MLA is most often used in English, Rhetoric, foreign language, and the humanities. Citations are created using both a detailed works cited list appearing at the end of a paper and brief in-text citations that direct readers to particular sources from that reference list.
The examples and rules described on this page are intended as a quick reference for general MLA citation. For more sources with exhaustive rules, exceptions to rules, and types of sources not described here, see the MLA resources below.
An MLA Works Cited citation should include the following elements if they are relevant to the work. Use the punctuation shown below:
Gold, Susanna W. "The Death of Cleopatra /the Birth of Freedom: Edmonia Lewis at the New World's Fair." Biography, vol. 35, no. 2, 2012, pp. 318-341.
Morris, J. B. Oberlin, Hotbed of Abolitionism: College, Community, and the Fight for Freedom and Equality in Antebellum America. The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2014.