MLA is built on a simple idea: describe each source with the same short list of core elements, whatever kind of source it is. This guide covers the essentials with nursing and health examples, for the courses that ask for it.
Most nursing programs require APA, and some clinical courses use AMA or Vancouver. MLA tends to appear in humanities-style courses that sit alongside nursing: health humanities, nursing ethics, narrative medicine, composition and writing-intensive electives, and general education English. If your syllabus names a style, use that one.
Examples are illustrative. Authors, journals and page ranges below are fictional or placeholders. Always copy the details from your own sources and follow your instructor's style requirements.
MLA lists up to nine elements in a fixed order, skipping any that do not apply to your source.
A container is the larger whole that holds the source. For a journal article the container is the journal. For a web page it is the website. For a chapter it is the book. Elements 3 to 9 can repeat if a source sits inside a second container, such as an article you read in a database. In that case the second container (the database) follows the first, and you give its name and the location, usually a DOI or URL.
Punctuation is simple: a full stop after the author and the title of the source, commas between the container elements, and a full stop at the end.
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MLA uses the author's surname and, where the source has pages, the page number, with no comma and no year: (Lee 45). The entry it points to in the Works Cited list must begin with the same word.
| Situation | In-text form |
|---|---|
| One author | (Lee 45) |
| Two authors | (Nguyen and Okafor 44) |
| Three or more authors | (Nguyen et al. 44) |
| Author named in the sentence | Lee argues that consent is a process, not a signature (45). |
| Web page, no page numbers | ("Hand Hygiene Guidance") |
For sources without page numbers, such as most web pages, cite the author or shortened title only. Do not invent page numbers.
If you found the article through CINAHL or PubMed, the journal is still the first container. Add the database only if your instructor asks for it.
MLA does not require the city of publication. Add the edition after the title when it is not the first, for example 4th ed.
When an organisation is both the author and the publisher of its own website, MLA leaves out the author element, starts with the page title, and names the organisation as the website or publisher. Add an access date only if your instructor wants one, or if the page has no date.
MLA writes dates as day, abbreviated month, year. Months longer than four letters are abbreviated (Mar., Sept.), while May, June and July are written in full.
If a named individual wrote the report, begin with that person and list the organisation as publisher. See also citing government and agency reports.
Follow your institution's academic-integrity policy in every course, and see avoiding plagiarism for quoting and paraphrasing habits.
Only if your instructor or syllabus asks for it. Nursing coursework more often uses APA, and MLA is common in humanities-style electives.
No. MLA in-text citations give the author and page only. The date appears in the Works Cited entry.
A Works Cited list contains only sources you cited in the paper. A bibliography, where a course asks for one, may also include works you consulted.
Give a DOI or URL for online sources so readers can find them. Print sources do not need one.