Introduction
Your instructor may have a preferred format for your essay among the many options available. Here, we explain how to format your paper in line with the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook. Although the instructions are for MS Word, you can easily adapt them to work with any word processor.
Essay in MLA Format
Essays are printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper, which also happens to be a Word document’s default size.
A title page is not necessary for MLA research papers. The first page of the document contains all the pertinent details. The heading for your first page should be as follows:
Now that you have a general idea of how to begin your best essay writer, let’s look more closely at the specifics of appropriate formatting.
Publication information
Always share your publication details in the following order:
- you, please
- Name of the instructor
- Name of the course
- The time you finished the task
Make sure you don’t put this information in the header section (where it will be repeated on every page) because it should only appear on the first page.
Additionally, avoid adding labels like “Date” or “Course,” and make sure you typed your instructor’s name accurately.
The MLA Handbook advises creating a unique title page for collective work. Place the publication details once more in the upper left, but list the names of all the groups under one another this time (before adding the instructor, course, and date). Then shift the essay title to the page’s center. Begin your essay on the following page.
Header
Your last name and the page number are in the header section.
Press Insert > Page Number > Top of Page > Plain Number 3 to add the page number.
When you do this, the cursor is put in front of the page number so you can type your last name right away. Keep a space between each sentence.
Double click on the page’s top right corner to open the header area. Double click anywhere below the header area to exit it.
The header should now be the same on every page.
Margins
Every Word document’s default margin has been one inch since 2007. Thankfully, the MLA format has the same prerequisite. Go to Layout > Margins > Normal to adjust the margins if necessary.
Font
Use a widely used, readable font. Times New Roman in size 12 is a common selection.
Title
Avoid the urge to highlight, add color, use a bold font, or italicize your title to make it appear more sophisticated. Simply center the headline and capitalize the important words.
Alignment
Make sure your essay’s text is positioned to the left. Find the following buttons in Word:
Although you may feel that justified text looks superior, your instructor is probably going to disagree.
Spacing
Your essay’s text should be double-spaced throughout. To rapidly make this modification, first highlight all text with Ctrl + A, then select Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing (symbol) > 2.0. Don’t forget to select “Remove Space After Paragraph.”
Indents
Use the tab key to indent your first paragraph as is normal. Indents rather than additional spacing between paragraphs should be used to indicate subsequent paragraph breaks.
By selecting the sentence(s) before and after the paragraph break and selecting Home > Line and Paragraph space (symbol) >, unnecessary space can be removed. After the paragraph, remove the space.
Page of Works Cited
A separate page should be used for your Works Cited list. Before the Works Cited page, it’s a good idea to place a page break. Put your cursor at the end of your conclusion and choose Insert > Page Break to accomplish this.
Titles (Optional)
Headings can help break up and arrange the material of longer paragraphs. If you decide to use headings in your paper, make sure to style them consistently. Here are three heading levels as an illustration:
- 1st Level Heading
- Heading at Level 2
- 3rd level heading
The level 2 and level 3 headings are hence subheadings. To separate the heading levels, you can modify the font size, utilize bold type, italics, or other typographic elements.
Conclusion
See chapter 1 of the MLA Handbook or the MLA Style Centre for more details.
The MLA format is straightforward and uncluttered. Don’t make a special effort to include it unless your instructor specifically requests it (such as the word count).