MLA Utility Tool
MLA Alphabetizer
Alphabetize your Works Cited entries. Paste one entry per line.
Alphabetized Result
Works Cited
What Is an MLA Alphabetizer?
An MLA alphabetizer sorts Works Cited entries into proper alphabetical order. MLA requires that entries on the Works Cited page be arranged alphabetically by the first element — usually the author's last name.
This tool takes your pasted entries and sorts them automatically, so you don't have to manually rearrange them. It also detects possible duplicate entries.
How to Alphabetize Works Cited
MLA alphabetization follows these rules:
- Sort by the first word. Usually the author's last name. Ignore "A," "An," or "The" at the start of titles.
- Author name entries. Smith comes before Zhang. Simple alphabetical order by surname.
- Organization authors. An entry starting with "American Psychological Association" sorts under "A."
- No author. Use the title. "Climate Change Report" sorts under "C."
- Multiple works by same author. Sort by title after the author name. Shortened titles determine the order.
MLA Alphabetization Examples
Anderson, Mary. Modern Writing. Oxford UP, 2023.
Doe, Jane. "How Citations Work." Purdue OWL, Purdue U, 2024.
Smith, John. The Art of Research. Cambridge UP, 2023.
Zhang, Wei. "Climate Studies." Environmental Journal, vol. 8, 2024, pp. 12–30.
Entries are sorted by the first character of the first word — A, D, S, Z in this case.
Multiple Works by the Same Author
When you have multiple works by the same author, sort them by the shortened title (the first significant word after the author name):
Smith, John. The Art of Research. Cambridge UP, 2023.
Smith, John. "Writing in College." Academic Journal, 2024.
"Art" comes before "Writing," so the book appears first.
No Author
When a source has no author, the entry begins with the title. Sort by the first word of the title (ignoring articles like "A," "An," or "The"):
"Climate Change Report." NASA, 2024.
"Formatting Guide." Purdue OWL, 2024.
How to Use the Alphabetizer
- Paste entries. Enter one Works Cited entry per line in the text area above.
- Click "Alphabetize." The tool sorts your entries into proper MLA alphabetical order.
- Review the result. Check the sorted output. The tool also flags possible duplicates.
- Copy or download. Copy the sorted text, or download as a formatted .docx file with hanging indentation.
You can also use "Remove Duplicates" before alphabetizing to clean up your list.
Common Mistakes
MLA sorts by the author's last name (surname), not the first name. "Smith, John" sorts under "S," not "J."
When sorting by title, ignore leading articles. "The Art of Writing" sorts under "A," not "T."
Manual sorting is error-prone. Use the alphabetizer for consistent, reliable results.
This tool only reorders entries. It does not modify the content of your citations.