MLA 8 Citation Generator: Complete Guide

What Is MLA 8th Edition?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association, an organization of scholars working in languages, literature, and the humanities. Its citation style is standard across English, comparative literature, film studies, cultural studies, and related fields at universities worldwide.

The 8th edition of the MLA Handbook was published in 2016 and represented the most significant revision in the style's history. Where earlier editions gave separate, rigid rules for each source type — a format for books, a different one for journals, another for websites — MLA 8 replaced all of that with a single universal template built around nine core elements. The idea is that any source can be described using the same framework, regardless of whether it's a tweet, a Netflix documentary, or a 19th-century novel.

A key practical difference from APA (which dominates the social sciences) is that MLA uses author–page number in-text citations rather than author–date. This reflects how humanities scholars cite: a page number locates the exact passage in an argument, which matters more than the publication year when discussing literature or cultural analysis.

MLA 8 remains the current edition used in most undergraduate and graduate humanities courses. (MLA 9, published in 2021, made modest refinements but kept the same core framework — see our MLA 9 guide for the differences.)

Works Cited Page Layout

Every MLA paper ends with a Works Cited page — a full list of every source you referenced in the text. The formatting rules are precise:

• Page title: "Works Cited" — centred at the top, same font size as the body, not bold or underlined.
• Margins: 1 inch on all sides (standard MLA paper margin).
• Font & size: Times New Roman 12pt (or the same readable font used throughout your paper).
• Line spacing: Double-spaced throughout — no extra blank lines between entries.
• Hanging indent: The first line of each entry is flush left; every continuation line is indented 0.5 inches. This makes the author's last name easy to scan.
• Order: Alphabetical by the first word of each entry — usually the author's last name. If no author, alphabetise by the first significant word of the title (ignore "A," "An," "The").
• Page numbers: Continued from the paper, placed in the top-right header as "LastName PageNumber."

The 9 Core Elements

MLA 8 defines a universal set of nine elements that describe any source. Not every source has every element — you include only the ones that apply and are available. The elements always appear in the same order, each followed by the prescribed punctuation.

For element 2, standalone works (books, films, albums, websites) have their titles italicised. Works contained within a larger work (articles, chapters, short stories, episodes) are placed in "quotation marks."

The Container System

The most innovative part of MLA 8 is the container system. A "container" is any larger whole that holds your source. A journal article is contained within a journal. A chapter is contained within a book. A YouTube video is contained within YouTube.

After you finish elements 1–9 for the immediate source, you can add a second container — elements 3–9 again — if the source sits within yet another larger context. The most common case is a journal article accessed through a library database like JSTOR or EBSCOhost.

Two-Container Example

An article in American Literature accessed through JSTOR has two containers: the journal itself (first container) and JSTOR (second container):

Notice how after the first location (pp. 193–216), a period closes the first container, and then the second container begins: the database name in italics, followed by the URL as the second location.

In-Text Citations (Author Page)

Every time you quote, paraphrase, or summarise a source in your paper, you add a brief parenthetical citation immediately after the passage. The default format is (Author LastName PageNumber) — no comma between them.

Place the parenthetical citation before the period at the end of the sentence, but after any closing quotation mark. For block quotations (4+ lines), the citation goes after the final period of the block.

Citing Journal Articles

Standard Print Journal Article

Journal Article with DOI

When a DOI is available, include it as the location (element 9) in place of or in addition to page numbers.

Online-Only Journal Article

For journals that publish exclusively online with no print version, there may be no page numbers. Omit them.

Article Accessed via Library Database (Two Containers)

Citing Books

Single Author

Two Authors

List the first author last-name-first; the second author in normal order.

Edited Book

Use "edited by" as other contributors (element 4) if you are citing the whole collection. Alternatively, lead with the editor's name followed by "editor."

Chapter in an Edited Book

The chapter title goes in quotation marks (element 2). The book title becomes the container (element 3).

Citing Websites

Web Page with Named Author

Web Page with No Author

When no individual author is identified, start with the page or article title.

Online News Article

Common MLA 8 Mistakes