First page
Following pages
Works-Cited page |
When revising your essay, make sure your paper
follows MLA style format. This page contains some general guidelines for the physical
arrangement of your pages.
For answers to specific questions, either follow
the links on the preceding
page, refer to the MLA Handbook, 4th ed., or check with your instructor.
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The opening page to your essay
should use the format shown below:
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Only the first page should include the whole heading and title. All margins--top,
bottom, and sides--should be set to one inch (1") throughout the whole paper. Don't
add extra spaces between the heading and the title, nor should there be extra spaces
between the title and the body of the paragraph.
Use a reasonably-sized font: either 10 characters per inch or a 12 point font. And
choose a font that is easy to read rather one that is decorative: "Arial,"
"Lucida," "Modern," "Palermo" or "Times New Roman"
are some good choices. Scripted fonts are hard to read even if they do make your paper
"look nice"; it is the content of the paper that is most important, and making
it easy for your readers to understand that content is always a good choice.
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Pages that follow the opening page
to your essay should use the format shown below:
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Instead of the full heading, pages that follow the opening page should use a header in
the upper right corner: your last name and the page number.
Do not add extra spaces between paragraphs--that is a business format. Instead, make
sure to continue indenting paragraphs one-half inch (the usual tab default setting).
Make sure that you properly document your source with parenthetical references so there
can be no questions about plagiarism. Guidelines for parenthetical referencing can be
found on at this
linked page.
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Finally, if you have referenced
outside sources, you must include a works-cited page to show your readers where you found
your information; use the format shown below:
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The works-cited page at the end of your essay gives your readers the list of sources
you actually referenced within your paper, allowing your readers to easily find those
sources themselves. The works-cited page is NOT
a bibliography, listing all of the texts you may have researched in preparing the paper.
Note that this page should have a header as well. And again, the page should be double
spaced, including the citations.
The citation entries should be listed in alphabetical order by the authors' last names.
If there are multiple authors, the proper format is as follows:
Enos, Richard Leo, and John M. Ackerman. |
If there are two or three authors, give
their names in the same order as on the title page; it is only necessary to reverse the
names of the first author, but make sure a comma separates each author and place a period
after the last author's name. |
Or, if there are more than three authors:
Belenky, Mary Field, et al. |
If there are more than three authors, you
have a choice of format. You can choose to follow the format for multiple authors given
above (which could result in a great deal of typing), or you can add "et al,"
meaning "and others" after the initial author's name. Just make sure to include
the comma between the author's name and "et al" and to place a period after. |
Clarity should always be your guide; help your readers whenever possible.
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top last updated:
08/20/98 |
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