MLA Format Examples Works Cited | No Miss Entry Models

If you’ve ever stared at a blank Works Cited page and thought, “Where do I even start?”, you’re not alone. MLA has rules, yet it’s also flexible once you learn the parts that stay the same across sources.

This guide gives mla format examples works cited entries you can copy, then swap in your own details. You’ll see templates, finished models, and quick checks that keep your citations consistent across pages.

Works Cited Entry Templates By Source Type

Most entries follow the same rhythm: author, title, container, then publishing details. Start with the closest match below, then adjust for what your source actually shows.

Source Type	Works Cited Pattern	Notes That Usually Matter
Book	Last, First. Title Of Book. Publisher, Year.	Add an edition or translator when listed.
Chapter In Edited Book	Last, First. “Chapter Title.” Book Title, edited by Editor, Publisher, Year, pp. xx-xx.	Use “pp.” for page range.
Journal Article	Last, First. “Article Title.” Journal Title, vol. #, no. #, Year, pp. xx-xx.	Add a DOI when you have one.
Website Page	Last, First. “Page Title.” Website Name, Publisher, Day Mon. Year, URL.	Publisher can be skipped when it matches the site name.
Online Video	“Video Title.” Platform, uploaded by Channel, Day Mon. Year, URL.	Use a time stamp in your in-text citation when needed.
Podcast Episode	“Episode Title.” Show Title, hosted by Host, Publisher, Day Mon. Year, URL.	List the role you used: host, narrator, or guest.
News Article Online	Last, First. “Article Title.” News Site, Day Mon. Year, URL.	Add a print date and page only if you used print.
Film Or Streaming Title	Film Title. Directed by Director, performances by Lead Actor, Studio, Year.	Add the streaming service as a container when relevant.
Image On The Web	Creator. Image Title. Year. Website Name, URL.	If there’s no title, give a plain description in place of a title.

MLA Format Examples Works Cited For Common Sources

The models below use MLA’s typical punctuation and order. Match the pattern, then keep your formatting consistent across the whole page.

Book With One Author

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. Decolonising the Mind. Heinemann, 1986.

Start with the author’s last name, then the first name. Italicize the book title, end the entry with a period.

Book With Two Authors

Gibaldi, Joseph, and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. MLA, 1999.

Invert only the first author. Write the second author in normal order, joined by “and.”

Chapter In An Edited Collection

Morrison, Toni. “Home.” Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by John Smith, Penguin, 2018, pp. 55-78.

Put the chapter title in quotation marks. The book title is the container, so it takes italics.

Journal Article From A Print Issue

Chen, Lili. “Rhetoric and Memory in Modern Essays.” College Writing Review, vol. 12, no. 2, 2023, pp. 44-62.

Use “vol.” and “no.” when the journal lists them. Keep the page range at the end.

Journal Article Found In A Database

Patel, Nisha. “Teaching Citation Literacy.” Journal of Academic Writing, vol. 9, no. 1, 2021, pp. 15-29. JSTOR, doi:10.0000/abcd.1234.

When you used a database, treat it as a second container. Add a DOI when available.

Web Page With An Author

Harris, Mia. “Citing Images in MLA.” Example University Library, 3 Mar. 2024, www.example.edu/mla-images.

Use the most stable URL you can. If a date is on the page, include it in Day Month Year form.

Web Page With No Personal Author

“Academic Integrity Policy.” Greenfield College, 2022, www.greenfield.edu/integrity.

When there’s no person listed, start with the page title. Alphabetize by the first word of that title.

YouTube Or Streaming Video

“How to Format a Works Cited Page.” YouTube, uploaded by Writing Lab, 10 Sept. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXXX.

Use the video title in quotation marks. Put the platform name in italics.

Podcast Episode

“Plagiarism Myths.” Writing Minutes, hosted by Sara Lee, Writing Minutes Media, 14 Feb. 2022, www.writingminutes.com/episode-42.

If the show credits a network or publisher, place it before the date.

Film

Parasite. Directed by Bong Joon Ho, performances by Song Kang-ho and Cho Yeo-jeong, Barunson E&A, 2019.

For a film, the title leads. Add director and major performers when they help readers identify the work.

Build Works Cited Entries With MLA Core Elements

MLA 8 and 9 lean on “core elements,” a set order you apply to many sources. If you learn the order once, you can cite books, sites, videos, and oddball sources without memorizing a separate rule for each.

The MLA Style Center’s Works Cited: A Quick Guide lays out the template and shows how containers work. Use it when you’re unsure which piece belongs where.

Core Elements In Plain Order

• Author.
• Title of source.
• Title of container,
• Other contributors,
• Version,
• Number,
• Publisher,
• Publication date,
• Location.

Not every source has every element. You include what applies, keep MLA’s punctuation, and stop when you run out of details.

What “Container” Means Without The Jargon

A container is the larger thing that holds the smaller thing you used. A journal holds an article. A website holds a page. A database holds a PDF scan of a journal article. A streaming service holds a film.

Works Cited Page Format Rules That Teachers Check First

You can have perfect entry text and still lose points if the page layout is off. These basics are the first things instructors notice when they scan.

Purdue OWL’s MLA Works Cited page basic format list matches what most classrooms expect, including spacing, hanging indents, and URL placement.

Page Title, Spacing, And Indent

• Center the title “Works Cited” at the top of the page.
• Double-space the title and every entry.
• Use a hanging indent: first line flush left, next lines indented.
• Keep the same readable font and size as the rest of your paper.

Alphabetical Order Rules

Sort entries by the first main word in each entry. For most sources, that means the author’s last name. For a source that starts with a title, alphabetize by that title.

Ignore “A,” “An,” and “The” at the start of titles when alphabetizing. Still print them in the entry.

When Two Entries Start The Same Way

If you have two works by the same author, order them by title. Some teachers want the author repeated each time, so check your assignment sheet.

For a group author, like an organization, alphabetize by the first word of the organization name.

Tricky Sources And Common Edge Cases

Real research rarely fits neat boxes. These situations show up a lot in student papers, and each has a clean way out.

No Author Listed

Start with the title of the page, article, or item. Use the same punctuation rules: quotation marks for short works, italics for standalone works.

If you can clearly identify a group author (a government agency, a school department, a company), use that name as the author.

No Date Listed

Use the date you do have. Some pages show an updated month and year, not a day. Use that form and keep going.

If the page shows no publication date at all, don’t invent one. Use strong container details and a stable URL.

Author With A Suffix Or Two Last Names

Keep suffixes like “Jr.” after the first name: King, Martin Luther, Jr. For compound last names, treat the full last name as the last name when you invert it.

If you’re unsure, match the way the author is indexed on the title page, the journal site, or the library record.

Translated Or Edited Classics

When the translator matters to your paper, add it after the title: Translated by …. For an edited collection, add Edited by … in the “other contributors” spot.

For ancient works with many editions, your teacher may ask for book numbers or line numbers. Add those in your in-text citations, not in the Works Cited entry.

Web Sources With Long, Messy URLs

Use a DOI when you have one. For web pages, a short, stable URL beats a tracking-heavy link that breaks after a week.

If your instructor wants full URLs, keep that choice consistent across all web entries.

MLA Works Cited Checklist For Clean Entries

Use the list below when something feels “off.” It spots the small errors that pile up fast, like missing periods, swapped containers, or titles styled the wrong way.

Issue You See	Fix That Matches MLA Patterns
No hanging indent	Set a hanging indent so only the first line sits on the left margin.
Book title in quotes	Use italics for a standalone book; reserve quotation marks for chapters or articles.
Website name missing	Add the site name as the container in italics after the page title.
Date looks like 03/10/24	Switch to Day Mon. Year: 10 Mar. 2024, when the date is known.
Publisher repeated twice	Keep the publisher once; skip it when it matches the website name.
URL has tracking codes	Trim to the cleanest working link that still reaches the same page.
Missing DOI	If a DOI exists, use it in the location spot, written with “doi:” then the number.
Two authors both inverted	Invert only the first author; write the second author first name then last name.
Entry ends without a period	Finish the entry with a period, even when the last element is a URL.
Titles alphabetized under “The”	Ignore A/An/The when sorting, yet still print them in the title.

Put It All Together In Your Draft

Once your entries look right, do a quick alignment check between your paper and your list. Every source named in your in-text citations should appear on the Works Cited page, and every Works Cited entry should be cited in your text.

If you build your list as you write, you won’t end up hunting for missing details at 2 a.m. Keep a running note of author names, page numbers, publication dates, and the cleanest URL or DOI you can find.

Fast Self Check Before Submission

• Scan for consistent italics and quotation marks across all titles.
• Confirm every entry is double-spaced with a hanging indent.
• Check each entry ends with a period.
• Read the first word of each entry to confirm the list is alphabetized.
• Search your draft for each author name to confirm it appears in the Works Cited list.

When you use mla format examples works cited models as a starting point, your citations stop feeling like a guessing game. After a few papers, the patterns start to stick, and you’ll spend your time writing instead of wrestling punctuation.