First, the easy way: PERRLA
Choose Dissertations & Theses from the reference types. Pick A published dissertation or thesis if you read it in ProQuest or a university repository, or An unpublished dissertation or thesis if your copy came from the university itself. Then choose A master's thesis. Fill in the Title of the Work, the Publication Year, and the Institution Name. For a published thesis, add the Database or Archive Name and the URL or DOI link. MLA doesn't use ProQuest's publication number, so PERRLA leaves Record Identifier out of your Works Cited entry. PERRLA shortens University to U, adds master's thesis after the university's name, handles the title case, the italics, and the punctuation, and puts the entry on your Works Cited page in alphabetical order.
Looking a thesis up by its DOI? PERRLA finds it, but sets it up as a doctoral dissertation. Switch the kind to A master's thesis, add the repository's name, and check the year and the university's name against the thesis record before you add it. Pasting a repository link instead? If PERRLA offers it as a webpage, skip that result and use Dissertations & Theses.
Not using PERRLA yet? Here is how to build the same works cited entry by hand.
The parts of the works cited entry
1. Author
Start with the author's last name, a comma, and their first name as the thesis prints it, with any middle initial. End with a period.
Teeter, Kayla.
Leave out the thesis advisor and the committee. MLA names only the author.
2. Title
A thesis is a whole work on its own, so its title goes in italics and title case, even when the repository lists it in sentence case. Put a period after the title.
Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout.
3. Year
Give the year the thesis was completed, followed by a period. A thesis a repository posted online years later keeps the year it was finished.
1993.
4. University and description
Next comes the school that granted the degree, a comma, and the description master's thesis, ending with a period. MLA's own examples shorten University to U, and PERRLA does that for you.
Gardner-Webb U, master's thesis.
San Jose State U, master's thesis.
5. Database or repository
If you read the thesis online, the database or repository is a container: its name in italics, a comma, and then the DOI or URL, followed by a period. Give a DOI as a full https://doi.org/ link. For any other URL, leave off the https://.
Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University, digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing_etd/39.
A print copy, or a PDF the author or the school sent you, has no container. End the entry after the description.
Examples
A master's thesis from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global
Kayla Teeter's MSN thesis on burnout among home health nurses, completed at Gardner-Webb University in 2014 and read in ProQuest. The database is the container, and the entry ends with the thesis's ProQuest link.
Works Cited
Teeter, Kayla. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout. 2014. Gardner-Webb U, master's thesis. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, www.proquest.com/docview/1630100018.
- In-text citation(Teeter)
- Narrative citationTeeter looked at how job satisfaction and nurse-to-patient ratios relate to burnout.
A master's thesis from a university repository
The same Teeter thesis, read in Gardner-Webb's own repository instead of ProQuest. The repository becomes the container, and its free link goes at the end. Cite whichever version you actually used.
Works Cited
Teeter, Kayla. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout. 2014. Gardner-Webb U, master's thesis. Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University, digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/nursing_etd/39.
- In-text citation(Teeter)
- Narrative citationTeeter looked at how job satisfaction and nurse-to-patient ratios relate to burnout.
An older thesis posted online later, with a DOI
Sherri E. Shinn's 1993 Master of Science thesis in nursing at San Jose State University, on clinical judgment in three types of nursing students. SJSU ScholarWorks posted it in 2010 and later gave it a DOI. The year stays 1993, and the entry ends with the DOI.
Works Cited
Shinn, Sherri E. Clinical Judgment Skills of Three Types of Nursing Students. 1993. San Jose State U, master's thesis. SJSU ScholarWorks, https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.ts6c-8cyr.
- In-text citation(Shinn)
- Narrative citationShinn compared the clinical judgment skills of three types of nursing students.
In-text citations
An MLA 9 in-text citation for a master's thesis gives the author's last name and the page number you're citing, with no comma and no p. between them. When you refer to the thesis as a whole, the name alone is enough.
- The whole thesis: (Teeter)
- A specific passage: the name, a space, and the page number from the thesis's own page numbering.
- Name in your sentence: put the page alone in parentheses at the end of the sentence. Referring to the whole thesis with the name in your sentence? No parentheses needed: Shinn compared the clinical judgment skills of three types of nursing students.
If you cite two works by the same author, add a short version of the title in italics: (Teeter, Relationship).
Common mistakes
- (Teeter, 2014)(Teeter)That's APA. MLA uses the page number when there is one, never the year, and no comma after the name.
- Teeter, K. (2014). Relationship between job satisfaction and nurse to patient ratio with nurse burnout [Master's thesis, Gardner-Webb University].Teeter, Kayla. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout. 2014. Gardner-Webb U, master's thesis.MLA spells out the first name, uses title case, puts the year after the title, and drops APA's square brackets for a plain description at the end.
- Teeter, Kayla. "Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout." 2014.Teeter, Kayla. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Nurse to Patient Ratio with Nurse Burnout. 2014.A thesis is a whole work, so MLA italicizes its title, like a book's. Quotation marks are for a part of a larger work, like an article or a chapter.
- 2010.1993.The year is when the thesis was finished, not when a repository posted it online.
- SJSU ScholarWorks, doi.org/10.31979/etd.ts6c-8cyr.SJSU ScholarWorks, https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.ts6c-8cyr.MLA drops https:// from ordinary URLs, but a DOI keeps its full https://doi.org/ form.
Quick checklist
- Author inverted, full first name as printed
- Title in italics and title case
- Year the thesis was finished, not the year it was posted
- University and description: Gardner-Webb U, master's thesis
- Database or repository in italics, then the DOI or URL
- In the text: name and page, or the name alone for the whole thesis
Questions students ask
Is a master's thesis cited differently from a dissertation in MLA 9?
Only in the description. Both use the same pattern, but a thesis ends with master's thesis after the university, where a dissertation ends with doctoral dissertation.
Does it matter if the thesis is published or unpublished?
No. MLA cites both the same way. A thesis you read in ProQuest or a repository adds that container and its link at the end. A print copy ends after the description.
What year do I use for a thesis that was posted online years later?
The year the thesis was finished. Shinn's thesis is dated 1993 even though SJSU ScholarWorks posted it in 2010.
Do I include the ProQuest publication number?
No. MLA's examples don't use it. Name the database in italics and give the thesis's link.
Related guides
Rules checked against the MLA Handbook (9th ed.), chapter 5 (the core elements, containers, and supplemental elements, including 5.113 on dissertations and theses) and appendix 1 (abbreviations), and the MLA Style Center's post on citing dissertations. Example sources verified against each thesis's ProQuest record, Digital Commons @ Gardner-Webb University, and SJSU ScholarWorks with its DOI at Crossref.