MLA formatting and documentation

Using an accepted format for your work shows respect for your work and your instructor. It says, "This was important to me and I want my work to be taken seriously". Teachers at LCHS require the Modern Language Association (MLA) formatting for student work.

MLA formatting involves two aspects of your work: the presentation (format) and documentation (works cited).

Format

Presentation:

• 1 inch margins all around (left, right, top, bottom)
• pagination in the header
• Even double-spacing throughout
• Proper title heading on the first page only

Your first page should look like this . . .

Documentation

Documentation refers to your works cited page and your in-text citations (or parenthetical references). I recommend that you build your works cited page first because what you use as an in-text citation is derived from your works cited page.

Many students use easybib.com to generate a works cited entry and there's nothing wrong with that. If you have a tool, use it! If you're working in Google docs, use the easybib add-on - it works like magic!

• In docs, under the Add-on menu, click on Get add-ons. . .
• Find the Easy Bib add-on. It's orange and often comes up first in the list. If not search for it.
• Click the blue +FREE button.
• When you're ready to create a works cited, click on the EasyBib Bibliography creator to start using it.

Another useful tool is the Purdue OWL from Purdue University. This is a teacher's go-to tool for proper MLA documentation. It shows you how to document any kind of source you can think of, even podcasts and blogs.

Your in-text citation follows a basic rule: the first word or words of the source as it's listed on the works cited page and the page number where you found the information (if applicable). Often this is the author's last name. But if the source has no author listed, use the first three meaningful words of the source (often the article or webpage title) in quotes. Again the OWL at Purdue can show how to format an in-text citation of any source.