PERRLA/Guides/MLA 9/Class lecture or notes

How to Cite a Lecture or Lecture Notes in MLA 9

An MLA 9 Works Cited entry for lecture notes posted online gives the instructor's last name and first name, the title of the notes in italics, the course site in italics, the date, the URL, and, if you like, Lecture notes as a description at the end. The in-text citation is the instructor's last name: (Jackson). A recorded lecture is cited as the video it's in. Unlike APA, MLA also gives a lecture you heard in class a Works Cited entry: the instructor, the course name in plain type, the date, and the school.

The format

Last Name, First Name. Title of the Notes. Course Site, Day Mon. Year, URL. Lecture notes.
Last Name, First Name. Course Name. Day Mon. Year, School Name, City. Lecture.

PERRLA MLA Experts ยท Updated October 29, 2026
Checked against the MLA Handbook, 9th edition. Every example is formatted by PERRLA's reference engine.

First, the easy way: PERRLA

Type lecture into PERRLA's reference search, or choose Lecture & Presentation Materials from the reference types. Add your instructor as the Presenter, then fill in the Title of the Material, type Lecture notes or Lecture slides in the Format box, pick the Presentation Date, and enter the course site in Institution or Platform and the URL. PERRLA writes the name in MLA order, puts the title in title case and italics, writes the date the MLA way, and adds the format at the end.

Quoting one slide? When you add the citation, choose Other under Page or location, type slide in lowercase in the Label box, and type the slide number in the Value box.

Watching the lecture on YouTube? Paste the video's link into the reference search instead. PERRLA builds it as a video, with the title first, YouTube in italics, and the channel after uploaded by. To quote it, choose Time in the citation and enter where the quote starts.

Citing a lecture you sat in on? Use Lecture & Presentation Materials again. Add your instructor as the Presenter, type the course name inside square brackets in Title of the Material so it prints in plain type, leave Format blank (MLA's own example of a class lecture has no description), pick the day of the class in Presentation Date, and enter your school in Institution or Platform, with its city if the name doesn't include it. PERRLA puts the date first, then the school and the city, the way MLA does.

Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.

The parts of the works cited entry

1. Instructor

When the instructor wrote the notes or slides, they're the author: last name, a comma, and first name, then a period. Two instructors: invert only the first name, then and and the second name in normal order.

Jackson, Jean.

Don't assume your instructor wrote every file they post. If they shared someone else's slides or handout, start with the real author, or with the title if no author is named. A recorded lecture on YouTube starts with the video's title, and the account that posted it goes after uploaded by.

2. Title

Capitalize the title in title case. A set of notes or slides that stands on its own is italicized.

Stigmatized Conditions: Responsibility and Blame.

A lecture video on YouTube is part of a larger site, so its title goes in quotation marks. A lecture you heard in person takes the course name as its title, in title case but in plain type, with no italics or quotation marks. Untitled notes get a short description in place of a title, capitalized like a sentence and in plain type.

English 204: African American Literature.

3. Course site

The site that holds the notes is the container, so its name goes in italics, followed by a comma: an open course site, or your school's learning management system, like Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle.

MIT OpenCourseWare,

For a recorded lecture on YouTube, the container is YouTube.

4. Date

Use the date the lecture was given or the notes were posted, as fully as you have it: day, abbreviated month, and year.

6 May 2020,

Course sites often give only the term the course was taught, like Spring 2012. Give the year, or the term with the season in lowercase, as MLA 9 styles seasons: 2012, or spring 2012,. For a video, use the upload date, not the day of the class.

5. URL or school

For notes online, end with the URL and a period. The https:// can come off the front.

ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-13-psychology-and-economics-spring-2020/resources/mit14_13s20_lec22/.

Notes inside Canvas, Blackboard, or Moodle need a login, so give the site's login or home page. For a lecture you heard in person, there's no URL: give the school's name, and its city if the city isn't in the name, after the date.

6. Description (optional)

You can end with a word or two that says what the source is, when that isn't clear from the rest of the entry: Lecture notes, Lecture slides, PowerPoint presentation, Video recording, or Lecture.

Lecture notes.

Examples

Lecture notes posted online

Professor Jean Jackson's notes for a lecture on stigma, responsibility, and blame in an MIT anthropology course on disease and health, posted on MIT OpenCourseWare. The course site gives only the term, spring 2012, so the date is the year.

  • In-text citation(Jackson)
  • Narrative citationAs Jackson explains, …

Slides from a lecture, with the date it was given

The slides an MIT economics professor used for a lecture on happiness and mental health, dated on the first slide. Slides have no page numbers, so a quote points to the slide number, with the label slide.

  • In-text citation(Schilbach, slide 9)
  • Narrative citationAs Schilbach explains, … (slide 9).

A recorded lecture on YouTube

The recording of that same lecture, posted on YouTube by MIT OpenCourseWare. As a video, the entry starts with the title in quotation marks, YouTube is the container, the channel goes after uploaded by, and the date is the upload date. Quote it with a timestamp, and name the professor in your sentence.

  • In-text citation("Lecture 22" 00:12:40)
  • Narrative citationIn "Lecture 22: Happiness and Mental Health," Schilbach explains that … (00:12:40).

In-text citations

An MLA 9 in-text citation for a lecture uses the first element of the Works Cited entry: usually the instructor's last name.

  • Notes posted online: (Jackson)
  • A quote from slides: add the slide number with the label slide, after a comma: (Schilbach, slide 9)
  • A recorded lecture on YouTube: a short form of the title in quotation marks, plus the time where the quote starts, in hours, minutes, and seconds: ("Lecture 22" 00:12:40)
  • A lecture you heard in class: the instructor's last name: (Lastname). There's no page or time to add.
  • Name in your sentence: put only the location in parentheses at the end, or leave the parentheses off when there's nothing to add: Jackson describes how stigma attaches to some illnesses and not others.

Don't add a page number to notes that don't have one, and don't count paragraphs to make one up.

Common mistakes

  • Citing your own notes from classCite the lecture the notes came fromMLA asks you to cite the presentation, not the notes you took on it. Your notes are your record of the source, not the source.
  • (J. Jackson, personal communication, 2012)(Jackson)That's APA. MLA cites a lecture by the instructor's last name and gives it a full Works Cited entry, even one you heard in person.
  • Smith, Ryan. English 204: African American Literature. 4 Apr. 2016, Evergreen State College, Olympia.Smith, Ryan. English 204: African American Literature. 4 Apr. 2016, Evergreen State College, Olympia.For a lecture you attended, MLA uses the course name as the title, in title case but with no italics and no quotation marks.
  • Schilbach, Frank. "Lecture 22: Happiness and Mental Health." YouTube, 27 Sept. 2021."Lecture 22: Happiness and Mental Health." YouTube, uploaded by MIT OpenCourseWare, 27 Sept. 2021.A YouTube video names the account that posted it after uploaded by. Name the professor in your sentence.
  • (Schilbach 9)(Schilbach, slide 9)A bare number reads as a page. Label the slide so your reader knows where to look, with a comma after the name.

Quick checklist

  • Instructor's name inverted, only if they made the material
  • Notes or slides title in italics and title case
  • Course site in italics, then the date and the URL
  • A lecture you heard: course name in plain type, the date, then the school
  • YouTube: the title first, then uploaded by and the channel
  • slide and the number, or a timestamp, when you quote slides or a video

Questions students ask

How do I cite my professor's lecture in MLA 9?

Give your professor's name, then the course name in title case with no italics or quotation marks, the date of the class, and the school, with its city if the name doesn't include it. You can add Lecture at the end. In the text, cite your professor's last name.

How do I cite lecture notes from Canvas or Blackboard?

Give the author of the notes, the title in italics, the learning management system in italics as the container, the date they were posted, and the site's login or home page. Readers outside your class can't open the file, so the home page is the most useful address.

Can I cite my own notes from class?

No. Cite the lecture itself. Your notes are how you remember what was said, but the lecture is the source your reader needs to know about.

How do I cite a recorded lecture in my course site, like a Panopto or Zoom recording?

Give the instructor, the lecture's title (or a short description, like Lecture on cardiac output), the course site in italics, the date, and the site's address, and you can end with Video recording. Quote it with a timestamp. A recording on YouTube is cited as a YouTube video instead.

Do I list my instructor as the author of every course file?

Only the ones they created. If your instructor posted an article, a chapter, or another person's slides, cite the original author and work. If no author is named, start the entry with the title.

How do I cite a guest speaker in my class?

The same way as a class lecture: the speaker's name, the course name or the talk's title, the date, and the school. If the talk was recorded and posted, cite the recording so your reader can find it.

Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapters 5 and 6 (the core elements, containers, optional elements, and in-text citations), and the MLA Style Center's answers on citing course materials, a slide presentation in a learning management system, an online lecture, the school as a lecture's location, the date of a slide lecture, notes on a presentation, YouTube videos, and time stamps. Example sources are the ones verified for the APA 7 page, opened again by curl on October 29, 2026: MIT OpenCourseWare's lecture pages (instructors, course terms, and titles), and the YouTube video's channel, title, and September 27, 2021, upload date.

PERRLA builds the Works Cited entry for posted notes, slides, and recorded lectures, with the name in MLA order and the date written the MLA way.

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