MLA citation generator for an MLA 9 Works Cited page
MLA 9 is built on containers: the article sits in a journal, the journal sits in a database, and every element has its own punctuation. Send your todo.is agent your links, books and PDFs, and this prompt returns a Works Cited page in MLA 9 order with the matching in-text citations and a flag wherever a detail is missing.
The prompt
- Make an MLA 9 Works Cited page for these sources: [SOURCES]. Open each link or file and find the author, title, container (journal, website, book, database), other contributors, version, volume and issue, publisher, date, and page range or URL. Use the MLA 9 core elements in order, quotation marks for shorter works, italics for containers, "et al." for three or more authors, and DOIs as https://doi.org/ links. Give the in-text citation for each, with [PAGE NUMBERS OR NOT]. Sort alphabetically by author with hanging indents, double-spaced, title "Works Cited" centered. Flag anything missing. Deliver a Word file with my heading: [MLA HEADING DETAILS].
What to change
- [SOURCES]: Paste links, DOIs or ISBNs one per line, or attach PDFs or a photo of the books' title pages.
- [PAGE NUMBERS OR NOT]: e.g. "page numbers from my quotes: Hughes p. 34, Patel p. 112", or "no page numbers".
- [MLA HEADING DETAILS]: Your name, teacher's name, course and date, e.g. "Maya Ortiz, Ms. Reed, English 10, 8 October 2026".
Example result
- Works Cited (MLA 9)
- Alphabetical · hanging indent · double-spaced in the Word file
- Book, one author
- Hughes, Dana. *The Quiet Shore: Stories of Coastal Towns*. Harbor Lane Press, 2019.
- • In text: (Hughes 34)
- Journal article from a database
- Patel, Ravi, and Lena Moore. "Silence and Setting in Modern Short Fiction." *Journal of Narrative Studies*, vol. 18, no. 2, 2021, pp. 101-19. *Literary Index Online*, https://doi.org/10.0000/jns.2021.182.
- • In text: (Patel and Moore 112)
- Three or more authors
- Kim, Seo-yeon, et al. *Reading the Sea in Literature*. Northgate UP, 2022.
- • In text: (Kim et al. 57)
- Short story in an anthology
- Lowe, Clara. "The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter." *New Voices: An Anthology*, edited by Sam Ortega, Brightfield Press, 2020, pp. 45-61.
- Web page, no author (flagged)
- "How Tides Work." *Coastal Science Hub*, 4 Mar. 2024, www.example.org/tides.
- • In text: ("How Tides Work")
- • Flag: no author found. MLA starts with the title instead; check the page footer for an author name.
- Film
- *Salt and Stone*. Directed by Ana Ruiz, Wavelength Pictures, 2018.
- Rules applied
- • Containers in italics; article, story and web page titles in quotation marks
- • Months longer than four letters abbreviated (Mar., Oct.), not May, June or July
- • "UP" for University Press; "http://" or "https://" dropped from URLs, but kept on DOIs
- • Access dates left out unless the page has no publication date
How to do it with todo.is
- Paste your sources and add your page numbers and MLA heading details.
- Send it to your todo.is agent, or snap the books' title pages and send the photos on WhatsApp.
- Download the Word file and paste the Works Cited page at the end of your essay.
- Add a new source any time: "add this to my Works Cited in the right place".
Tips for a better result
- Photograph the title page and copyright page of print books. Those two pages have every element MLA needs.
- Use the DOI for journal articles when there is one; MLA 9 prefers it over a database URL.
- Every in-text citation must match the first word of a Works Cited entry, usually the author's last name.
- Ask your agent to remember your class heading so each new paper comes formatted the same way.
MLA citation generator: FAQ
- What is the MLA 9 format for a website? Author. "Title of Page." *Name of Website*, Publisher if different, Day Month Year, URL. If there is no author, start with the title.
- How do I cite a source with three authors in MLA? Write the first author's name reversed followed by "et al.", e.g. Kim, Seo-yeon, et al. In text, use (Kim et al. 57).
- Is MLA 9 different from MLA 8? The core elements are the same. MLA 9 added more guidance and examples, such as for social media, and allows longer lists of examples; most students won't see a big change.
- Can it switch my list to APA or Chicago? Yes. Send the same sources and ask for APA 7 or Chicago, and your agent reformats the whole list.
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