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MLA Style

Styling entries

Styling the bibliographic entries of a works cited list follows specific rules for consistency purposes. These guidelines refer to the following stylistic aspects of entries:

  • alphabetization,
  • capitalization,
  • italicization,
  • abbreviations,
  • punctuation.
Click on the options below to find out the details.

  Alphabetization

Works cited entries are placed in alphabetical order. Check the table below to find out how to alphabetize entries.
Variations How to order Examples
Names Alphabetize letter by letter by the author's last name or the title of the work when no author is available.


If there are entries starting with special characters like online usernames, ignore the special character and alphabetize with the second letter.


Retain a suffix that is essential part of a name or a roman numeral. Omit from names titles, affiliations, and degrees that precede or follow names like Sir, PhD, Saint etc.

 Aydemir, Abdurrahman

Gilroy, Marilyn

Glenn, Norval


@loseweightdiet0





Rockfeller, John D., IV

Rust, Arthur George, Jr.
Same name of author,
different works		 When you cite two or more works by the same author, provide the author's name in the first entry only. Begin the second entry with three hyphens followed by a period, instead of the author's name. Alphabetize the list by the title of the works. Stern, Julian. Involving Parents.

– – –. The Spirit of the School.
Two authors,
different works		 Begin the entries with the same author and alphabetize them with the second authors last name. Brown, Claire, and Liz Jones.

Brown, Claire, and Michaela Rogers.
More than two authors,
different works
(same lead author, same coauthors)		 Provide the lead author's name followed by et al. in the first entry only. Begin the second entry with three hyphens followed by a period, instead of the author's name. Alphabetize the list by the title of the works. Jiao, Qun, et al. "Racial Differences..."

– – –. "The Relationship between ..."
More than two authors,
different works
(same lead author, different coauthors)		 Provide the lead author's name followed by et al. in both entries to indicate that the coauthors are different. Alphabetize the list by the title of the works. Jiao, Qun, et al. Library Anxiety ..."

Jiao, Qun, et al. "The Relationship ..."

  Capitalization

All principal words in a citation should be capitalized. You should also capitalize words which appear at the beginning of a title or a subtitle. Check the table below to find out which words are considered to be principal words and therefore should be capitalized.
Words to capitalize Words not to capitalize
Nouns: United States, Freedom, Adam Smith Prepositions: against, as, between, in, of, to
Pronouns: I, Me, Mine, Myself, Who Articles: a, an, the
Verbs: Continue, Appear, Leave A word following a hyphenated prefix: Anti-slavery
Adjectives: Illegal, Homeless, Beautiful The to in infinitives: How to Play Chess
Adverbs: Simply, Slowly, Terribly The words volume, number, pages, in their abbreviated forms when they describe a source: vol. 128, no. 1, pp. 7-10
Subordinating Conjunctions: After, Although, As If, As Soon As, Because, Before, If, That, Unless, Until, When, While Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet

     Italicization

Stand-alone titles, such as books, periodicals, reports, films, websites etc. are italicized. Titles of databases are also italicized. Do not italicize titles that make up parts of a greater whole, such as articles, chapters, blog posts, episodes, etc. Do not italicize comments and supplementary information that appears in parentheses or brackets. Check the table below to find out examples.
Variations Examples
Book Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education
Periodical American Sociological Review
Report Statistics in Brief: New Americans in Postsecondary Education
Website Bureau of Justice Statistics
Film The Godfather
Database Academic Search Premier

  Abbreviations

The MLA style suggests a list of terms that could be abbreviated. However, if you think that an abbreviation may confuse your audience, state the full word and do not use its abbreviated form. For specialized abbreviations on the books of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare check Appendix 1 of the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. All months should be abbreviated except for May, June, July.
Check the table below to find out the abbreviations of these common terms.
Abbreviation Term Abbreviation Term
Jan. January i.e. that is
Feb. February MS, MSS manuscript, manuscripts
Mar. March n, nn note, notes
Apr. April no. number
Aug. August p., pp. page, pages
Sept. September par. paragraph
Oct. October qtd. qouted
Nov. November r. recto
Dec. December rev. revised
app. appendix sec. section
bk. book st. stanza
ch. chapter supp. supplement
col. column trans. translation
def. definition U University
dept. department un unnumbered note
ed. edition UP University Press
e.g. for example vers. version
et al. and others v. verso, versus
etc. and so forth vol. volume
fig. figure

  Punctuation

Use punctuation marks in work cited list entries to separate elements or group parts within the same element.

Variations Where to use punctuation Example
Period . after authors' names

after titles


after the year of publication

after URLs

after reference abbreviations		 Hassanieh, Haitham.

The Sparse Fourier Transform: Theory and Practice.

2018.

https://doi.org/10.1145/3166186.

vol. 3 OR 3rd ed. OR p. 210
Comma , between last and first author's names

between two authors' names

between first author's name and et al.

between an author's name and suffixes

between a name and a role other than the author

between periodical, volume number, issue number, and page numbers

between the publisher name and date

between the database name and URL

 Hassanieh, Haitham.

Chambers, Elli, and Gregory Marshall.

Schulman, Donniel S., et al.

Portwood, Charles R., II


Fink, George, editor.


Review of Educational Research,vol. 71,no. 1, pp. 171-217.

Morgan & Claypool, 2018.

ACM Digital Library, https://doi.org/10.1145/3166186.
Quotation marks " " around titles of a works which are part of a greater whole "The Role of Teacher Education in Preparing Teachers for Critical Multicultural Citizenship." Journal of Social Studies Research
Colon : between titles and subtitles Engagement and Disengagement at Work: Drivers and Organizational Practices to Sustain Employee Passion and Performance.
Slash / to separate co-publishers ACPA College Student Educators International/ Stylus
Brackets [ ] around usernames

around a translated version of the title of a work that appear in a non-Latin language		 ALA Public Policy & Advocacy [@LibraryPolicy].
Η Αμερικανική Ποίηση στην Ελλάδα [American Poetry in Greece]
En Dash– in page ranges

at the beginning of entries, indicating same authors names with the previous entry		 pp. 84–92

– – –. The Spirit of the School.