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MLA citation (9th edition)

This guide covers the changes made to MLA citations in the 9th edition.

Guiding Principles

In the 8th and 9th editions of the MLA Handbook, there is a "universal set of guidelines" for citing sources of any type of format. The major elements included in citations are:

MLA Template of Core Elements: Author. Title of Source. Title of Container, Contributor, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication Date, Location.

Some of these elements may need to be repeated, based on format.

Final Works-Cited-List Entry. Copeland, Edward. "Money." The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen, edited by Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997, pp. 131-48.

MLA Style Center

MLA Style Center is a website produced by the Modern Language Association. It includes quick guides for using MLA format including works cited, in-text citations, and setting up a research paper.

MLA Guide to Citing Artificial Intelligence

Just like with other sources, you must cite any content you are using from an artificial intelligence generator like ChatGPT. Instructors will have different policies regarding the use of AI, so if it is allowed, you must cite the AI tool used. 

Just keep in mind if you are using AI text generators for writing help:

  • If AI is being used to help outline or draft a paper (and it is o.k. with your instructor to use AI for this purpose), you will need to acknowledge at the beginning or end of the paper the role AI played in its creation.  For example, "This paper was produced with drafting support from Microsoft Co-Pilot." If AI was used extensively, you will want to explain how it was used. This can be included in the Methodology section of a more formal research paper.  
  • If you are citing a conversation with an AI tool as a source, or as part of your study, follow the MLA guidelines for citing artificial intelligence content. 

MLA Guidelines for Citing Content Generated by Artificial Intelligence

  • Author -  AI cannot be the author of work, only humans can be authors. Do not include the author field.
  • Title of source - Describe what was generated by the AI tool. This may mean including information about your prompt if you did not do that in the text of your paper.  
  • Title of container - Name the AI tool in this field (e.g. ChatGPT).
  • Version - Name the version of the AI tool as specifically as possible.  For example use 3.5 here if you are using ChatGPT 3.5.  
  • Publisher - Name the company that made the tool.
  • Date - Give the date the content was generated.
  • Location - Give the URL for the content if possible. Many tools now allow you to create a URL to your AI generated conversation so use this URL in this field.  

Examples

Within the text of your work (in-text citation):

While the green light in The Great Gatsby might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.

Works cited entry:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt. ChatGPT, 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat.

 

Citing Images in MLA Style:

Give the image a figure number (i.e. Fig. 1, Fig. 2) and follow MLA's formatting guidelines for AI generated content. 

Example:

Fig. 1. “Pointillist painting of a sheep in a sunny field of blue flowers” prompt, DALL-E, version 2, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, labs.openai.com.

 

The source for this information, and a place to go for more information and examples is: https://style.mla.org/citing-generative-ai/