OmniDocMLA Works Cited Format: Books, Articles and Websites
Learn the MLA 9 Works Cited format for books, journal articles and websites, with examples, page layout rules and checks before you submit.
If you are writing a research paper, the Works Cited page is where many MLA papers lose points. The in-text citations in the body are only half the job. The list at the end has to match a specific pattern for each source, and small errors in punctuation or italics are easy to miss. This guide is for students and writers who need a clean Works Cited page in MLA 9 and want clear examples for books, journal articles and websites.
The core rule is simple. Each entry lists the elements of a source in a fixed order: author, title, container, contributors, version, number, publisher, date and location. A container is the larger work that holds your source, such as a journal for an article or a website for a webpage. Once you see that pattern, the individual formats make sense. This article covers the Works Cited list and its page layout. In-text citations follow separate rules, so check those when you finish the list.
How do you format a Works Cited entry in MLA 9? The short answer
List the author, title, container, publisher, date and location in that order, with a period after each element and a hanging indent on every entry.
| Your situation | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Book with one author | Author, title in italics, publisher, year | A book is self-contained, so it needs no container |
| Journal article | Author, article title in quotation marks, journal name in italics, volume, issue, year, page range | The journal is the container that holds the article |
| Article on a news or online site | Author, article title in quotation marks, site name in italics, date, URL | The site is the container, and the URL shows readers where to find it |
| Webpage with no author | Page title in quotation marks, website name in italics, date, URL | Start with the title when no author is named |
Before you start
Gather the source details before you type anything. Pulling them from the source itself is more reliable than relying on memory or a search snippet.
- Book details. Check the title page and the copyright page for the author, title, publisher and year. The cover alone is often incomplete.
- Journal details. Note the article title, journal name, volume, issue, year and page range from the first page of the article and the journal's front matter. Look for a DOI on the article page too.
- Webpage details. Copy the page title, the site name, the publication or update date and the full URL from the address bar. Dates and site names often appear in the page header or footer.
- Page setup. MLA papers use 1-inch margins, double spacing and a readable 12-point font. Confirm these with your assignment, since instructors sometimes set their own rules.
- A word processor. Any word processor can build this page. If you draft in the UniDoc web editor at app.unidoc.top, which offers Word-compatible editing, check the final file in your word processor before you submit.
Writing MLA citation format examples for your Works Cited page, step by step
- Start a new page after your last page of text. The Works Cited list begins on its own page at the end of the paper, so readers can find it quickly.
- Type the heading "Works Cited" centered at the top. Keep it in plain text, without bold, italics or underline, so it stands apart from the entries.
- Build each entry from the source details, in order. Following the same sequence for every source keeps the list consistent and easy to check.
- Format the titles. Put book titles and journal or website names in italics. Put article and webpage titles in quotation marks.
- Alphabetize the entries. Sort by the first word of each entry, which is usually the author's last name. If there is no author, use the first word of the title and ignore A, An and The.
- Apply a hanging indent of 0.5 inch. The first line of each entry stays at the margin, and the following lines indent. This makes the author names easy to scan.
- Set double spacing with no extra space between entries, and add a header. Put your last name and the page number in the top right corner, half an inch from the top, so the numbers continue from the body of the paper.
Examples for books, articles and websites
Book: Smith, Jane. The Quiet Harbor. Lakeside Press, 2019.
Journal article: Lee, Omar. "Water Rights in Small Towns." Journal of Rural Studies, vol. 18, no. 2, 2021, pp. 45-61. If the article has a DOI, end the entry with it, written as a web address, instead of a URL.
Online article: Rivera, Ana. "Why Bus Routes Change." City Ledger, 4 Mar. 2022, www.cityledger.example/bus-routes. Copy the URL from the address bar.
Webpage with no author: "Water Safety Basics." Harbor Authority, 12 Jan. 2023, www.harborauthority.example/safety.
Check the result
Once the list is built, read it entry by entry against the source details you gathered. These checks catch the errors that instructors notice first.
| Check | How to see it | If it's wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Alphabetical order | Read the first word of each entry down the page | Move the entry to its correct place |
| Italics and quotation marks | Select each title and confirm its formatting matches its type | Reapply italics to books and containers, or quotation marks to article and page titles |
| Punctuation between elements | Look for periods after the author, title and container, and commas between container details | Correct the punctuation to match the example for that source type |
| Hanging indent and spacing | Look at the second line of several entries and check the spacing between entries | Reset the paragraph settings for the whole list |
| Header and page numbers | Confirm the header on the Works Cited pages continues the numbering from the body | Fix the header so the numbers carry on from the paper |
If you copied details from a scanned PDF, check names, dates and numbers against the original, since text pulled from scans can contain small errors.
❓ FAQ
1. Do I need an access date for a website in MLA 9?
An access date is optional in MLA 9. Add one only when the webpage shows no publication or update date, and place it at the end of the entry, after the URL.
2. How do I cite a journal article that has no page numbers?
Leave out the page range and end the entry with the DOI if the article has one. If there is no DOI, use the URL that leads to the article.
3. How do I list two works by the same author?
Sort the entries by title, and replace the author's name in the second entry with three hyphens followed by a period. Keep the entries in the same order you would use for any two works.
4. Does the Works Cited page count toward the page limit?
Many assignments do not count the Works Cited page toward the length requirement, but check your instructor's guidelines because some do.
5. How should I cite a scanned copy or PDF of a book?
Cite the book as the printed work it reproduces. The file type does not change the format, so give the book's publication details, not details about the file.
📝 Summary
A correct Works Cited page in MLA 9 comes down to one pattern, applied to each source: author, title, container, publisher, date and location. Use the examples above for books, journal articles and websites, then check italics, punctuation, alphabetical order and the hanging indent before you submit. Good MLA citation format examples make the rest of the list easy to follow.
