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MLA Style Guide

A guide to help with the MLA Citation Style.

Formatting a Paper

  • Typed, double space, with 1" margins, 12 point font. 
  • Page Header (Running Head)
    • Last name Page Number on the top right
  • First Page
    • In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
    • Double space again and center the title. Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks. Write the title in Title Case (standard capitalization), not in all capital letters.

In-Text Citations

When using MLA format, follow the author-page number method of in-text citation. This means that the author's last name and the page number you are using for the source should appear in the text, like, for example, (Jones 201). One complete reference for each source should appear in the bibliography at the end of the paper.

Basic Reference Formats

  • Books
    • Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. City of Publication, Publisher, Publication Date.
  • Websites
    • Author. "Title." Title of container (self contained if book), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs and/or URL, DOI or permalink). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).
  • Journal Articles
    • Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Periodical, Day Month Year, pages.

Begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your research paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name, page number header as the rest of your paper. Label the page Works Cited (do not italicize the words Works Cited or put them in quotation marks) and center the words Works Cited at the top of the page. Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries. Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent.

All information found on this page is found on Purdue Owl's website. Please visit their site for more information. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html