Formatting and Citing Guide for MLA Essays

Spring 2017
What is MLA?

Stands for Modern Language Association

Provides format and documentation style for humanities
studies
Allows clear citation of sources
Latest publication
MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition
Formatting

Double-spaced
1 margins
12 pt font (Times New Roman)
Last name and Page number upper right-hand
corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with
the right margin
Heading 1 from top of first page flush with left
margin
Title - centered
 Smith 1

Judy Smith
Sample First Page
Entire document
Professor Moore double-spaced
English 1301 Name & Page # in
upper right corner
16 November 2009
on each page
Technology Today from top
In todays society, technology has become an Heading includes:
important part
Student name
of our everyday lives. It is an essential component in all Professor
we do. Cell
Course name
phones in particular have moved from the status of a Date
luxury to a
Title of paper
necessity for communication with work and family. Not
only can centered

we use cell phones to talk with friends and family, they Indent paragraphs
also allow
Using Sources

Must represent outside sources fairly

Outside information must be cited
Direct quote
Paraphrase
Summary

Reference in text and on Works Cited

page
References must match
Reader must be able to follow
All Borrowed Material Must Be Cited

Direct quotations from a source

Summaries of the sources information
Reduces the original text to 1/3 of original length
Expressed entirely in your own words and sentence
structure
Paraphrases of the sources information
Used for short passages
Leaves out none of the original material
Expressed entirely in your own words and sentence
structure
Using Direct Quotations

Use direct quotes when:

When language is especially vivid or expressive
When exact wording is needed for technical
accuracy
When it is important to let the debaters of an
issue explain their position in their own words
When the words of an expert lend weight to an
argument
When the language of a source is the topic of
your discussion
 Smith 8
Referencing
Borrowed
Medieval Europe was a place both of raids,
Material In-text
pillages, slavery, and extortion and of
traveling After borrowed
material, identify
merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not source (Authors
cities, last name page
number)
and active markets in grain (Townsend 10).
You must identify
source whether
quoted directly or
Between 1968 and 1988, television coverage paraphrased.
of This should
coincide with a
presidential elections changed dramatically listing on your
(Hallin Works Cited page.
5).
Works Cited Page

Located at end of paper new page

Still double spaced
Name & Page number in upper right-hand corner
Works Cited centered 1 from top of paper
List of all sources used in paper
Alphabetical order
 Smith 15
Sample Works
Works Cited Cited Page
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong
Cinema.
Name & Page number
Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000.

Project Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021. Works Cited

centered
Franke, Damon. Modernist Heresies: British Literary
History,
1883-1924. Ohio State UP, 2008.
Alphabetical listing of
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855. all
The Walt sources used in
paper
Whitman Archive. Edited by Ed Folsom and
Kenneth

M. Price. www.whitmanarchive.org.
 Relationship: In-text Citation and Smith 15
Works Cited Works Cited
Smith 7
Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong
Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition
Cinema.
between two worlds: the world of the
everyday . . . And the world of romance.
Postmodern Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May
Although the two lovers are part of the world
2000. Project
of romance, their language of love
nevertheless becomes fully responsive to
Muse, doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
the tang of actuality (Zender 138, 141).
Whitman, Walt. Leaves of Grass. Brooklyn, 1855.
OR
The Walt

Whitman Archive. Edited by Ed Folsom and

Romeo and Juliet presents an opposition
Kenneth M.
between two worlds: the world of the
everyday, associated with the adults in the
Price, www.whitmanarchive.org.
play, and the world of romance, associated
with the two lovers (Zender 138). Romeo and
Zender, Karl F. Loving Shakespeares Lovers:
Juliets language of love nevertheless
Character
becomes fully responsive to the tang of
actuality (141).
Growth in Romeo and Juliet. Approaches to
Teaching

Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Edited by

Maurice
 How Do I
Cite My
Sources on
My Works
Cited Page?

Practice template: https://

style.mla.org/files/2016/04/
practice-template.pdf

Visual: https://style.mla.org/teaching-resources/
 .
1 Author

.
2 Title of source

CONTAINER 1
,
3 Title of container

,
4 Other contributors

5 Version,

Template for
,
6 Number

,
7 Publisher

,
8 Publication date Citations
.
9 Location

CONTAINER 2
,
3 Title of container

,
4 Other contributors

5 Version,

,
6 Number

,
7 Publisher

,
8 Publication date

.
9 Location
Visual: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/
 Containers Citation template

Visual: https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-
guide/
Citation:
Copeland, Edward. Money. The Cambridge Companion to
Jane Austen, edited by Copland and Juliet McMaster,
Cambridge UP, 1997, pp.131-48.
Sample Works Cited Entries

Journal:
Baron, Naomi S. Redefining Reading: The Impact of Digital
communication Media. PMLA, vol. 128, no. 1, Jan. 2013, pp. 193-
200.

Online:
Deresiewicz, William. The Death of the Artist and the Birth of the
Creative Entrepreneur. The Atlantic, 28 Dec. 2014,
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/the-death-of-the-artist
-and-the-birth-of-the-creative-entrepreneur/383497/.
Accessed 9 Feb 2017.
Sample Works Cited Entries

Article with DOI:

Chan, Evans. Postmodernism and Hong Kong Cinema. Postmodern
Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, May 2000. Project Muse,
doi:10.1353/pmc.2000.0021.
Any
Questions?
Works Cited

MLA Handbook. Eighth Edition. The Modern Language

Association of America, 2016.