Do I put "p." before the page number in an MLA in-text citation?

No — MLA in-text citations never include "p." or a comma, just the author surname and page number in parentheses, e.g. (Smyth 47). The abbreviation "p." or "pp." is only used in the Works Cited entry itself.

How do I cite a source with no page numbers in MLA, like a website?

Omit the page number entirely and cite just the author's surname, or the title if there is no author — for example (Smyth) rather than (Smyth 47). Our literature review template uses MLA-compatible formatting for humanities sources.

Mla Citation Style Guide

Full name: Modern Language Association (MLA), 9th edition

Citation system: Author–page

Common in: Literature, languages, cultural studies, and the humanities

In-text citation

Cite the author's surname and the page number in parentheses, with no comma and no "p." between them.

Journalling has been shown to improve working memory over time (Smyth 47).

Direct quote: "Journalling creates a cognitive offloading effect that frees up mental capacity" (Smyth 47).

Works Cited

Start the list on a new page with the centred heading "Works Cited." Use a hanging indent and sort entries alphabetically by the first author's surname.

Source type	Example citation
Book	Smyth, John M. The Cognitive Journal: Writing for Mental Clarity. Academic Press, 2021.
Journal article	Garcia, Laura, and Sam Park. "Sleep Deprivation and Academic Performance in First-Year Students." Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 116, no. 3, 2024, pp. 441–58.
Book chapter	Williams, Clare. "Metacognition in Higher Education." Handbook of Learning Science, edited by Ben Clarke and Dana Park, Sage, 2023, pp. 114–38.
Website	American Psychological Association. "Understanding Your Learning Style." APA, 15 Mar. 2023, www.apa.org/topics/learning.

Key formatting rules

List authors as Surname, First Name for the first author; subsequent authors are First Name Surname.
Italicise titles of full works (books, journals, websites); use quotation marks for titles of parts (articles, chapters, web pages).
Abbreviate "page(s)" as "p." or "pp." only in the Works Cited list, never in the in-text citation.
Include a container for each source — e.g. the journal a chapter appears in, or the website hosting a page.

Common mistakes to avoid

Adding "p." before the page number in an in-text citation — MLA never does this.
Using a comma between the author's name and the page number in-text.
Forgetting to italicise the title of the overall container (journal, website, book).
Citing by year instead of page number — MLA is author-page, not author-date.

Want more detail? Read the full APA, MLA, and Chicago Citation Styles: The Definitive Comparison Guide.

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