MLA 9th edition
How to cite a conference paper in MLA 9th edition
Conference output splits three ways — a paper published in proceedings, a paper presented but never published, and a poster — and the styles treat them differently.
THE FORMAT
A conference paper in MLA, at a glance
Author Last, First. “Title of the Paper.” Conference Name, Day Month Year, Venue, City. Conference presentation.
Adeyemi, Tunde, and Petra Kirchner. “Automated Feedback and Revision Behavior in ESL Writing.” International Conference on Academic Literacies, 9 June 2022, Centro de Congressos, Lisbon. Conference presentation.
(Adeyemi and Kirchner)
In prose: Adeyemi and Kirchner reported that students revised more when the feedback arrived late.
Adeyemi, Tunde, and Petra Kirchner. “Automated Feedback and Revision Behavior in ESL Writing.” Proceedings of the International Conference on Academic Literacies, edited by Hanna Lindqvist, Fenmore UP, 2022, pp. 88–97.
In text: (Adeyemi and Kirchner 91)
Copyeditor formats APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE automatically — cite a source once and the works cited builds itself. See how citations work .
BEFORE YOU FORMAT
What MLA needs from a conference paper
Elements to collect
- Presenter or author names
- Date or date range of the conference
- Title of the paper or poster
- Type of contribution — paper presentation, poster session, keynote
- Conference name
- Location of the conference
- Proceedings title, pages, and DOI when it was published
Rules specific to this entry
- For an unpublished presentation the conference itself acts as the container, followed by the date you heard it, the venue and the city.
- Close the entry with a short description of what the contribution was — Conference presentation, Address, Poster session — since the container name alone does not say whether you heard a paper or read a poster.
- Give the single date of the presentation here, not the full run of the conference. MLA is placing the reader in the room with you.
- If the paper was published in proceedings, cite the published version instead: the proceedings volume becomes the container and the entry works exactly like a chapter in an edited book.
Building the entry, step by step
Collect the details
Before you format anything, gather every element MLA needs for a conference paper: Presenter or author names; Date or date range of the conference; Title of the paper or poster; Type of contribution — paper presentation, poster session, keynote.
Build the works cited entry
Arrange those details in the MLA order: Author Last, First. “Title of the Paper.” Conference Name, Day Month Year, Venue, City. Conference presentation.
Add the in-text citation
In the body of your paper, cite it as (Adeyemi and Kirchner) — or work the same reference into your sentence as Adeyemi and Kirchner reported that students revised more when the feedback arrived late..
Check it against the exceptions
For an unpublished presentation the conference itself acts as the container, followed by the date you heard it, the venue and the city.
MLA RULES
The conventions behind every MLA entry
MLA Handbook (9th ed.) is the authority. Where a journal or department publishes its own house rules, those win — check your submission guidelines before the works cited is final.
The rules that apply across every source — author order, capitalization, how the works cited is sorted, and where MLA entries most often go wrong — are collected on the MLA 9th edition guide.
The same conference paper in another style
Switching styles late in a draft is normal. Here is the same source formatted five other ways.
Questions about MLA and conference papers
What if the conference paper has no author?
Move the title into the author position and alphabetize by the first significant word of that title — ignoring an initial “A”, “An” or “The”. In the text, use a shortened form of the title where the author name would go.
What do I need before I can cite a conference paper?
Presenter or author names, Date or date range of the conference, Title of the paper or poster, and the rest of the elements listed above. Conference output splits three ways — a paper published in proceedings, a paper presented but never published, and a poster — and the styles treat them differently.
Is there anything unusual about a conference paper in MLA?
For an unpublished presentation the conference itself acts as the container, followed by the date you heard it, the venue and the city.
What else catches people out here?
Close the entry with a short description of what the contribution was — Conference presentation, Address, Poster session — since the container name alone does not say whether you heard a paper or read a poster.
Can I reformat this conference paper in another style later?
By hand, you would retype the entry — the element order, punctuation and italics all differ between styles. In Copyeditor, sources are stored as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole reference list at once.
Cite it once
and never reformat it again
Copyeditor keeps sources as structured data, so switching between APA, MLA, Chicago and IEEE reformats every citation and the whole works cited at once.
