MLA 8th Edition: Citation and Format Rules with Examples

The eighth edition of the MLA Handbook, published in 2016, changed MLA style more than any edition before it.

It replaced long lists of source-specific formats with a single system of "core elements" that works for any source. The ninth edition (2021) is now current, but some instructors, departments and older course packs still require MLA 8.

This guide is for those courses. It covers MLA 8 citation rules and MLA 8 paper format, with examples written in eighth-edition form, and it marks clearly where MLA 9 later differs, so you can follow MLA 8 exactly without accidentally mixing editions. If your instructor simply says "MLA" without an edition, use MLA 9.

What MLA 8 Changed from MLA 7

Many instructors who still use MLA 8 do so because their materials were written for it. Knowing what it changed helps you avoid outdated MLA 7 habits that still circulate online.

The MLA 8 Core Elements

Every entry is assembled from nine elements in a fixed order. Skip any element that does not apply to your source. Elements 3 to 9 describe the container, the larger work that holds your source, and they repeat if there is a second container, such as a database.

MLA 8 Works-Cited Examples

University presses are abbreviated with UP (Yale UP; U of Chicago P). Months longer than four letters are abbreviated, and URLs are given without http:// or https://. The journal article shows the one formatting detail that most clearly marks an entry as MLA 8: the DOI written as doi:10... rather than as a link.

MLA 8 in-Text Citations

In-text citations are the same in MLA 8 and MLA 9: author surname and page number, no comma, no "p.".

MLA 8 Paper Format Rules

The eighth-edition handbook kept paper formatting brief, and the MLA published the layout guidance separately. These are the MLA 8 conventions most instructors expect.

Quotations and the Works-Cited Page

Prose quotations longer than four lines, and verse quotations longer than three lines, are set as block quotations, indented half an inch from the left margin, without quotation marks, with the citation after the final full stop.

The works-cited list starts on a new page, titled "Works Cited" and centered, with entries in alphabetical order, double-spaced, and each entry given a half-inch hanging indent.

Containers and Optional Elements in MLA 8

The container idea is what lets MLA 8 cite almost anything. Ask what larger work holds your source. A short story sits in an anthology; an episode sits in a television series, which may sit in a streaming service; a journal article sits in a journal, which you reached through a database.

Give the first container's details, then the second container's, each following the same element order.

MLA 8 also allows optional elements where they help the reader. Place the original publication date after the title of a republished work, add a city before the publisher for a book published before 1900, add a descriptor such as "Transcript" or "Lecture" at the end when the type of source would otherwise be unclear, and add an access date for undated web pages.

Use optional elements consistently: if you add an access date to one undated page, add it to all of them.

When Information Is Missing

MLA 8 dropped the old placeholders. If there is no author, start with the title. If there is no date, leave the date out and add an access date for online sources. If there is no publisher, as with many personal websites, skip that element.

If a website's publisher has the same name as the website, give the name once, as the title of the container. Never invent missing details to make an entry look complete.

Quoting Poetry and Drama

Cite poems by line numbers rather than pages, using the word "line" or "lines" in the first citation and numbers alone after that: (lines 5-8), then (9-12). For verse plays, give act, scene and line separated by full stops: (Hamlet 3.1.56-60).

Quote up to three lines of verse in your own paragraph, separated by a slash with a space on each side, and set longer passages as block quotations that keep the original line breaks.

MLA 8 Compared with MLA 9

The two editions share the same structure, so the differences are details. These are the ones that show in a finished paper.

If you are moving an MLA 8 paper to MLA 9, see the MLA 9 citation guide; in most papers the DOI format is the only change you will need to make.

Worked Example: An Outdated MLA 7 Entry Rewritten in MLA 8

Volume and issue gained labels, the year moved out of brackets, "pp." was added, the medium "Web" disappeared, and the DOI replaced the access date as the location. The MLA 8 citation generator produces entries in this form if you have many to convert.

Common MLA 8 Mistakes

• Leaving in MLA 7 features: "Print" or "Web", city of publication, "N.p." or "n.d.".
• Writing DOIs as links in a paper that must follow MLA 8, or mixing both forms.
• A comma or "p." in the in-text citation: (Orwell, p. 23).
• Forgetting the database as a second container for articles found online.
• A separate title page when the instructor has not asked for one.
• Works-cited entries without hanging indents or single-spaced.

How We Help with MLA 8

Send your essay, your sources and the assignment instructions that specify MLA 8. A writer formats your works-cited list and in-text citations in eighth-edition form, removes MLA 7 habits, sets the page layout and checks block quotations.

If your course moves to MLA 9, we can convert the paper. Work is plagiarism-checked, your identity is never shared with the writer, and revisions within the scope of your original request are free.