MLA Style
General Guidelines
1. Print on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper with 1 inch margins and double-spacing. Use a
legible font, 12 pt. and left justify (uneven right margin).
2. One space after periods or other punctuation marks.
3. No title page. Instead, create a heading in the upper left-hand corner of the first page. Use
double-spacing.
line 1: Student Name
line 2: Teacher Name
line 3: Name of class, period
line 4: Day Month Year
4. Center the title. Do not underline, italicize, place your title in quotation marks or use all caps.
5. Indent the first line of paragraphs one half-inch. Use the Tab key instead of the Space Bar.
6. Use a header (last name and page number) on every page, one-half inch from the top and
flush with the right margin.
MLA Style
Step-by-Step Formatting Instructions
Follow these simple steps after you open a new Word document:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Set the style from the toolbar
a. Times New Roman
b. Regular
c. 12
Set margins
a. From the menu, select File|Page Setup
b. Set all margins to 1 inch.
Set spacing
a. From the menu, select Format|Paragraph
b. Set "Line spacing" to "Double"
Add the header
a. Click View|Header and Footer. The header section will appear inside a gray dotted
square.
b. On the toolbar, click the Align Right icon
c. Type your Last Name and a one space
d. On the floating menu bar, click the Insert Page Number icon (looks like a number
symbol).
e. Click Close
Save your set up right away and Save often!
a. From the menu, select File|Save As
b. Look for the folder with your nine digit number
c. Choose an appropriate name
d. Click Save
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LastName 1
Firstname Lastname
Double
space
Mrs. Camplisson, 4
English 12
17 December 2010
Indent
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Titles that Inform and Intrigue Readers
Too often, English teachers encounter student papers with uninformative or
misleading titles. When you are brainstorming titles, think of it as a welcome mat.
A title’s job is to bring readers into your paper. Your title need not be a complete
sentence. It can be a short phrase which clearly conveys the content matter of your
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paper. Also, "If the title, the thesis statement, and the conclusion don't match, I
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know I've been handed a rush job, a load of nonsense, or both" (Kunka).
If a quotation runs more than four lines, set it off from your text by
beginning a new line and indenting one inch on the left.
Indent
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Your thesis statement should be descriptive but it should not be too
explanatory. If your thesis statement is very explanatory, the reader
won’t be triggered to read the entire write-up. It should entice the
reader to want to continue reading (Clark 56).
Therefore just leave necessary hints and pull back at certain places to create a
curiosity in the minds of the reader. When to create a title is a matter of preference.
Some people like to write it first, using it as a banner to guide the rest of their work.
Others prefer to write it last, after they have experienced the full development of
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Updated 3/7/2016
Works Cited
General Guidelines
1. Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page using the same formatting as the rest of
your paper.
2. Center the words Works Cited at the top of the page (do not italicize or use quotation
marks).
3. Double space all citations, without extra lines between.
4. Cite entries in alphabetical order.
5. In most cases, reverse the date so it is in day month year order. Example: 15 Nov. 2010
6. Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations five spaces by using a hanging indent.
7. Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and
quotation marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles).
8. For every entry, you must state the Medium of Publication. Most entries will likely be Print or
Web sources, but other possibilities may include E-mail or DVD.
9. If you're citing an article or a publication that was originally issued in print form but that you
retrieved from an online database (like EBSCO), type the online database name in italics
also.
Works Cited MLA Style
Step-by-Step Formatting Instructions
Tip: Instead of hitting "return" multiple times to get to a new page, force a page break -- if you
add or subtract from the body of your text, you won't have to re-align the works cited page.
1. Force a Page Break
a. Move the cursor to the very end of your document
b. Select Insert|Break
c. Under “Break Types” select Page break
2. Type Page Title
a. Click the Center icon located at the top of the screen
b. Type Works Cited
c. Press Enter
3. Format Entries
a. From the menu at the top of the screen, select Format|Paragraph
b. Under “Indention” set Special to “Hanging” by “.5”
c. Set Line spacing to "Double"
4. Type your entries
a. in alphabetical order
b. Enter after each entry
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Double
space
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Robertson 9
Works Cited
Asher, Sandy, and David L. Harrison, eds. Dude!: Stories and Stuff for Boys. New York: Dutton,
2006. Print.
Ed Wood. Dir. Tim Burton. Perf. Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Sarah Jessica Parker, Patricia
Arquette. Touchstone, 1994. DVD.
“Edgar Allen Poe.” Literary Lifelines. The Diagram Group. Vol. 8. Danbury, CT: Grolier, 1997.
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Print.
“Elie Wiesel.” Elie Wiesel Foundation. The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, n.d. Web. 02
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Oct. 2010.
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Hotinski, Roberta. "Rescued from il Purgatorio." U.S. News & World Report 127.5 (1999): 56.
Middle Search Plus. EBSCO. Web. 15 Oct. 2010.
"Ideology." The World Book Encylopedia. 2005. Print.
Kunka, Andrew. "Re: Modernist Literature." Message to the author. 15 Nov. 2000. E-mail.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner, 1982. Print.
Parks, Rosa. Personal interview. 1 Dec. 2000.
Schindler’s List. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley.
Universal Studios, 2004. Streaming video [Netflix].
Shmoop Editorial Team. "The Awakening." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov.
2008. Web. 07 Oct. 2010.
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Updated 3/7/2016