MLA Works Cited Guide — Formatting Your Bibliography

The Works Cited page is an alphabetical list of all sources cited in your paper. It appears at the end of your document on a new page.

Works Cited Page Format

Title "Works Cited" centered at the top of the page
Entries are alphabetized by the author's last name
Each entry uses a hanging indent (first line flush left, subsequent lines indented 0.5 inches)
Double-spaced throughout (same as the rest of the paper)
No extra space between entries

MLA Citation Structure

MLA 9 uses a "core elements" system. Citations follow this general order:

Author.
Title of Source.
Title of Container (website, journal, book),
Other contributors,
Version,
Number,
Publisher,
Publication date,
Location (page numbers, URL, DOI).

Example Citations

Book

Smith, John. The Art of Writing. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Website Article

Doe, Jane. "Understanding MLA Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab, 15 Mar. 2024, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html.

Journal Article

Williams, Sarah. "Digital Literacy in Modern Education." Journal of Education, vol. 45, no. 2, 2023, pp. 112-130.

Each of these opens up into its own set of decisions — the website entry is worked through in how to cite a website in MLA, and a journal article reached through a library database adds a second container, covered in how to cite a database.

Hanging Indents

A hanging indent means the first line of each citation starts at the left margin, while every subsequent line is indented 0.5 inches. This makes it easy to scan the alphabetized list by author name.

In Google Docs: Format > Align & Indent > Indentation options > Hanging. In Microsoft Word: Home > Paragraph > Special > Hanging.

Page Layout

Rubio 8

Works Cited

Doe, Jane. "Understanding MLA Format." Purdue Online Writing Lab, 15 Mar. 2024, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html.

Smith, John. The Art of Writing. Oxford University Press, 2023.

Williams, Sarah. "Digital Literacy in Modern Education." Journal of Education, vol. 45, no. 2, 2023, pp. 112-130.

Page title. "Works Cited" is centered at the top of the page — the only heading on it.
First line. Starts at the left margin, like any other line of text.
The dashed guide. Marks 0.5 in from the margin. Every line after the first begins here, which is the hanging indent.

Every entry begins flush at the left margin; its later lines step back half an inch. The dashed guide marks that half-inch line, and you can see each continuation line start on it. Entries are double-spaced with no blank line between them — the hanging indent is what tells them apart — and the list runs in alphabetical order by the author's last name.

Build Your Works Cited Page

Use our free Works Cited Generator to create properly formatted citations.

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MLA Works Cited