The MLA Style:

1. The MLA Style: Formatting According to the Modern Language Association Guidelines

2. Why do we need to format according to specific guidelines? • It’s like playing by the rules (academic rules). It allows all to be on the same page. • Citations work like a legend (key) for a map. They help your audience navigate the research you’ve done for your paper.

3. Why the MLA? • This is the accepted format for English and the humanities. • Other styles include the APA (American Psychological Association) and the Chicago.

4. MLA Basics • All text is double-spaced. (Set to double space at the start and don’t change.) • Use Times New Roman 12-point font. • Margins are 1” all around. • Upper left-hand corner should provide your name, your instructor’s name, the course, and the due date. • A header with your last name and page number is at the upper right, ½” from the top.

5. What do I do with the title? • Create an original title for your paper. • Center it on the line following the due date. • Leave the text of the title very plain. (No bold letters, italics, quotation marks, word art, underline, larger or different fonts.)

6. Look online for guidance! • Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide

7. What is a Works Cited page? • This is the last page of your research paper. • It should be titled as Works Cited. • It provides a bibliographic list of all of the sources you used and cited in your paper. • Look online or the manual for proper formats for different kinds of sources. • Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide

8. Additional Tips: • Titles should not be in all caps. It may be formatted that way on the web as part of the graphic design of the page, but when you create a bibliographic entry, you follow standard American English. You only capitalize the first letter of each word, except for unimportant words like “a,” “an,” “the,” short prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions (unless these words are the first words of the title). • You do not consider “A,” “An,” and “The” at the beginning of titles when you alphabetize your list. • Use three hyphens (ie: ---) in place of an author’s name if the author is repeated. • No url’s are necessary.

9. Abbreviate dates. (eg: 25 Sept. 2012 vs. 25 September 2012) • Use italics instead of underlining for titles of sites, books, albums, etc. (“big” and complete works). (Quotation marks are used for the “small” and parts of works.) • Use n.p. and n.d. for no publisher or no publishing date, respectively. • Find sponsors/publishers of sites by going to a site’s home page.

10. What is a Works Consulted page? • It is like a Works Cited page except the works listed on this page are not works you necessarily cited in the paper. • You have merely consulted them.

11. What are parenthetical citations? • If the Works Cited page is the map, the parenthetical citation is the key. • The parenthetical citation tells you which source to look at. • Typically, it consists of the author’s last name and the page number. • Example: (Orwell 21) • If no author is given, use an abbreviated title with key words instead of the author’s last name.

12. Look online for guidance: • Purdue OWL: MLA Formatting and Style Guide