How Do I Create MLA 8 Citations and a Works Cited List?

Updated

MLA 8 citations are built from a short list of core elements — author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, and location — placed in that order and separated by commas, with a period at the end. You can assemble them by hand, or use a free generator such as Citefast, which supports MLA 8th edition alongside APA and Chicago. The steps below cover both routes, plus the in-text citations and Works Cited formatting that go with them.

The nine core elements of an MLA 8 entry

MLA 8 replaced the older source-type templates with one flexible set of elements. Ask these questions in order and include only the elements that apply:

Order Element What it answers Example
1 Author Who created it? Austen, Jane.
2 Title of source What is it called? Pride and Prejudice.
3 Title of container Where does it live? The Norton Anthology of English Literature,
4 Other contributors Anyone else involved? edited by Stephen Greenblatt,
5 Version Which edition or release? 9th ed.,
6 Number Volume, issue, or episode? vol. 2, no. 3,
7 Publisher Who produced it? W. W. Norton,
8 Publication date When? 2016,
9 Location Page range, URL, or DOI? pp. 12–30.

Two punctuation rules do most of the work: put a period after the author and after the title of source, and use commas between the remaining elements. End the whole entry with a period.

Building entries for common source types

Webpage

Format: Author. "Title of Page." Site Name, Publisher, Date, URL.

Example: Smith, John. "How to Cite Sources." Citefast, 2024, citefast.com.

If the site name and publisher are the same, list the site name once. If no author is given, start with the title of the page.

Book

Format: Author. Title of Book. Version, Publisher, Year.

Example: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. Penguin Classics, 2003.

Journal article

Format: Author. "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. #–#.

Example: Lee, Maria. "Citation Habits in First-Year Writing." Composition Studies, vol. 45, no. 2, 2017, pp. 88–104.

Chapter in an edited book

Format: Author. "Chapter Title." Book Title, edited by Editor Name, Publisher, Year, pp. #–#.

The chapter title goes in quotation marks; the book title is italicized because it is the container.

When a source has no author

Move the title to the author position. For a short work, use quotation marks; for a whole book or website, italicize it. Alphabetize the entry under the first significant word of the title, ignoring "A," "An," and "The."

In-text citations

MLA in-text citations use the author's last name and a page number, with no comma between them:

  • Parenthetical: (Austen 42)
  • With the author named in the sentence: Austen argues that marriage is economic (42).
  • Two authors: (Smith and Jones 15)
  • Three or more authors: (Smith et al. 15)
  • No page number (common for web sources): (Smith)
  • No author: use a shortened title — ("How to Cite" 3) or (Citation Habits 12)

The in-text citation must match the first word of the corresponding Works Cited entry so a reader can find it.

Formatting the Works Cited list

  • Start it on a new page at the end of your paper.
  • Title the page Works Cited, centered, without italics or quotation marks.
  • Alphabetize entries by the author's last name, or by the first significant word of the title when there is no author.
  • Use a hanging indent: the first line sits flush left, and every following line of the same entry is indented half an inch.
  • Double-space the entire list, with no extra blank lines between entries.

Using Citefast to generate MLA 8 entries

Citefast is a free citation generator that supports MLA 8th edition. The workflow, based on the site's interface:

  1. Select MLA 8 from the style buttons. Note that the site's default style is APA 7, so you must switch it.
  2. Choose the source type — the site lists Webpage, Book, Journal, Newspaper, Online video, Magazine, Dissertation/Thesis, Blog, Government publication, and others.
  3. Enter the source details, either through Autofill (paste a URL or identifier) or Manual entry.
  4. Review the generated entry, then copy and paste it, export it, or save it to an account.
  5. For in-text citations, use the site's in-text citation guide, which explains that citations are required whenever you use someone else's ideas, theories, or research, and that you supply your own page numbers.

Two practical notes from the site: JavaScript must be enabled for the generator to work, and saving citations to an account is described as easy and free, which lets you keep them longer and access them from other computers.

Common pitfalls

  • Italicizing the wrong title. Italicize titles that stand on their own (books, journals, websites); use quotation marks for titles that are part of a larger work (articles, chapters, webpages).
  • Including a URL that isn't needed. For database sources, MLA generally prefers a DOI; include a URL when the source is only findable online.
  • Forgetting the hanging indent. This is the most visible formatting error in a Works Cited page.
  • Mismatched in-text and list entries. If your in-text citation says (Smith 42), your Works Cited must have an entry beginning with Smith.
  • Using the wrong edition. MLA 8 and MLA 9 differ in small ways; confirm which edition your instructor requires before generating entries.