mla style essay format

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MLA Formatting and Style Guide

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In-Text Citations

Resources on using in-text citations in MLA style

Works Cited Page

Resources on writing an MLA style works cited page, including citation formats

Other MLA Resources

Explore our new content updates to the MLA Handbook Plus platform!

What’s New on MLA Handbook Plus ?

What is mla handbook plus .

MLA Handbook Plus is a new, subscription-based digital product providing online access to the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook. To learn more about MLA Handbook… Read More

What’s New in the Ninth Edition of the MLA Handbook (Spring 2021)

Published in April 2021, the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook works as both a textbook and a reference guide. You can order a copy… Read More

MLA Guide to Digital Literacy , 2nd Edition: An Interview with the Author

by Ellen C. Carillo

Ellen C. Carillo talks to the MLA about the MLA Guide to Digital Literacy , second edition. Read More

How do I alphabetize a works-cited-list entry that begins with a hashtag or another symbol?

The MLA recommends that writers should “ignore symbols when alphabetizing” (“How”). This includes hashtags. Thus, if an entry begins with a hashtag or another symbol,… Read More

Teaching Resources

A Century of Queer Korean Fiction : An Interview with Samuel Perry

Toward Educational Justice: An Interview with the Editors of Teaching Literature and Writing in Prisons

Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto’s Sphinx: A Neo-Gothic Novel from Brazil : An Interview with M. Elizabeth Ginway

A Reflection on Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities on Its Twentieth Anniversary

Teaching Claire de Duras’s Ourika

Teaching Nineteenth-Century Activist Rhetorics Today: An Interview

How and Why to Teach Late-Twentieth-Century Mexicana and Chicana Writers: An Interview

Advice from the Editors

Similar but Different: Using Compare with and Compare to

Forego versus Forgo

Was and Were with the Subjunctive

Their , There , and They’re : Learn the Difference

Attributive Nouns; or, Why There Is Sometimes No Apostrophe in Terms Such As Teachers Union

Terms for Key Concepts

Laying versus Lying

Getting to the Bottom of Principle and Principal

Ask the MLA

How do i cite a work accessed through wayback machine .

Wayback Machine is an archive of websites that lives on the Internet Archive ’s site, so you would treat the Internet Archive as the container of… Read More

How do I style the title of a fairy tale?

Fairy tales are typically enclosed in quotation marks, in the style of other short-form works. Some people may not know that Disney’s 1989 film The … Read More

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The MLA Style Center

What is mla style.

Building confidence in the information and ideas we share with one another is perhaps more important today than ever before, and for nearly a century it has been the driving principle behind MLA style, a set of standards for writing and documentation used by writers to find and evaluate information, alert their audience to the trustworthiness of their findings through citation, and shape the expression of their ideas in conversation with others. 

Resources for MLA Style

Our new, subscription-based digital platform, MLA Handbook Plus is

• Trusted: The only authorized subscription-based digital resource featuring the latest edition of the MLA Handbook is available for unlimited simultaneous users.
• Evolving: Get the same content as the print edition, plus seamless annual updates and forthcoming additional resources such as videos and companion titles.
• Dynamic: Features an easy-to-search interface, cross-linking of related material, and a split view that lets students see illustrations while reading corresponding content.
• Flexible: Whether on campus, at home, or in a coffee shop, students can access the platform from anywhere—perfect for remote or hybrid learning environments.
• Affordable: Tiered pricing model based on full-time undergraduate enrollments in US higher education institutions (with custom pricing options for secondary schools, consortia, international schools, campus systems, and other organizations).
• Accessible: Meets current accessibility standards—ensuring that learning MLA style is available to all.

Contact [email protected] for more info.

MLA Handbook , 9th Edition

The ninth edition of the MLA Handbook , published in spring 2021, builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements—facts common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date—that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today. The new edition offers

• New chapters on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, numbers, italics, abbreviations, and principles of inclusive language
• Guidelines on setting up research papers in MLA format with updated advice on headings, lists, and title pages for group projects
• Revised, comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for creating a list of works cited in MLA format that are easier to learn and use than ever before
• A new appendix with hundreds of example works-cited-list entries by publication format, including websites, YouTube videos, interviews, and more
• Detailed examples of how to find publication information for a variety of sources
• Newly revised explanations of in-text citations, including comprehensive advice on how to cite multiple authors of a single work
• Detailed guidance on using notes in MLA style
• Instructions on quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, and avoiding plagiarism
• Annotated bibliography examples
• Numbered sections throughout for quick navigation
• Advanced tips for professional writers and scholars

The MLA Style Center offers free online resources on MLA style, including an interactive MLA format template, answers to common questions on Ask the MLA, advice from the MLA editors, and more. Get updates by signing up for The Source newsletter, and follow us on Twitter @MLAstyle .