Citation generator: APA 7th and MLA 9th references

APA references follow Author. (Date). Title. Source. For example:

• Book: Dweck, C. S. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House.
• Journal article: Brysbaert, M. (2019). How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate. Journal of Memory and Language, 109, 104047. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104047
• Web page: Author or organisation. (Year, Month Day). Title of page. Site Name. URL

APA uses initials for first names, an ampersand (&) before the last author, and sentence case for titles of articles, books and web pages: capitalise only the first word, the first word after a colon, and names. If there's no date, write (n.d.).

MLA builds each entry from "core elements" in a fixed order: Author. Title. Container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, date, location. For example:

• Book: Last, First. Title of Book. Publisher, Year.
• Journal article: Last, First. "Title of Article." Journal Name, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45–67.
• Web page: Last, First. "Title of Page." Website Name, 4 Mar. 2024, www.example.com/page.

MLA gives full first names, uses "et al." for three or more authors, title case for titles, and abbreviated months. It leaves "https://" off ordinary URLs but keeps "https://doi.org/" in front of a DOI.

A generator formats what you give it, so:

• Capitalisation: it keeps your title exactly as typed, because it can't tell which words are names. Type it in sentence case for APA and title case for MLA.
• Author names: type each author as "Last name, First name". An organisation (like the World Health Organization) goes on its own line, in full.
• Missing details: if a source has no author, leave the box empty and the title moves to the front, as both styles require.

Always check your references against your school or university's guidance: some courses use their own variations, especially of Harvard style.

Every reference in your list needs a matching citation in your writing:

• APA: author and year, e.g. (Dweck, 2006), or Dweck (2006) argues that... Add a page number for a direct quote: (Dweck, 2006, p. 7).
• MLA: author and page number, e.g. (Dweck 7), with no comma.

The reference list goes at the end, in alphabetical order by the first word of each entry, with a hanging indent (the second and later lines indented).

• Books: the title page and the copyright page (on the back of the title page) give the publisher, year and edition.
• Journal articles: the first page usually shows the journal, volume, issue, pages and DOI. A DOI is better than a URL because it never changes.
• Web pages: look for the author's name and the date published or updated, often at the top or bottom of the page. If there isn't a date, use (n.d.) in APA, or leave the date out in MLA and add when you accessed it.