiological Reviews, vol. 93, no. 2, 2013, pp. 681-766, https://doi.org/10.1152/physrev.00032.2012.
Martin, Robert C. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Prentice Hall, 2008.
Alvarez, Maria. "How memory consolidation works during sleep." Science Daily, 18 Mar. 2024, https://www.sciencedaily.com/memory-consolidation-sleep. Accessed 1 June 2026.
The nine core elements
Every MLA entry is assembled from the same checklist, skipping whatever doesn't apply: Author. "Title of Source." Title of Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. For a journal article, the container is the journal, the number is volume/issue, and the location is the page range or DOI. For a web page, the container is the website and the location is the URL. This is why MLA can cite anything — podcasts, paintings, tweets — with one formula.
Page one, exactly
No title page. Instead, in the top-left of page one, four double-spaced lines: your name / instructor's name / course / date (date in MLA's day-month-year form: 12 June 2026). Below that, the title — centered, Title Case, plain text: no bold, no italics, no underline, no quotation marks, not larger. Then the first paragraph begins with a ½-inch indent. Meanwhile the running head — your surname and the page number — sits in the top-right of every page including the first.
Quotes, block quotes, and verse
- Prose quotes up to four lines run inside your sentence with quotation marks; citation after the closing quote, period after the citation: …"depends on sleep" (Rasch and Born 685).
- Longer prose becomes a block quote: ½-inch indent, no quotation marks, citation after the final period.
- Poetry up to three lines stays inline with slashes marking line breaks: "line one / line two" (Frost 3-4).
- Four+ lines of verse are blocked with original line breaks preserved.
- Altering quotes: square brackets for changes, ellipses for omissions — and cite line or page exactly.
Mechanics graders check
Titles inside your prose follow the same container logic as citations: italicize standalone works (Beloved, The Atlantic), quote pieces within them ("The Lottery"). Numbers are usually spelled out when writable in a word or two (MLA's humanities heritage). And the date format stays day-month-year everywhere — 12 June 2026 in the header, 18 Mar. 2024 in citations, months over four letters abbreviated.
Keep every citation you make.
A free account saves your citation history and organizes sources into projects with notes and tags.
Create a free account →Find the sources you should be citing.
Premium searches 250 million scholarly works by topic, recommends citations for your claims, and flags statements in your writing that need support.
Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- Is this MLA 8 or MLA 9?
- MLA 9 (2021). It kept MLA 8's container system; the differences are refinements. A correct MLA 9 citation is effectively always acceptable where MLA 8 is requested.
- Does MLA use a title page?
- Not by default — the four-line header on page one replaces it. Some instructors request one anyway; theirs is the rule that counts.
- Title Case or sentence case in MLA?
- Title Case: capitalize the principal words of every title (Sleep's Role in Memory Consolidation). This is the opposite of APA's sentence case — the most visible difference between the styles.
- How does MLA handle no page numbers?
- Cite the author alone: (Alvarez). If the source has explicit paragraph, chapter, or line numbering, you may use it: (Alvarez, par. 7) — but never invent numbering for a web page.