If your humanities professor handed back a paper with "MLA?" scrawled in the margin and you're not sure what they meant, you are not alone. The most common MLA mistakes cluster in the same four places every semester: the header, the Works Cited page, in-text citations, and the way containers (journals, websites, databases) get handled. MLA 9 looks simple on the surface, but a few small slips compound fast when you have twenty sources.
PaperDraft is a writing assistant, not a paper generator — the draft is your starting point, not your submission. You are responsible for editing, verifying sources, and following your school's academic integrity policy.
Below are the 10 MLA errors we see most often, why they happen, and how to fix each one. For the format rules themselves, use our MLA citation page; the broader pillar how to cite sources covers citation mechanics across styles.
The 10 Most Common MLA Mistakes
1. Using a title page when the assignment doesn't call for one
- Why it happens: Students default to a cover page because "it looks professional."
- Fix: MLA does not use a title page by default. The first page carries the header (your name, instructor, course, date) in the top-left and the title centered above your first paragraph.
- Right: No separate cover page. Use the four-line header on page 1.
2. Wrong running header format
- Why it happens: Confusion with APA's running head rules.
- Fix: MLA wants your last name and the page number in the top-right of every page, separated by a single space.
- Wrong: "Smith - Page 1"
- Right: "Smith 1"
3. Missing or misused italics for titles
- Why it happens: Writers italicize everything that looks like a title, including short works.
- Fix: Italicize titles of long, self-contained works (books, films, journals, websites). Put quotation marks around titles of shorter works (articles, poems, chapters, episodes).
- Wrong: Smith's article How Cities Adapt was published in Urban Studies Quarterly.
- Right: Smith's article "How Cities Adapt" was published in Urban Studies Quarterly.
4. Forgetting the container in Works Cited
- Why it happens: MLA 9's container model is genuinely new for many students. A "container" is whatever holds the source — a journal, a website, a streaming platform, a database.
- Fix: Every Works Cited entry names at least one container (italicized). Articles in databases name two: the journal, then the database.
- Right: Smith, Jane. "How Cities Adapt." Urban Studies Quarterly, vol. 12, no. 3, 2024, pp. 45-60. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.xxxx/yyyy.
5. Using "p." or "pg." in in-text citations
- Why it happens: Writers import habits from other styles.
- Fix: MLA in-text citations use just the author and page number — no "p.", no comma.
- Wrong: (Smith, p. 45)
- Right: (Smith 45)
6. Wrong format for multiple authors
- Why it happens: MLA 9 changed the cutoff for listing all authors vs using "et al."
- Fix: For two authors, list both. For three or more, use "et al." after the first author.
- Right Works Cited (two): Smith, Jane, and John Jones.
- Right Works Cited (three plus): Smith, Jane, et al.
- Right in-text (three plus): (Smith et al. 45)
7. Missing hanging indent on Works Cited
- Why it happens: Same reason APA students miss it — default paragraph style.
- Fix: Hanging indent of 0.5 inches on every entry. First line flush left, subsequent lines indented.
8. Quoting without integrating the citation
- Why it happens: Writers drop a quote, then put the citation on a new line.
- Fix: The parenthetical citation goes at the end of the sentence containing the quote, before the period.
- Wrong: Smith writes that "cities adapt slowly." (45).
- Right: Smith writes that "cities adapt slowly" (45).
9. Inconsistent date format
- Why it happens: MLA 9 allows either "15 March 2024" or "15 Mar. 2024" — but you have to pick one and stay consistent.
- Fix: Choose a date format for the whole paper. Day-month-year order either way. Don't mix spelled-out months with abbreviated ones in the same Works Cited.
10. Works Cited not alphabetized by first word of the entry
- Why it happens: Students alphabetize by title when the entry starts with an author.
- Fix: Alphabetize by the first word of each entry — usually the author's surname, or the title if there's no author. Ignore "A," "An," and "The" at the start of a title when sorting.
Why These Mistakes Keep Happening
MLA 9's container model is the single biggest source of confusion. It replaced MLA 8's looser medium rules but introduced a structured way to describe modern sources (a podcast episode on Spotify, a chapter in an edited volume housed in a database). Students who learned MLA 7 or MLA 8 in high school often carry outdated habits into college papers.
Three habits solve most of this:
- Confirm your instructor wants MLA 9. It's the current edition (2021), and most universities have migrated, but not all syllabi say so explicitly.
- Build Works Cited entries from the container up. Start with the source itself, then name its container, then any larger container it sits inside.
- Spot-check every entry against the original source page. Generator output is a starting point, not a finished list.
Tracking down the right container format at 2am for a podcast you cited in chapter 3? PaperDraft gives you a structured first draft with citation stubs in the style you choose — APA, MLA, or Chicago — which you verify against the original source. It's a drafting assistant, not a submission. Try PaperDraft — free
Common Pitfalls With Citation Tools
MLA is especially rough on machine-produced citations because the container model requires the tool to identify what "holds" a source — and database metadata is often incomplete or wrong. Zotero and Mendeley will happily produce a journal citation with no database named. Word's built-in tool sometimes drops the container entirely. Free web generators are the worst offenders.
Always verify against the original source:
- The container(s). Most entries have one; database entries have two.
- Volume and issue numbers. Pulled incorrectly from databases all the time.
- Page range. Final version of record, not online-first preprint.
- Author format. Surname-first for the first author, first-last for the rest.
- Title punctuation. Short works in quotes, long works italicized.
A focused ten minutes on the Works Cited catches most errors before submission.
How a Drafting Assistant Fits
PaperDraft produces citation stubs in MLA format as part of your draft scaffold — enough structure that you aren't fighting container syntax on a blank page. Those stubs are provisional. You verify each one against the original source, correct metadata the tool couldn't know was wrong, and produce the final Works Cited list yourself. We scaffold; you verify. That split is deliberate — nobody should ship a machine-produced citation without reading it.
FAQ
Is MLA 9 really different from MLA 8?
Subtly but meaningfully. MLA 9 refined the container model, updated guidance on DOI format, and clarified how to cite digital-native sources (streaming, social media, AI outputs). If your high school taught MLA 7 or earlier, a lot has changed.
Do I need a title page for MLA?
Only if your instructor asks for one. MLA's default is no title page — just the four-line header on page 1 and a centered title above the first paragraph.
Can I use a citation generator instead of writing citations by hand?
Use one as a scaffold, not a finished product. Every generator — including the paid ones — makes container errors and misreads database metadata. A ten-minute verification pass against original sources catches what the tool missed. See our citation tools guide for a workflow.
How do I cite a source with no author?
Start the Works Cited entry with the title. In-text, use a shortened version of the title in place of the author's name: ("How Cities" 45). Alphabetize by the first word of the title, ignoring "A," "An," and "The."
What font and spacing does MLA actually require?
Double-spaced throughout (including the Works Cited). Legible 11 or 12-point font — Times New Roman is the safe default but MLA 9 allows any "easily readable" font. One-inch margins on all sides.
Get the header, hanging indent, and containers right and most MLA mistakes disappear. For the APA version of this checklist, see our common APA mistakes post.