Formatting a College Essay — MLA Style
There’s no need to format your first draft or any other documents that your professor won’t see, though you certainly can use MLA format throughout the if you’d prefer. One benefit of doing this is that you’ll see approximately how many pages your final draft will span before you reach that stage.
Use MLA format for every part of an assignment you submit. That includes any,,, or list of sources your instructor asks you to submit before or alongside your final paper. MLA is one of the most commonly used academic styles, especially for high school and undergraduate students. You might also be familiar with, the American Psychological Association’s style, or , short for the . These styles each include instructions for formatting citations, crediting sources, using quotations in your work, and other aspects of writing academic papers. When you use MLA style, use parenthetical citations to acknowledge other people’s work. Each of the parenthetical citations in your text is “keyed” to an alphabetical list of texts (the Works Cited page) included at the end of your essay. A parenthetical citation includes the author’s last name followed by a space and the appropriate page number or numbers. MLA style requires a works cited page that includes full citation information for each source. Begin by starting on another page titled “Works Cited” centered in the page. Alphabetize each entry by the last name of the first author listed. Hanging indents are an important characteristic of work cited pages. To make a hanging indent, The second and following lines are indented 1/2 inch after the first line. MLA style customizes entries for each type of source, meaning that each citation will be unique. You must include a citation after every quotation or paraphrased idea from another source. There are three different ways to provide the necessary information for a citation in MLA style. In all three options, you need to include both the author’s name and a page number. The following are examples of the different ways to cite your source in MLA style: Because the MLA format deals with the humanities, it places more emphasis on authorship than the other styles do. That means the names of creators are prominent in the text. By contrast, APA format emphasizes dates, and Chicago emphasizes supplemental notes like and .
Look online to see samples of a properly formatted MLA essay.
The majority of this guide focuses on MLA formatting in regards to MLA paper format rules and guidelines. If you’re seeking information related to the proper formatting of an MLA citation, refer to our individual pages and posts on various types of citations.
An MLA format follows the listed rules:
MLA allows the use of footnotes and endnotes to provide additional information or clarify points that might otherwise disrupt the flow of your essay. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page, while endnotes are listed at the end of the essay before the Works Cited page. Both should be used sparingly and only when necessary. Below is a table summarizing how to format footnotes and endnotes in MLA:
Exercise 1: MLA In-text Citations
A citation shows the reader of your project where you found your information. Citations are included in the body of a project when you add a quote to your project. Citations are also included in the body when you’re paraphrasing another individual’s information. These citations in the body of a research paper are called in-text citations. They are found directly next to the information that was borrowed and are very brief to avoid causing distraction while reading a project. These brief citations include the last name of the author and a page number. Scroll down for an in-depth explanation and examples of MLA in-text citations.
Exercise 1: MLA In-text Citations
Complete citations are found on what MLA calls a works-cited list, which is sometimes called an MLA bibliography. All sources that were used to develop a research project are found on the works-cited list. Complete citations are also created for any quotes or paraphrased information used in the text. Complete citations include the author’s name, the title, publisher, year published, page numbers, URLs, and a few other pieces of information.
MLA citations have nine core elements:
Use MLA format for the final draft of every piece of academic, including essays, , and research papers, that you do in your arts and humanities courses. That means English, arts, philosophy, religion, and ethics courses and any other classes you take that fall within these subjects.
To use MLA format in an essay, consider the following:
In each of the examples above, the reader knows that the relevant information can be found on page 144 of a text by Weedon. The reader can consult the Works Cited at the end of the essay to get more information about the source. In the Works Cited, the reader would find the following entry: