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MLA 9th Edition Citation Style Guide

Quick tips

Journal titles in your Works Cited list should use title case, be italicized, and followed by a comma.

Include a DOI if provided as a weblink: https://doi/org/#. If a DOI is not available, include a permanent URL if provided. Links should not be live. 

Journal article with one author, from a database, with a permalink

EXAMPLE

Baron, Naomi S. "Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital Communication Media." PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, 2013. pp. 193-200. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23489277. 

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Baron 198)

Narrative in-text citation: Baron found that ... (198).

Journal article with two authors, from a database, with a doi

List both authors in the Works-Cited list and the in-text citations. The authors are listed in the order that they appear in the work. The first author is listed last name, first name, followed by the word and, with the second authors name in the standard order. 

EXAMPLE

Mayorga, Edwin, and Bree Picower. "Active Solidarity: Centering the Demands and Vision of the Black Lives Matter Movement in Teacher Education." Urban Education, vol. 53, no. 2, 2017, pp. 212-30. SAGE Journals, https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085917747117. 

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Mayorga and Picower 215)

Narrative in-text citation: Mayorga and Picower describe in their article ... (215).

Journal article with three or more authors, from a database, with a doi

Include only the first listed author followed by et al. in both the Works Cited list and your in-text citation. 

EXAMPLE

Castillo-Montoya, Milagros, et al. "Racially Liberatory Pedagogy: A Black Lives Matter Approach to Education." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, vol. 32, no. 9, 2019, pp. 1125-45. Taylor and Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2019.1645904.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Castillo-Montoya et al. 1130)

Narrative in-text citation: Castillo-Montoya et al. argue that ... (1130).

Journal article with no doi, no page number, from an online journal

EXAMPLE

Alpert-Abrams, Hannah. "Machine Reading the Primeros Libros." Digital Humanities Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, 2016, http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/10/4/000268/000268.html. 

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Alpert-Abrams)

Narrative in-text citation: Hannah Alpert-Abrams outlines some of the challenges with automatic transcriptions of early modern printed books. 

Magazine article online

EXAMPLE

Trilling, Lionel. "Orwell on the future." The New Yorker, 10, June 1949, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1949/06/18/orwell-on-the-future.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Trilling)

Narrative in-text citation: Lionel Trilling reviews Orwell's book and outlines several ways that 1984 could be predicting future government states. 

Newspaper Article Online

EXAMPLE

Bains, Camille. "Study shows low levels of THC in marijuana don't increase car crashes." The Globe and Mail, 13 June, 2019, https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-study-shows-low-levels-of-thc-in-marijuana-dont-increase-car-crashes/.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Bains)

Narrative in-text citation: Camille Bains reports on a study that shows that low levels of THC does not increase the likelihood of car crashes. 

Newspaper Source in Print

EXAMPLE

Sharpe, Rochelle. "Those Hidden Fees." The New York Times Education Life, 6 Nov. 2016, pp.18-19.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Sharpe 18)

Narrative in-text citation: Sharpe describes ... (18).

If the news source doesn't run across consecutive pages (pages 1, 3, and 5 for example) put the first page that the news story appears on followed by a +.

Using the same example:

Sharpe, Rochelle. "Those Hidden Fees." The New York Times Education Life, 6 Nov. 2016, pp.18+.