MLA FORMATTING
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•Standard
One Inch Margins
•First Page ONLY – Upper Left Hand Corner: Your Name, Your Professor’s Name,
the Course & Section Number, and the Date (Do not use the Insert Header Function
in your Word Processing Program, i.e. Microsoft Word)
•Every Page – Upper Right Hand Corner: Your Last Name and the Page Number (Use
the Insert Page Number Function in your Word Processing Program)
•Title Centered
•Double-Spaced
•12 Point Font, Times New Roman
AVOIDING DROPPED QUOTES &
INTEGRATING SOURCED
MATERIAL
Introduce
Establish the Credibility of the Source
Material
 Explain
Reiterate the Quoted Material for
Clarity: “By this…” or “In other
words…”
 Integrate
Show the Relevance of the Source
Material to Your Thesis/Stance/Claim

DROPPED QUOTES
Example of a
Dropped
Quote
Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois,
and had three siblings. “Hemingway was an
abusive drunk.” He eventually moved to Kansas
City and worked as a cub reporter. Hemingway
then moved to Toronto and then onto Europe,
where he met up with his literary counterparts.
This is where his excessive drinking habits and
violent behavior took form.
Example of an
Integrated
Quote
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned Hemingway
expert and tenured professor at Harvard
University, said, “Hemingway was an abusive
drunk” (Smith 54). By this, he suggests that
Hemingway used alcohol not only to incite his
bitter rage, but also as a conflagrant to burn the
bridges between himself and his mentors. This
supports the stance that Hemingway did all he
could to break the ties with those who taught
him the craft.
STANDARD QUOTES
Standard quotes are four lines or less
 You should not have more than 3-4
standard quotes on a single page.

EXAMPLE:
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned Hemingway
expert and tenured professor at Harvard
University, said, “Hemingway was an
abusive drunk” (Smith 54).
BLOCK QUOTES
B
D
C
E
A. Must be FIVE lines or more
B. Lead into a Block Quotes with a colon, not a comma
C. Indent the Block Quote in its entirety
D. Do not use Quotation Marks
E. The Period comes before the Parenthetical Citation
F. No more than ONE Block Quote per three pages
Parenthetical Citations with
Standard Quotes
Dr. Fenstermaker, a renowned
Hemingway expert and tenured professor
at Harvard University, said, “Hemingway
was an abusive drunk” (Smith 54).
1.
2.
3.
1.
End Quote
Parenthetical Citation
Period
2.
3.
Parenthetical Citations
(Banks 121)
Banks is a quick reference to the works cited
page.
121 is the page that the quoted material is found
in Banks’ work.
***In order to know what to put in a parenthetical, it is
always the first part of a works cited entry:
Banks, Miranda. “Teen Themes.” Television Saturation. Ed.
Joseph McCullin. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 118-94.
Print.
Parenthetical Citations
(Banks, par. 12)
Sometimes sources provide paragraph numbers and
not page numbers. In this case, you will use the above
parenthetical.
(Banks)
Sometimes sources do not provide page or paragraph
numbers, which usually indicates an inadequate
source. Nevertheless, the parenthetical will look like
this one and n. pag. will be found in the works cited
entry.
Parenthetical Citations
(“The End is Near” 48-51)
Sometimes sources do not provide an
author, which can usually be a sign of a bad
source. Nevertheless, the parenthetical still
follows the same rule.
***In order to know what to put in a parenthetical, it is
always the first part of a works cited entry:
“The End is Near.” Propagandist Weekly. Ed. Brenda
Johnson. New York: Holt Publishing, 2011. 34-95.
Print.
In-Text Citations with Standard
Quotes
Alex Wright, director or User Experience
and Product Research at The New York Times,
said, “[O]ral tradition means more than just
talking” (357).
When the author of the quote is the same as
the author of the article/book from which
the quote is found, you do not need to
include the last name of the author inside of
the parenthetical; all you need is the page
number where the quote was found.
Ellipses & Brackets
Ellipses are used to show information has been removed
or omitted from a quote, refer to pages 331-33 in the
Little, Brown Compact Handbook.
(Example found on Block Quote slide)


Brackets clarify pronoun and noun usage and/or can
correct verb tense issues. Page 334 in the Little, Brown.
Original:
“He is considered the forefather of modern thought and the
theory of naturalism” (Jones 824).
Clarified with Brackets:
“[Freud] is considered the forefather of modern thought and
the theory of naturalism” (Jones 824).
“He [was] considered the forefather of modern thought and
the theory of naturalism” (Jones 824).
Brackets
“He is considered the forefathr [sic] of
modern thought and the theory of
naturalism” (Jones 824).
***As you can see the word “forefathr” is misspelled.
When this occurs in the work that you want to quote,
you cannot fix it for the original author. However, you also
do not want the professor to think that you made the
spelling error. In this instance, you will input [sic] after the
error to indicate the mistake was published/printed in this
manner.
TITLES
The titles of Longer Works (Books, Films, Albums,
Collections, Anthologies, Sitcoms…) need to be
ITALICIZED
Catcher and the Rye

The titles of Shorter Works (Poem, Song, Short
Stories, Articles, Journals, Episodes…) need to be in
“QUOTES”
“The Story of an Hour”

Capitalize all words in a title except for Prepositions,
Articles and Conjunctions, unless the title starts or
ends in these types of words.
Works Cited
1. Alphabetized
(No Numbers or Bullets)
2. Hanging Indention
(The only full line of text
should be the first
line of each source;
each additional line of
a source is indented)
3. Works Cited
should head the
page
(No Bold, Underline or
Quotation Marks, just
plain old 12 point
Font, Times New
Roman)