How to Format an MLA Works Cited Page

An MLA works cited page is the alphabetical list of sources that appears at the end of any paper formatted in MLA 9 style, and getting its layout right is just as important as getting the entries right. This page tells your reader exactly where every quotation and paraphrase came from, and it connects directly to the short parenthetical notes you place inside your text. In this guide you will learn how to set up the page heading, apply the hanging indent and double spacing, build entries from the nine core elements, alphabetize correctly, and handle multiple works by the same author. Worked examples are included throughout, and you can build any entry instantly with our MLA citation generator.

How to set up the page

The works cited page starts on a new page after the body of your essay. Keep the same one-inch margins and the same running header (your last name and the page number) that you use throughout the document. Center the title Works Cited at the top of the page. Do not bold it, italicize it, underline it, or put it in quotation marks. If you have only one source, the heading is still Works Cited in most teacher preferences, though strict MLA allows “Work Cited” for a single entry.

Three formatting rules apply to the entire list and are the most common things students get wrong:

Double spacing

Everything on the page is double-spaced, including within a single entry and between entries. Do not add extra blank lines between sources. The double spacing should be continuous from the title down to the last entry.

Hanging indent

Each entry uses a hanging indent: the first line sits flush against the left margin and every subsequent line of that entry is indented half an inch. This visual structure makes the alphabetized author names easy to scan. Most word processors apply this through the paragraph settings rather than the tab key, and our guide to the hanging indent walks through the exact steps in Word and Google Docs.

Alphabetical order

Entries are arranged alphabetically by the first word of each entry, which is usually the author’s last name. When there is no author, you alphabetize by the first significant word of the title (ignore A, An, and The). The list is never numbered and is never grouped by source type.

The nine core elements template

MLA 9 builds every entry from the same template of nine core elements, recorded in a fixed order. You include only the elements that apply to your source, and each element is followed by the punctuation shown below. The elements are:

1. Author. 2. Title of source. 3. Title of container, 4. Contributor, 5. Version, 6. Number, 7. Publisher, 8. Publication date, 9. Location.

The “container” is the larger whole that holds your source, such as the journal that holds an article, the website that holds a page, or the anthology that holds a chapter. Elements 3 through 9 belong to the container and are separated by commas, with a period closing the whole container group. A source can have two containers (for example, an article in a journal that lives in a database), in which case you repeat the container elements a second time. Because the punctuation is so precise, it helps to build entries with the MLA citation generator and then check them against the template. For a broader walkthrough, see our MLA format guide.

Example entries

Here are common source types formatted as MLA 9 works cited entries, each paired with the in-text citation it supports. Notice the title case, the hanging indent implied by each entry, and the omission of https:// from URLs.

Web pages often have no page numbers, so the in-text citation gives the author’s name alone. For the canonical example of a classic play, MLA cites by act, scene, and line rather than page numbers:

If you are unsure which fields a particular source needs, our type-specific guides cover the details for how to cite a book, how to cite a journal article, and how to cite a website.

Multiple works by the same author

When your list includes two or more sources by the same author, give the full name only in the first entry. For each entry after that, replace the name with three hyphens followed by a period (—.) and then continue with the title. Arrange that author’s works alphabetically by title, not by date. The three hyphens stand for exactly the same name as in the entry above; if the second source has a different co-author or a different role, you spell the name out again rather than using the hyphens.

Because both books share an author, the in-text citation adds a shortened title so the reader knows which work you mean. This is one of the clearest places where the works cited page and the parenthetical note depend on each other.

How entries map to in-text citations

Every source on your works cited page must be cited at least once in your text, and every in-text citation must point to an entry on the page. The link is the first element of the entry, almost always the author’s last name. An MLA in-text citation is simply that first element plus a page number, with no comma and no year between them, as in (Rivera 47). When a source has no author, the in-text citation uses a shortened version of the title that begins with the same word the entry is alphabetized under.

This matching system is what keeps your citations verifiable. A reader sees (Bennett) in your paragraph, scans to the B section of the works cited page, and finds the full Bennett entry. To go deeper on the parenthetical side, read our guides to MLA in-text citations and the difference between parenthetical and narrative citations. If you are comparing systems for a different class, see APA vs MLA and how the MLA list differs from an APA reference page or a Chicago bibliography in works cited vs bibliography vs references.

Common mistakes to avoid

A few errors show up again and again on student works cited pages. Watch for these:

Capitalization in titles

MLA uses title case, but you still lowercase all prepositions regardless of length. Write “Coastal Erosion along the Gulf Shore,” not “Along,” because along is a preposition. The same rule covers between, through, and against.

Leaving in the protocol

Drop https:// from URLs in MLA entries. Keep the rest of the address so the source remains findable.

Wrong order or extra spacing

Do not sort by date, by source type, or by the order you used the sources. Sort alphabetically. And do not add blank lines between entries; the whole page is uniformly double-spaced. Finally, never number the list. For a refresher on the underlying logic of any citation, our overview of what a citation is and our guide to how to cite sources tie these rules together, while how to avoid plagiarism explains why the works cited page matters in the first place.

A clean MLA works cited page is mostly a matter of discipline: center the title, double-space everything, apply a hanging indent, alphabetize by the first element, and use three hyphens for repeated authors. Once the structure is in place, you only need to make sure each entry follows the nine-element template and that every entry has a matching in-text citation. When you want to skip the manual punctuation, generate accurate entries with the MLA citation generator and paste them straight into your page.