How to Format a Paper in MLA style
- 1). Complete basic paper formatting. Type and double-space your paper on 81/2-by-11-inch sheets, using Times New Roman 12-point font. Set your margins to 1 inch. Leave only one space after your final punctuation marks. According to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), indent the first line of each paragraph using the "Tab" key.
- 2). Create your header. On word processing software, insert a header into the top right of every page. The header should consist of your last name followed by the page number--for instance, "Smith 22."
- 3). Input class information. On the upper left side of the first page, write your name, your instructor's name, the course and the date on consecutive lines. MLA style requires the European style of listing dates, so the first day of the 21st century would appear as follows: 1 January 2000. According to the OWL, you should not put your title in this list. Instead, center it under the class information in the same font and point size without italicizing or boldfacing it or using other special formatting.
- 4). Format in-text citations. If you have attributed a quote or a fact to a source, indicate the page number of the source in parentheses before the final punctuation mark of a sentence. If you have not attributed a fact to a source within the text but the fact is not something you determined on your own, add the original author's last name and the page number of the source in parentheses before the final punctuation mark of a sentence. For instance:
Jim Smith notes that seafood is rich in oil (63).
Seafood is rich in oil (Smith 63). - 5). Add a page dedicated to citing works. On this page, list all of the sources from which you obtained information for your paper. The words "Works Cited" should appear, each beginning with a capital letter, in the top center of the page. According to the OWL, you should double-space your entries, but should not skip spaces from entry to entry. For each source, list the author or authors, title, date and medium of publication--that is, print or Web. Certain entries require more information, and all entries should be ordered in a specific format based on their type. To be sure you are citing correctly, use an MLA Handbook.
