MLA
Modern Language Association Style Guide for North High School
Basic: formatting your paper
MARGINS: one inch on top, bottom, and both sides
HEADER: include your last name and page number on each page, flush with right margin
SPACING: Double space, including Works Cited
INDENT: Indent first word of each paragraph one tab or 5 spaces. Indent long quotations two tabs or 10 spaces.
FONT: 12-point plain font
HEADING: Include Full Name, Teacher's Name, Class Name, and Date, flush with left margin
TITLE: No title page, Center Title below Heading. No extra spacing before your text begins
INTERMEDIATE: WORKS CITED
Maintain MLA paper format (margins, spacing, header)
Center title: Works Cited
Do not indent the first line of each citation but do indent the 2nd line and all that follow
Alphabetize each entry (do not group them in any way, such as, by format, works without an author, etc.)
Capitalize all words in a title of a work except for articles (the, a), prepositions (to) or conjunctions (unless the first word)
Include the URLs of websites
Do your best to include all of the information each type of citation requires but frequently information is missing; skip it and move on
Examples:
Edgar Allan Poe "is the author of perhaps the most well remembered poem ever written" (Haugen 12).
One of the reasons English is a global language is that it is relatively neutral in terms of gender, class, and rank (Martinez).
College students who have to take out student loans to complete a bachelors degree graduate with an average of $29,400 in debt ("Making College Affordable").
Goodwin states that there is no evidence that Lincoln suffered from depression (51).
ADVANCED: IN-TEXT CITATIONS
Anytime you use somebody's original idea or exact words, you must include a parenthetical citation.
Create your Works Cited page first
Put citations in parenthesis at the end of the sentence you are quoting or paraphrasing before the period
Ideally, you will list the author's last name and page number: (McMann 25)
Often your sources do not have authors or page numbers. Use the first word you included in your Works Cited page citation: (Robertson) or ("Medieval Women")
Your goal is to give your reader enough information to find your source on your Works Cited page. If you mention the author in your paper, then only include the page number in your citation