According to the MLA Style Center website, writers should avoid using headings in shorter papers. If you are writing a longer research paper, you may want to include headings and subheadings to help organize the sections of your paper. Advice from the MLA Style Center: Show "Levels The paper or chapter title is the first level of heading, and it must be the most prominent. Headings should be styled in descending order of prominence. After the first level, the other headings are subheadings—that is, they are subordinate. Font styling and size are used to signal prominence. In general, a boldface, larger font indicates prominence; a smaller font, italics, and lack of bold can be used to signal subordination. For readability, don’t go overboard: avoid using all capital letters for headings (in some cases, small capitals may be acceptable): Heading Level 1 Heading Level 2 Heading Level 3 Note that word-processing software often has built-in heading styles. Consistency Consistency in the styling of headings and subheadings is key to signaling to readers the structure of a research project. That is, each level 1 heading should appear in the same style and size, as should each level 2 heading, and so on. Generally, avoid numbers and letters to designate heads unless you are working in a discipline where doing so is conventional. Note that a heading labeled “1” requires a subsequent heading labeled “2,” and a heading labeled “a” requires a subsequent heading labeled “b.” Position In a project that is not professionally designed and published, headings should be flush with the left margin, to avoid confusion with block quotations. (The exception is the paper or chapter title, which is centered in MLA style.) Spacing For readability, it is helpful to include a line space above and below a heading, as shown in this post. Balance No internal heading level should have only one instance. For example, if you have one level 1 heading, you need to have a second level 1 heading. (The exceptions are the paper or chapter title and the headings for notes and the list of works cited.) You should also generally have text under each heading. Capitalization Capitalize headings like the titles of works, as explained in section 1.2 of the MLA Handbook. Length The shorter, the better." Work Cited Modern Language Association. "How Do I Style Headings and Subheadings in a Research Paper?" MLA Style Center., 13 December 2018, style.mla.org/styling-headings-and-subheadings. MLA (Modern Language Association) style is one that many college students need to learn for writing papers. Since the guidebook for this formatting style is about 400 pages long, we’ve compiled a few quick tips to get you started. 0.1) If you’ve been asked to submit a paper in MLA style, your instructor is asking you to format the page and present the content in a specific way. Just as football referees dress a certain way, and Japanese chefs cook a certain way, writers in certain disciplines follow a certain set of conventions. This document will show you how to format an essay in MLA style. 0.2) If, instead of questions about putting the final formatting touches on your essay, you have questions about what to write, see instead my handouts on writing a short research paper, coming up with a good thesis statement, and using quotations in the body of your paper. 0.3) On this page:
For the most complete information, check your campus library or writing center for the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 8th ed. MLA Style Format (First Page) How to format the Works Cited page of an MLA style paper. See Also
1. Document SettingsYour word processor comes with default settings (margin, line height, paragraph spacing, and typeface) that will likely need adjustment. For MLA style, you need:
[wp_ad_camp_4]1.1 Adjusting Document Settings in MS-Word (Windows)My copy of Microsoft Word for Windows defaults to
Changing to MLA Style (Windows)
1.2 Adjusting Document Settings in MS-Word (Mac)My copy of Microsoft Word for Mac defaults to
Changing to MLA style (Mac)
2. Page HeaderIn the top right of every page, use your word processor’s “Page Header” function add an automatic page number and your surname. 2.1 Adding the Page Header in MS-Word (Windows)
2.2 Adding the Page Header in MS-Word (Mac)
3. Title BlockIn the upper left corner, type your name, your instructor’s name, the course number and section, and today’s date. Centered on the next line, type an informative title that actually informs the reader of your main point (not just “English Paper” or “A Comparison between Hamlet and Macbeth”).
4. CitationsThis handout presumes you already know why you should cite your sources (to establish your authority, to introduce persuasive evidence, to avoid plagiarism, etc.), These instructions focus on how you format the page. (For a resource to help you determine how to cite a specific source, see the MLA Bibliography Builder). To fully cite a source requires two stages. The first happens in the body of your paper (the “in-text citation”) and the second happens on a separate page at the end of your paper (see “Works Cited List,” below.) 4.1 Citing a Block Quote (more than three lines)
4.2 Citing an Inline Quotation When the passage you want to quote is less than three lines long, use inline style. Here we have two brief passages, taken from the same page of the same source, so we can handle both with a single parenthetical citation.
4.3 Citing a Paraphrase Let’s imagine we want to reference Wordsworth-Fuller’s general idea about citation as a way to establish credibility, but we don’t need to include any of the technical details. We can save space, and make it much easier on our reader, if we paraphrase:
5. Works Cited ListA research paper isn’t a research paper unless you end with full bibliographical details on every source you cited. This part can be tedious and tricky; leave yourself plenty of time to do it. How to format the “Works Cited” list of an MLA style paper.
5.1. How to Create an Individual Works Cited EntryExactly what goes into each item in your bibliography depends on what kind of item it is. The general format is as follows: Author. Title of Source. Container, contributors, version, volume and issue, publisher, date, location. Exactly how that basic format gets turned into a Works Cited entry depends on the source. Here’s the basic format for any book:
Basic Format for Any Academic Article Author. “Title of Article in Quotation Marks.” Title of Journal in Italics, volume #, issue #, YEAR, pp. [pages of article]. Italicized Name of Database. Let’s break that example down. The author Margaret Kantz wrote the article “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively.” That article doesn’t exist on its own floating in space; it was published by a journal called College English, in the 52nd year of publication, in the first issue of its 52nd volume, in the year 1990, the article started on page 74 and ran through page 91. The student found this article while searching the database Academic Search Elite. Every academic article has a specific title, and is published in a journal with a different title. (Online citation generators often get this wrong, and will often repeat the same title twice.) What is this “volume 52, number 1”? If College English were a TV series, then “volume” would be which season, and “number” would be the episode number. The title of the article would be the equivalent of a scene within that episode. The title of the database, Academic Search Elite, is like the title of the streaming service you’d need to sign into. It’s not the name of a database; it’s a tool researchers use to access databases, but different schools can access different databases through different EBSCOhost subscription plans If you tell me that I can find your favorite TV show “on a MacBook,” that’s too vague.Just because I own a MacBook doesn’t automatically grant me access to all the streaming services you access on your MacBook. In a similar way, telling me you found a source on “EBSCOhost” is too vague. “Academic Search Elite” or “SPORTDiscus with Full Text” are titles of specific databases.This is like telling me your favorite TV show is on Netflix or Disney+. It tells me the specific name of the database I need to access in order to find the article you found.Basic Format for Any Web PageIn the above example, reporter Camila Domonoske filed a news story called “Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds,” that aired on a news program called The Two-Way, which is published by National Public Radio, and the story aired Nov 23, 2016. In MLS Style, the full URL is optional. Really long URLs with long strings of numbers in them are often generated for specific users, so someone else who visits that same URL will often get an error message. You might shorten the URL to “npr.org,” because it would be a simple matter to use a search engine to find the actual story. Other Citation ExamplesWhat if your source doesn’t fit any of my examples? You might be trying to cite something that doesn’t fit the above pattern, like a social media post, a video game, a work of art, an email from a relative, a billboard, or something else. It’s just not practical for me to try to include an example of every single thing it’s possible to cite. The MLA citation format is designed to be flexible, so that it works for forms of media that haven’t been invented yet. See Purdue OWL’s handouts for how to create a bibliography entry for a book, an article in a periodical (such as a journal or newspaper), or an electronic source (such as an email, web page or a YouTube clip). See also this list of other common sources (such as a personal interview or a movie). What is a MLA format look like?The basic characteristics of an MLA document include double-spaced lines throughout the essay with paragraphs indented half an inch, size 12 Times New Roman font, and a double-spaced Works Cited page with a hanging indent.
How do I get MLA format on word?To use an MLA format template, do the following:. Open a new blank Microsoft Word document.. Click File from the ribbon.. Type MLA format and click the MLA Style Paper template in the Search field.. A generic MLA formatted essay paper will appear, and you can type in the data you need for your article.. |