Below, you will find examples of generative AI citations (e.g., ChatGPT) in MLA format. Keep in mind that instructors have differing opinions about student use of ChatGPT -- you should always defer to individual instructor guidelines and assignment prompts when writing your papers. According to the MLA Handbook, you should:
What to include in your citation:
Several examples of MLA citations of generative AI content are included below.
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Passage in Source (ChatGPT): |
“Nature in Mansfield Park often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters. The different environments – Mansfield Park, Sotherton, and the wilderness at the parsonage – are symbolic of the moral choices and the values of the people who inhabit them.” |
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Paraphrased in Your Writing (in-text): |
In Mansfield Park, physical locations like Mansfield Park and Sotherton reflect the morality and choices of the people who live in them (“Describe the theme”). |
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Works-Cited-List Entry: |
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607. |
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Passage in Source (ChatGPT): |
“Nature in Mansfield Park often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters. The different environments – Mansfield Park, Sotherton, and the wilderness at the parsonage – are symbolic of the moral choices and the values of the people who inhabit them.” |
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Quoted in Your Writing (in-text): |
Nature is depicted frequently throughout Mansfield Park, and it “often mirrors the personalities or inner states of the characters” (“Describe the theme”). |
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Works-Cited-List Entry: |
“Describe the theme of nature in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park” prompt. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1b0a0-d704-8000-be9a-85f53c850607. |
Note: While we’ve provided fairly detailed descriptions of the prompts above, a more general one (e.g., Theme of nature in Austen’s Mansfield Park prompt) could be used, since you are describing something that mimics a conversation, which could have various prompts along the way.
If you are incorporating an AI-generated image in your work, you will likely need to create a caption for it following the guidelines in section 1.7 of the MLA Handbook. Use a description of the prompt, followed by the AI tool, model name or version, and date created:
Fig. 1. “Create an expressionist-style image of two people standing on a beach looking at the ocean” prompt, DALL-E, version 3, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1c3a3-3f90-8000-9750-82c57c4a6592.
You can use this same information if you choose to create a works-cited-list entry instead of including the full citation in the caption (see MLA Handbook, sec. 1.7).
If you ask a generative AI tool to create a work, like a poem, how you cite it will depend on whether you assign a title to it. Let’s say, for example, you ask ChatGPT to write a free verse poem titled “The Oak Tree” that—you guessed it!—describes an oak tree and then quote it in your text. Your works-cited-list entry might look like this:
“The Oak Tree” free verse poem. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1c740-7500-8000-a38b-6d6045c811f5.
If you did not title the work, incorporate part of or all of the first line into the description of the work in the Title of Source element:
“The autumn leaves fall softly to the ground . . .” sonnet about autumn. ChatGPT, model GPT-4o, OpenAI, 23 Sept. 2024, chatgpt.com/share/66f1ce9d-0b38-8000-a209-112496d3e0b1.
Note: For guidance on using descriptions and text from the work itself in the Title of Source element, see the MLA Handbook, 5.28 and 5.29.
According to the MLA Handbook: "You should also take care to vet the secondary sources cited by a generative AI tool—with the caveat that AI tools do not always cite sources or, when they do, do not always indicate precisely what a given source has contributed. If you cite an AI summary that includes sources and do not go on to consult those sources yourself, we recommend that you acknowledge secondary sources in your work.”
See example screenshot of Microsoft’s Copilot tool below:
If you wanted to cite information from that second sentence that is highlighted, you should click through to the cited sources and use those directly as the source that you cite. So, in the example above, you would click through to the web page on the Britannica site that describes formalism.
Remember that AI tools can also hallucinate, or make up, sources or incorrectly summarize the content that it does reference. For those reasons we recommend directly consulting and citing the sources that the AI links to instead of the AI response.
