MLA Formatting Help: Links

A couple of quick links to help you all with your MLA formatting for your final papers.

Purdue OWL

A sample paper (For those students who asked about how to incorporate images/illustrations into their paper, this sample paper shows how to add illustrations via an appendix)

A sample work cited

Basic rules for setting up a Work Cited Page

MLA

Frequently asked questions about MLA format

Finally, a list of formatting elements that you should double-check when you set up your document and again when you proofread your document:

Word Processor Formatting:

 BACK UP YOUR FILES AS YOU WORK

 Everything is double spaced

 Space between paragraphs is normal (Paragraph -> Spacing between paragraphs -> After = 0)

 1 inch margins

 Left justified (not fully justified, which makes the spacing look strange)

 Font: Times New Roman, 12 point

 Header: last name and page number in right corner (not in body of text)

 Heading includes full name, date, professor’s name, and class/section

 Title follows heading, centered. (no separate title page required)

 All paragraphs indented 1/2 inch (Standard tab, usually done automatically)

 Save document as .doc, .docx  or .PDF for submission

 File name has last name in it

Quotations/Citations

 All quotes, paraphrases and summaries have an in-text citation with author name and page number. Author’s name can appear in the text or in parenthetical citation.

 All quotes appear in quotation marks,

 All quotes longer than 4 lines appear as indented block quotes

 All quotes/paraphrases are from sources that appear in the work cited page

Works cited page

 Begins on a new page (insert page break)

 Title: Works Cited appears in center of first line

 Double space

 All entries should be in alphabetical order

 All entries have hanging indent (all but first line is indented 1/2 inch)

 Titles of books, magazines, websites and other large works are italicized

 Titles of articles, web pages, and other short works are appear in quotes

 If author has more than one entry in your Works Cited, list entries in alphabetical order by title. Use 3 hyphens in place of the author’s name for second and subsequent entries.

 All sources that appear in the work cited list should appear in your paper

Visuals/Charts (if using)

 All visual elements are fully interated into the text

 All visuals/charts are clearly labeled (i.e. Figure 1) and labels are used in text to refer to image being discussed.

 All visual elements are appropriately cited in the Work Cited page

---