LibGuides: Cite Your Sources in MLA 9th: Social Media

How to Cite Social Media

Social Media Post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) with Title, Caption, or Short Text (Including Tweets)

Format:

Author(s) or Screen Name [@handle]. "Include the entire title, caption, text, or tweet here." Name of Social Media Site, Day Month Year of Post, Time of Post, URL [if available].

Examples:

Nguyen, Viet Thanh [@viet_t_nguyen]. “I could put on my headphones at the Chinese restaurant or I could listen to @barrymanilow sing ‘Mandy.’ I choose Mandy.” Twitter, 19 Feb. 2019.

Chabon, Michael [@michael.chabon]. “#rip Milton Glaser. I grew up in his work. So hard to pick a favorite, maybe this, which also features one of the many awesome typefaces he designed, Baby Teeth. #mahaliajackson #miltonglaser.” Instagram, 28 June 2020, www.instagram.com/p/CB-E9gngVwo.

Social Media Post (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) with No Text or Very Long Text

Format:

Author(s) or Screen Name [@handle]. Description of post or image. Name of Social Media Site, Day Month Year of Post, Time of Post, URL.

Examples:

Kasper Nymann [@polarpx]. Photograph of Silkie chicken in grass. Twitter, 5 May 2020, 11:10 a.m., https://twitter.com/polarpx/status/1257734510730412034.

Rick Mercer Report. Spread the Net Challenge Winners 2016. Facebook, 23 Mar. 2016, 9:00 a.m., www.facebook.com/rickmercerreport.

Streaming Video From a Social Media Website (YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, etc.)

Format:

Video Creator(s) or username if no real name provided. "Title of Video." Title of the Hosting Website, uploaded by Username, Day Month Year of Publication, URL of video. Accessed Day Month Year video was viewed.

Examples:

Sethi, Ramit. "How to Write a Winning Resume, With Ramit Sethi." YouTube, uploaded by I Will Teach You to Be Rich, 23 June 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0fjkKCsM1w. Accessed 28 June 2016.

"Free Mental Health Support Available." YouTube, uploaded by ProvinceofBC, 15 Dec. 2020, https://youtu.be/K8qo-e9Jexc. Accessed 9 Sept. 2021.

For more information on citing videos, see Videos and Other Multimedia.

Heads up! Misspellings and abbreviations are common on social media. When writing out the text from a social media post in your citations, transcribe the text exactly as it appears, including any abbreviations, hashtags, mentions, etc. Do not correct any misspellings; instead, you can indicate that a misspelling appeared in the original post by adding the word "sic" italicized and in brackets after any errors.
Example: "I herd [sic] her talking at the next table."

One Author

Format:

Last Name, First Name
or
Last Name, First Name Middle Name or Initial (if provided in source)

Name Examples:

Anzaldúa, Gloria
Kendi, Ibram X.
Wallace, David Foster

Citation Example:

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza. 4th ed., Aunt Lute Books, 2012.

Two Authors

Format:

Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name

Heads up! Only the first author's name appears in the inverted "Last Name, First Name" format. The second author's name appears in "First Name Last Name" format. List authors in the same order they are presented in the source.

Example:

Wykes, Maggie, and Barrie Gunter. The Media and Body Image: If Looks Could Kill. Sage, 2005.

Three or More Authors

Format:

First Author's Last Name, First Name, et al.

Heads up! If there are three or more authors, list only the first author followed by a comma and the words "et al." (which means "and others" in Latin) instead of listing all authors' names. The first author is the first name listed on the work you are citing, not the first name alphabetically.

Example:

Chan, Sabrina S., et al. Learning Our Names: Asian American Christians on Identity, Relationships, and Vocation. InterVarsity Press, 2022.

Group or Corporate Author

Heads up! Group or corporate authors may include companies, commissions, committees, organizations, government agencies, or any other group that does not identify individual members.

If the Group Author Is Different From Publisher

Format:

If the group author and the publisher are different entities, list the Group Name as the author.

Example:

Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation. Employability Skills: Creating My Future. Nelson, 1996.

If the Group Author and Publisher Are the Same

Format:

If the group author and the publisher are the same, skip the author and list the title first. Then, list the group author only as the publisher.

Example:

Fair Housing—Fair Lending. Aspen Law & Business, 1985.

No Author

Heads up! Remember that an author/creator doesn't necessarily have to be a person's name. It may be someone's initials, an organization or corporation, or a username on a social media site.

Format:

If a source has no author, skip the author and start with the title. Do not use "Anonymous" as the author name.

Example:

"How to Teach Yourself Guitar." eHow, Demand Media, www.ehow.com/how_5298173_teach-yourself-guitar.html. Accessed 24 June 2016.

One Author

Format:

(Last Name Page Number)

Example:

(Anzaldúa 30)

Two Authors

Format:

(First Author's Last Name and Second Author's Last Name Page Number)

Example:

(Wykes and Gunter 53)

Three or More Authors

Format:

(First Author's Last Name et al. Page Number)

Example:

(Chan et al. 97)

Group or Corporate Author

Format:

(Group Name Page Number)

Example:

(Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation 230)

If your full citation for a group author starts with the title rather than the group's name, follow the "No Author" in-text citation rules instead.

No Author

Format:

(Title of Longer Work or "Title of Shorter Work" Page Number)

Heads up! For in-text citations, shorten any titles to the first 2-4 words of the title.

Examples:

(Fair Housing 15)

("How to Teach")

The first example above refers to a book, so the title is italicized to reflect that it is a longer work. The second example refers to a webpage, so the title appears in quotation marks to reflect that it is a shorter work, and we also skip the page number since websites don't have page numbers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I format dates?

Dates in your Works Cited list should be formatted like this: Day Month Year. Month names should be abbreviated using the list below.
Example: 17 Oct. 2021.

For publication dates, include as much information as the source provides. This may be a full date, only the month and year, a season (such as Spring 2019), or just a publication year.

Month Abbreviations

In your Works Cited list, abbreviate months as follows:

January = Jan.
February = Feb.
March = Mar.
April = Apr.
May = May
June = June
July = July
August = Aug.
September = Sept.
October = Oct.
November = Nov.
December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper.

What is a DOI?

Digital Object Identifiers, or DOIs, are unique numbers or hyperlinks assigned to some online resources, such as journal articles, to make them easier to find.

If a DOI is provided for a source, include it at the end of your citation after any page numbers. In your Works Cited list, you should always format a DOI as a URL beginning with "https://doi.org/" followed immediately by the DOI number.

Example: For DOI "10.5642/jhummath.20170120," the URL version would be: https://doi.org/10.5642/jhummath.20170120

If no DOI is provided but a permalink or stable link is present, you can use that instead.

What if some information is missing?

If a source is missing information that you need for your Works Cited citation, you can skip that element and move on to the next element in the citation.

Examples: Some sources don't have an author; in this case, we skip the author and start our citation with the title. Most academic journals are published in volumes and issues, but some only have volumes; in this case, we list the volume number and skip the issue number.

Heads up! If an online source is missing a publication date, you can skip the date element, but be sure to add an access date to the end of your citation. Example: "How to Teach Yourself Guitar." eHow, Demand Media, www.ehow.com/how_5298173_teach-yourself-guitar.html. Accessed 24 June 2016.

What if I don't know which source type I'm citing?

If you're not sure what type of source you're working with, don't worry! This is a very common challenge. Check out our page on Identifying Source Types.

What if I need to cite multiple sources by the same author?

Works Cited List: To cite two or more works by the same author, give the name in the first entry only. For subsequent works by the same author, replace the author's name with three hyphens followed by a period (---.), which signifies that the name is the same as the preceding entry. Alphabetize works with the same author by title.

In-Text Citations: To distinguish multiple works by the same author, add a comma followed by a shortened version of the title (usually the first 2-4 words) between the author name and the page number. Example: (Anzaldúa, Borderlands / La Frontera 38). Alternately, you can mention the author and title in the sentence, and then only include the page number.

For page numbers, should I use p. or pp.?

If you are citing a single page, use "p." If you are citing multiple pages, use "pp."

Example: If an article runs from page 10 to page 15, your citation should say "pp. 10-15" because it covers multiple pages. If it's a short article that only appears on page 11, your citation should say "p. 11".

More Information on MLA 9th

MLA Handbook 9th Edition
Call Number: LB2369 .M52 2021 (Reference)
Copies are available at the Reference Desk.

Pierce Library's MLA 9th Quick Citation Guide
Downloadable PDF with sample citations (including in-text) for different types of sources and a sample Works Cited page.

MLA Style Center
Tips for working in MLA Style, answers to common questions, and more.
Purdue OWL MLA 9 Formatting & Style Guide
Very thorough overview of MLA 9th with examples for how to construct both in-text and Works Cited entries.

This guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Content is adapted from the CSUDH MLA Citation Guide and the Columbia College (BC) MLA Citation Guide. Icons courtesy of Icons8.