MLA FORMAT
Essay Format for Arts and Humanities
English, Languages, Art, Drama, Music
Heading and Title
An essay or research paper in MLA does not need a separate title page.
•
Type your last name and page number in a header, flush right.
•
Type your name, teacher’s name, the course code, and the date on separate lines, flush left
1" from the top of the page.
•
Double space every line.
•
Centre your title, use upper and lower case and do not use underlining or quotation marks.
Linton 1
Meghan Linton
Header: Last name
ans page number
Information for
submission
Ms. E. Cadman
English 4U
Title is centred
9 January 2010
Politics of Hamlet
[Tab] While it is common to examine Shakespeare’s play Hamlet
as a study of character, it is possible also to see it as a reflection of
contemporary politics...
In-text citation
[Tab] Hamlet can be compared to a Prime Minister ( Johnson 23).
Additional Guidelines
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Type your essay on 8.5" x 11" paper, using 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font.
Leave a 1" margin on all sides.
Indent (tab once) the first word of a paragraph from the left margin.
Double-space throughout, including quotations, notes, and works cited and work consulted
pages.
Type your last name before the page number.
Number all pages consecutively in the upper right hand corner, ½" from the top and flush
with the right margin.
Do not use the abbreviation” p.” before a page number.
Use in-text citations (parenthetical references) for your sources.
MLA FORMAT
Essay Format for Arts and Humanities
English, Languages, Art, Drama, Music
You must always acknowledge your sources, whether you are paraphrasing or quoting from the works of others.
Omitting this acknowledgment constitutes plagiarism. The exception is information that is common knowledge.
Types of Quotations
Short Quotes: Use quotation marks for the section you are quoting and do not change any words from
the original.
Example #1
"Elizabeth’s reign is considered a golden age in English history, although it was
not without its moments of controversy” (Williamson 72).
Example #2
“When I saw your face,” remembers Clara, “I knew that we would survive this”
(Lee 145).
Example #3
Macdonald writes, “She has never seen this place before, and yet felt strangely
at home” (51).
Example #4
In her introduction, Ellen Bielawski argues, “Boyden is the first to tell the
whole Canadian story, the one that includes Aboriginal people” (3).
Note: You do not repeat the author’s name in the examples #3 and #4.
Long Quotes: If the information runs longer than 4 lines of prose or 3 lines of poetry, you will use a
Block Quote.
1.
introduce with a colon ( : )
4.
omit quotation marks around the entire quotation
2.
begin a new line
5.
indent the quote 1" on the left and right side
3.
double space
6.
place the citation after the final period.
Example of a Block Quote:
Historical critics agree that:
Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road will be - if it is not already a milestone in North American fiction. It is a brilliant
raveling of the essential threads of our great story,
the meeting of the people of the “Old World” with the people
of Turtle Island, this continent as Aboriginal people name
it. (Bielawski 3)
MLA FORMAT
Essay Format for Arts and Humanities
English, Languages, Art, Drama, Music
In-text Citations
Use in-text citations to acknowledge sources within your essay.
These are called parenthetical references.
1. Source with a known author: If it is a printed source, give the author’s last name and the page
number of the quote or paraphrase in brackets:
"Margaret Atwood is a feminist before an author (Hendrey 79).”
2. Author's name in your text: Do not repeat the author's name in the in-text citation.
Smith regards Bach as the “supreme composer” of the Baroque style (72).
3. More than one work by the same author: If more than one work by the same author is in the works cited list, use
a shortened version of the title.
Frye, Anatomy 100) or (Frye, Educated Imagination 190).
Add initials or first names if two of the cited authors have the same last name.
(L. Smith 19-25) or (P. Smith 101)
4. No known author: For a print source, use a shortened version of the title of the work. If it’s a short work, like an article,
use quotation marks; if it’s a full-length work, like an entire website or a television show, use italics. A book is likely to name
an author or an editor.
An online source with no known author: use the first few words of the title of the website.
5. A multi-volume work: Use a colon and a space to separate a volume number and page number for a multi-volume
work. Do not use volume or page or their abbreviations.
(Britannica 20: 494-499)
6. An indirect source: This is a source that is quoted within the one you used. Indicate this with “qtd. in”.
Ravitch argues that high schools are pressured to act as “social service centers, and
they don’t do that well” (qtd. in Wiesman 259).
7.Shakespeare: If the title of the play is already clear, your citation will be the act, scene and line numbers.
Forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quality of love,
Make up my sum. (5,1,21-23)
0
MLA FORMAT
Essay Format for Arts and Humanities
English, Languages, Art, Drama, Music
The title is Works Consulted for all sources you read.
The title is Works Cited for works you quoted or referred to in the text of your essay.
•
Double space throughout. Use Times New Roman or Arial font, 12 pt.
•
The first line of each entry goes to the margin; subsequent lines are indented 5 spaces.
•
Arrange your citations in alphabetical order by the last name of the author, or by title if the author isn=t given.
•
For multiple authors, use and between names. Names after the first one are reversed: first name, then last name.
•
Use a period after each section of the entry.
•
Book, magazine, journal or article titles: use capital letters for all main words, capitalize the first word after a colon.
•
Italicize all book, magazine and journal titles.
•
Journal articles: use quotation marks for the article title.
•
Date of publication follows the title of a book, magazine or journal.
•
State the publication medium: Print, Web (for everything online), DVD, TV, Performance etc.
Online Sources:
•
No longer need the URL for a website or database if there is already enough information to enable
someone to find the source.
•
Require a sponsor or publisher (for example EBSCO). If an online source does not have a sponsor
or publisher, use the abbreviation N.p. (No publisher) in the sponsor position of your citation.
•
Require date of publication. If there is no date of publication or update use, n.d. (for no date).
•
For an article in an online journal or database, state the page number(s) if they are available. If they
are not available use the abbreviation n. pag. (no page).
There is a lot to rem em ber and it differs from APA form.
No one expects you to memorize all these rules.
To find all the rules and examples online,
go to the EDHS Library homepage.
MLA FORMAT
Essay Format for Arts and Humanities
English, Languages, Art, Drama, Music
EXAMPLE OF A WORKS CONSULTED PAGE
Book
Anderson, Stuart. The Salem Witch Trials. San Diego: Lucent Books
Inc., 1999. Print.
Book
Republication
Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. London: Penguin Books Ltd.,
1996. Print.
Book with
2 authors
Barr, Karen, and Cythia Chang. The French Impressionists. Blue Ridge
Summit: Tab Books, 1995. Print.
Short
work in
anthology
Colville, Louis. “The Decline of the Ottoman Empire.” The Ottomans. Ed.
Peter Borner. New York: Oxford Press, 1965. 221-28. Print.
Work of
art in a
book
Degas, Edgar. “A Dancer Curtseying”. 1878. Musee D”Orsay, Paris.
Encyclopedia of Art. Vol.14. Toronto: UP, 2001. Print.
Common
Encyclopedia
no author
Specialized
Encyclopedia
with author
“Electricity”. The World Technology Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. 2000. Print.
Frye, Edward. “Henri Matisse”. The Book of Art. Ed. David Smith. Vol.7.
Montreal: Grolier, 1999. Print.
Magazine
article from
an online
database
Hall, Karen. “Carol Shields: Still Digging”. Performing Arts in Canada.
4-6. Canadian Literacy Centre. Web. 24 Sept. 2009.
Newspaper
article from
an online
database
Website with
an author
Manning, Robert. “Water is Big Business”. The Toronto Star. 10 July
2008, sec.E:46. Ebscohost. Web. 24 Sept..2009.
Robinson, Michael. “A Splintered Germany”. Cold War. U. Of Chicago, 5
Mar. 2007. Web. 21 Oct. 2009.
Website: no
author or
date
“Sports in the Time of Elizabeth”. Elizabethan Era. N.p., n.d. Web
22 Dec. 2008.
Film
The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Polygram, 1995. Film.