All About.

MLA FORMAT

Why?

Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of
MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material by other
writers. This is a popular citation style that IS USED IN COLLEGE. Your future professors will not teach you how to use this. You will be expected
to know!

General guidelines

Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper.
Double space the text of your paper.
Font should be written in Times New Roman, 12pt.
Use only one space after all punctuation.
All sides should have 1 inch margins.
Each paragraph should begin indented (use TAB button instead of the space bar five times).
Create a header that includes your last name and the page number in the upper right-hand corner on each page EXCEPT THE FIRST.
All book, webpage, journal, and database titles should be italicized. All chapters, articles, or section titles should be in quotations.

The heading and title

Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.

In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Be sure to double-space..

Center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks; write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not
in all capital letters.

Use quotation marks and/or italics when referring to other works in your title, just as you would in your text: Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas as Morality Play; Human Weariness in "After Apple Picking"

The heading should be double spaced like the rest of the paper. There should be NO large space gaps between the heading, title, and paper content.

Heading:
Name
Instructors Name
Course
Day Month Year

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 1

Title:
Centered, but plain
DONT change the
font in any way.

Paper begins.

MLA Formatting.
Works cited page
Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 2

According to MLA style, you must have a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. All entries in the Works Cited page must
correspond to the works cited in your main text.

Basic Rules

Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and
last name, page number header as the rest of your paper. It is the LAST PAGE of your research paper, and should be numbered that
way.
Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works
Cited at the top of the page.
Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entrieslike the paper, every line should have the exact amount of space
between them.
Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent. Not sure HOW? Go to
paragraphspecialhanging indent.
List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. If you refer to a journal article that appeared on pages 225 through 250, list
the page numbers on your Works Cited page as 225-50. Note that MLA style uses a hyphen in a span of pages.
All citations should be alphabetized by the first word/name listed in the entry.

Capitalization/punctuation

Capitalize each word in the titles of articles, books, etc, but do not capitalize articles (the, an), prepositions, or conjunctions unless
one is the first word of the title or subtitle: Gone with the Wind, The Art of War, There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
New to MLA 2009: Use italics (instead of underlining) for titles of larger works (books, magazines) and quotation
marks for titles of shorter works (poems, articles)

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 3

Work Cited
Citation formatting
Guide
BOOK source

Book with One Author

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

Book with Two Authors

Lastname, Firstname, and Firstname Lastname. Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of
Publication.

Book with No Author

Title of Book. City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication. Medium of Publication.

WEB Source

Citing an Entire Web Site

Editor, author, or compiler name (if available). Name of Site. Version number. Name of institution/organization affiliated with the
site (sponsor or publisher), date of resource creation/last updated (if available). Medium of publication. Date of access.
The Purdue OWL Family of Sites. The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008. Web. 23 Apr. 2008.

A Page on a Web Site

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Page. Title of Website. Publisher/Group, date updated. Medium of Publication. Date accessed.
"How to Make Vegetarian Chili." eHow. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2009.

DATABASE Source

An Article in an Online Scholarly Journal

Lastname, Firstname. Name of the Article. Title of the Publication. Volume.Issue (Year of Publication): Page numbers. Medium
of Publication. Date of Access.
Dolby, Nadine. Research in Youth Culture and Policy: Current Conditions and Future Directions. Social Work and Society: The
International Online-Only Journal 6.2 (2008): n. pag. Web. 20 May 2009.

An Article from an Online Database (or Other Electronic Subscription Service)

Lastname, Firstname. Title of Article. Title of Publication. Volume.Issue (Year): Pages. Database. Medium of Publication. Web.
Date accessed.
Langhamer, Claire. Love and Courtship in Mid-Twentieth-Century England. Historical Journal 50.1 (2007): 173-96. ProQuest.
Web. 27 May 2009.
NOTE: If there is no volume.issue (Year), it may be substituted with Date Updated: Pages.

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 4

MLA Format
IN-TEXT CITATIONS
What is it?

An in-text citation is different from the citations listed on the Works Cited page. In-text citations DO NOT appear on the
Work Cited Page at all. Instead, they can be found within in the actual paper.
In-text citations give credit to specific parts of the paper.

The Format

Every entry on the work cited page starts with something different. Many may begin with an authors last name, while others
may start with the title. That doesnt matter. Choose whatever comes first.

EXAMPLE:
Citation:

Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. New York: Penguins Inc., 1998. Print.

In-text citation:

(Rowling 12).

12 is the page
number in which
Rowling is the authors
the information
last name and came
we are citing
first on the citation.
came from.
So, in the paper, we want to explain Dumbledores reaction to Harry living through Voldemorts attack.
Here is an example of how to use in-text citations to cite a quotation:
While Voldemort proved the most powerful wizard alive, he was unable to kill Harry Potter.
When asked about his thoughts on how Harry survived, Dumbledore replied, We may never
know (Rowling 12).
It is also possible to paraphrase rather than use a quotation. Although you arent using the authors words EXACTLY,
you still need to give credit because it was their IDEA.
While Voldemort proved the most powerful wizard alive, he was unable to kill Harry Potter. Even
Dumbledore was unable to come up with a suitable reason for Harrys survival (Rowling 12).
Facts

Each source should have at least one in-text citation. If you arent using the source in your paper, whats the point of having it?
Because this is a RESEARCH paper (and you are learning the information), you should have at least 1 citation per paragraph.
If every sentence in the paragraph comes from the same source and page, you only need to write the in-text citation once at the
end of the paragraphit will be assumed that all above it came from the source too.
If an entire paragraph is from the same source, but comes from different pages, list the source and page number after sentence
one. For the rest of the paragraph, only put the page number in parenthesis.
If a paragraph is made up of more than one source, you must provide the different in-text citations after the parts containing the
sources information.
If there is no authorfor example, if Harry Potter had no known author, use what comes next in the citation. For example, the intext would look like this: (Harry Potter and 12).
o If the title/article is long, only use the 1st three words, followed by
o Never change formattingif it was italicized on your work cited page, keep it italicized in the in-text citation.

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 5

Frequently asked questions:

Books with more than 3 authors

o You may use one author as usual, followed by et al.
o Example: Kernis, Michael. et al. Title...

Webpage vs. Website

o There is a huge difference between a webSITE and a webPAGE. What is it?
webpageone individual page on a screen; if you click a link on the page, you will see a NEW page.
websitethe bigger site that contains all of the smaller pages.
o

Still confused? Think of Facebook. If you have one, you have an individual PAGE devoted to yourself. Your friends
may have their own pages as well. However, you all make up small, individual webpages available within the Facebook
SITE, making it the website.

No publisher or date
o If a webpage or website does NOT have a PUBLISHER use n.p. exactly as written.
o If a webpage or website does NOT have a PUBLISHING DATE use n.d. exactly as written.
o If a webpage or website does NOT have a PUBLISHING DATE AND PUBLISHER, insert n.p.,n.d. where both should
go. Be sure to italicize them, put periods after each letter, and use a comma in between them.

How do I make the 2nd (and all following lines) tabbed in without messing up line 1?
o In a Word document, highlight the entire citation (including line 1)
o Click paragraph.
o A box will then pop up. Under indentation, find the area marked special.
o Underneath special, click hanging.

I have no authorwhat do I do for my in-text citation?

o Look at your finished Work Cited page. Find the specific citation you need an in-text citation for.
o What is the first thing listed? More than likely, if you have no author, it is the Article Name or the Title of the Book.
o Whatever comes first will be your in-text citation; however, keep all formatting! If it is in quotes, keep them. If it is
italicized, it must stay that way!
o If your title is long, only use the first three words followed by Example: (Harry Potter and 5)

In-text citation for more than 1 author

o Use the first one listed

What if I write the paper, but dont use in-text citations/provide a Work Cited page?
o Your paper will not be accepted. This is a RESEARCH paper. In order to fulfill the requirements, you must provide
evidence of actual research. If you dont provide credit, the reader (me) has no way to trust that you did research instead
of made things up.
o If your information IS accurate and you didnt provide citations, you plagiarized, and therefore will receive a zero
regardless (along with the school established consequences for cheating).

What is plagiarizing? And can I really get caught?

o Plagiarizing is the act of taking ones words and taking them for your own. Most of the time, people plagiarize without
realizing they are doing so.
o Four words used in the same order without quotations constitute plagiarism.
o Searching sentences or phrases in Google with quotations leads to exact results. It is VERY simple to find exact websites
and lines.

Quotation/Punctuation examples
o She said, Insert quote here.
o Insert quote here, reported the newspaper.
o Insert interesting fact (Author 9).

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Page 6

o
o

Insert question here? (Author 9).

NOTES

--

Mrs. Fuller, MLA Formatting Guide

Questions

Page 7

--

To Do: