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MLA Citation Guide (MLA 9th Edition): Works Cited List & Sample Paper

Sample Paper w/ Works Cited page

Sample MLA paper, including Works Cited page (via Purdue Owl Online Writing Lab: MLA Style Guide)

This sample paper can be used as a template to set up your assignment and your Works Cited page in MLA format.

Purdue Online Writing Lab

End-of-Paper Checklist

Finished your assignment? Use this checklist to be sure you haven't missed any information needed for MLA style.

Quick Rules for an MLA Works Cited page

Your research paper ends with a list of all the sources cited in the text of the paper. This is called a Works Cited page.

Here are eight quick rules for this list:

  1. Start a new page for your Works Cited list (e.g., if your paper is 4 pages long, start your Works Cited list on page 5).
  2. Center the title, Works Cited, at the top of the page and do not bold or underline it.
  3. Double-space the list.
  4. Start the first line of each citation at the left margin. For every line after the first line, use a "hanging indent". Instructions for setting up a hanging indent in Word can be found at Office.com
  5. Put your list in alphabetical order. Alphabetize the list by the first word in the citation. In most cases, the first word will be the author’s last name. Where the author is unknown, alphabetize by the first word in the title, ignoring the following words: a, an, the.
  6. For each author, give the last name followed by a comma and the first name followed by a period.
  7. Italicize the titles of full works: books, journal titles, audiovisual material, websites.
  8. Do not italicize titles of parts of works, such as: articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals / essays, poems, short stories or chapter titles from a book / chapters or sections of an Internet document. Instead, use quotation marks.

Getting Help - The Writing Center

The Writing Center [TWC] is located on the first floor of the Library in room L101. Writing center staff will be available to help with your essays, research, and more.  

At the Writing Center, they can help with any writing assignment for any class at any stage in the process. That means they can help you:

  • brainstorm a topic
  • refine your thesis
  • organize a rough draft
  • practice paraphrasing or incorporating source material
  • understand a citation style like MLA, APA, or Turabian
  • revise your work before final submission

Schedule an Appointment

Inside the Writing Center, several tables with chairs facing each other