MLA Citation Example for Books, Articles, and Web Pages
Side-by-side MLA citation example lines you can copy as patterns, plus notes on what each part is doing.
A good MLA citation example is easier to trust than a long rule list. You see the punctuation, the italics, and the order in one line. This page collects an MLA citation example for the source types students open most often: book, journal article, and website.
Paper margins and the running head live on the homepage MLA format generator. Here the focus stays on the reference line itself.
Book MLA citation example
Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. Penguin, 1989.
What this MLA citation example shows:
- Author inverted
- Book title italic, ending with a period
- Publisher, then year
A second book MLA citation example with two authors:
Tan, Amy, and Maxine Hong Kingston. The Woman Warrior and Other Stories. Sample Press, 1991.
Classroom note: if your edition has a translator, the MLA citation example adds that name after the title. Do not hide the translator in the publisher slot.
Journal article MLA citation example
Ravilious, Kate. “Terrawatch: The Moon.” The Guardian, 1 Oct. 2019, www.theguardian.com/science/moon.
For a volume and issue pattern, use this MLA citation example:
Lopez, Jennifer. “Memory and Form.” PMLA, vol. 134, no. 2, 2019, pp. 214-30.
This MLA citation example keeps quotation marks on the article title and italics on the journal. Volume and issue stay abbreviated (vol., no.). Pages use pp. only in the Works Cited line.
Website MLA citation example
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Climate Briefing: Arctic Ice.” NASA, 12 Mar. 2024, www.nasa.gov/example.
When a page lists a personal author, put that name first. When it does not, an organization can lead the MLA citation example, as above. If the site name and the publisher are the same, you usually keep one and drop the duplicate.
In-text pointer next to each MLA citation example
Works Cited lines do not travel alone. Pair each MLA citation example with a matching parenthesis:
- Book: (Tan 42)
- Two authors: (Tan and Kingston 18)
- Organization author: (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
No author? Use a shortened title that matches the start of the MLA citation example. Keep the same capitalization style you used in the list.
How to read an MLA citation example without copying blindly
Look at commas and periods. An MLA citation example is picky about those marks because they separate elements. If your draft turns into one long run-on, rebuild from the example instead of patching commas at random.
Also check italics after paste. Many browsers strip emphasis. An MLA citation example that looked right in the tool can arrive flat in Word. Reapply italics to containers and book titles.
Building your own line from an MLA citation example
- Pick the closest MLA citation example on this page.
- Swap in your author and title.
- Delete slots you cannot fill from the source.
- Alphabetize the finished MLA citation example among your other entries.
- Confirm the in-text form still points at the same first element.
That sequence beats starting from a blank screen.
Where students change the MLA citation example by accident
Auto-correct loves to lowercase et al. or expand vol. Databases export titles in all caps. PDF metadata invents a year of “n.d.” when the PDF cover has a clear date. Compare the MLA citation example pattern to the object in your hand—the book spine, the journal PDF, the About page—not to the browser tab title alone.
Tie the example back to the full paper
Once each MLA citation example is stable, drop the set onto a Works Cited page with a hanging indent. The MLA format generator can place that list under a formatted first page so you are not fighting margins at midnight.
If you came here only for an MLA citation example to mimic, copy the pattern, then change every proper noun. Do not submit the sample names from this guide as if they were your sources.
Keep one live draft of your real MLA citation example list in the generator or in your doc. Duplicate files are how two versions of the same MLA citation example diverge before upload.
When you need the page shell plus the list, open the MLA format generator. When you need a pattern to stare at, stay on this MLA citation example page and match punctuation slot by slot.