MLA Format Papers: Step-by-step Tips for Formatting Research Essays in MLA Style

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:

1. Document Settings
   (1 inch margins; double spaced; 12-point)
2. Page Header
   (name and page number, upper right of every page)
3. Title Block
   (assignment info and an informative title)
4. Citations
   (no comma between the author and page number; commas and periods go outside of inline quotes)
5. Works Cited List
   (lots of tricky details! sort alphabetically by author, not by the order the quotes appear in your paper)

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 Settings

Your word processor comes with default settings (margin, line height, paragraph spacing, and typeface) that will likely need adjustment. For MLA style, you need:

• 1-inch margins all around
• 2.0 line height (double-space the whole paper, including title block and Works Cited list)
• no extra spacing after the title, between paragraphs, or between bibliography items
• 12-point typeface (usually Times New Roman)

1.1 Adjusting Document Settings in MS-Word (Windows)

My copy of Microsoft Word for Windows defaults to

1. 1-inch margins all around
2. 1.15 line height
3. 10pt spacing between paragraphs
4. Calibri 11-point typeface.

Changing to MLA Style (Windows)

1. The default margins in my test run were fine, but if you need to change them:
   Page Layout -> Margins -> Normal (1-inch all around)
2. The default line height is too low. Change it to 2.0.
   Home -> Line Spacing -> 2.0.
   (You could try fudging it to 1.9 or 2.1 to meet a page count, but any more than that and your instructor may notice.)
3. The MS-Word default adds extra space after paragraphs.(MLA Style instead requires you to signal paragraph breaks by indenting the first line.)
   CTRL-A (select all your text)
   Home -> Line Spacing -> Remove Space After Paragraph
4. Change the typeface to Times New Roman 12-point.
   Home-> Font Face Selector (change to Times New Roman)
   Home -> Font Size Selector (change to 12)

1.2 Adjusting Document Settings in MS-Word (Mac)

My copy of Microsoft Word for Mac defaults to

1. 1.25 inch left and right margins, 1 inch top and bottom
2. 1.0 line height
3. no extra spacing after paragraphs
4. Cambria 12-point typeface

Changing to MLA style (Mac)

1. In my test run, the left and right margins are too big. To change them:
   Layout -> Margins -> Normal (1-inch all around)
2. The default line height is too low. Change it to 2.0.
   Home -> Line Spacing -> 2.0
3. My Mac copy of MS-Word does not add extra spaces after paragraphs. If yours does:
   Home -> Line Spacing -> Line Spacing Options… (a new window will pop up)
   Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style (check this box) -> OK
4. The 12-point Cambria will probably be fine, but to change the typeface:
   Home-> Font Face Selector (change to Times New Roman)
   Home -> Font Size Selector (change to 12)

2. Page Header

In 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)

1. Insert -> Page Number -> Top of Page -> (choose the right-justified “Plain Number” option)
2. The cursor will jump automatically to the right place for you to type your surname.
3. Click anywhere in the body of the paper to exit the header area.

2.2 Adding the Page Header in MS-Word (Mac)

1. Insert (in the top menu) -> Page Numbers… -> (Set “Position” to “Top of Page (header)” and “Alignment” to “Right”)
2. Click just to the left of the new page number, and type your surname.
3. On my test document, my name was too far over to the left; grab the triangular tab adjuster just above your name, and drag it a notch to the right.

3. Title Block

In 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”).

• Like all the other text in an MLA style paper, the title block is double-spaced.
• The title is in the same font as the rest of the paper — it is not boldface, or enlarged.
• There is no extra space above or below the title.
• A truly informative title will include the general topic, and your precise opinion on that topic. (So, if you pan to compare Hamlet and Macbeth, your title should state the unique point you want to make about Hamlet and Macbeth. Reuse part of your thesis statement.)

4. Citations

This handout presumes you already know why you should cite your sources (to establish your authority, to introduce persuasive evidence, to avoid plagiarism, etc.).

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)

• Long quotes can start to look like filler. Only use a block quote if you have a very good reason to include the whole passage. (You can usually make your point with a shorter quote.)
• If you do have a good reason to quote a passage that is several lines long:
  • Select the text and click the “Increase Indent” icon (see image, right).
  • Place the parenthetical citation (the author’s name and the page number) after the period. (This is different from inline quotes, below.)
  • There is no comma between the author’s name and the page number.
  • If the quotation runs across more than one page: (Wordsworth-Fuller 20-21) or (Wordsworth-Fuller 420-21).
• Skip wordy introductions such as, “In his informative guide The Amazing Writing Book, published by Elizabeth Mount College in 2010, the noted composition expert Maxwell Wordsworth-Fuller describes the importance of citations in MLA style papers.” Cutting the filler leaves more room to develop your own original ideas. (See “Integrating Quotations.”)

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.

• The parenthetical citation appears outside the quoted material.
• The period that ends the sentence comes after the close parenthesis. (This is different from block quotes, above.)
• In this example, we have changed the first word a little, lowercasing it in order to fit it into our own sentence. To let the reader know what we changed, we put [] around it.
• Again, note the absence of a full sentence that explains who Wordsworth-Fuller is and where the quote comes from. All that info will be in the Works Cited list, so we leave it out of the body of the paper.

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:

• Use paraphrasing for variety, or to make a passing reference without taking up much space.
• If we use an author’s idea, rephrased in our own words, we must still cite the idea.

Tips for avoiding common errors in MLA citations.

5. Works Cited List

A 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.

• Start a new page.
  • MS-Word Wind: Insert -> Page Break -> New Page.
  • MS-Word Mac: Document Elements -> Break -> Page.

  5.1. How to Create an Individual Works Cited Entry

  Exactly 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:

  

  1. Note that the author’s last name goes first.
     • If the book had two authors, only reverse the names of the first author.
       • Gibaldi, Joseph, and George Spelvin.
     • If the book has three, authors:
       • • Gibaldi, Joseph, Alan Smithee, and George Spelvin.
     • More than three authors?
       • GIbaldi, Joseph et al.
       • The italicized phrase “et al.” is an abbreviation for the Latin “et alia,” meaning “and others.”
       • The “al.” is short for a longer word, so we mark the abbreviation with a period.
       • The “et” is not an abbreviation, so it doesn’t get a period.
  2. Place periods after the author’s name, after the title of the book, and at the end of the entry.
  3. The title of the book is italicized.
  4. The publisher is the name of the organization responsible for publishing the book. In this example it’s the Modern Language Association. It might instead be Project Gutenberg, the US Department of Agriculture, or the World Health Organization,

  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.
  If you were talking about your favorite TV show and you told me it was on Netflix, or Disney+, I could find it. But if you told me “It’s on my MacBook” or “It’s on my Samsung phone,” that wouldn’t help me to find it.

  Just because I own a MacBook doesn’t automatically grant me access to all the streaming services you access on your MacBook.

  “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 Page

  

  In 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 Examples

  What 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).

  5.2. How to Organize Your Works Cited list

  Sort the entries alphabetically by the author‘s last name.

  • If the author is an organization (such as a government agency or non-profit foundation), alphabetize according to the name of the organization.
  • If you are citing a painting, or a composer, then obviously “author” has to be interpreted a little loosely.
  • Unless your instructor ask you to organize your Works Cited list differently, everything should be alphabetized together, in a single list. MLA does not require that you separate works of different kinds, or that you cite works in the order that they appeared in your paper, or that you write annotations to go along with each item.
  • Use double-spaced line height. (in my copy of Word, I select the text and choose Format -> Paragraph -> Line spacing -> Double -> OK.)
  • Use hanging indent paragraph format. (In my copy of word, I select the text then choose Format -> Paragraph -> Indentation -> Special -> Hanging Indent.)

  29 May 2011 — new document posted, replacing outdated handout written in 1999.
  06 Jun 2011 — expanded section on organizing the Works Cited list, since several readers asked for clarification.
  07 Jun 2011 — reorganized for emphasis
  19 Apr 2012 — added numbers to more subheads
  24 Mar 2014 — added details on Works Cited paragraph formatting.
  02 Oct 2016 — updated with MLA 8th Edition details.
  30 Nov 2016 — added annotated Works Cited sample image.
  07 Sep 2020 — updated section 5.1

  Related Writing Links

  • Researched Papers: Using Quotations Effectively
    If your college instructor wants you to cite every fact or opinion you find in an outside source, how do you make room for your own opinion? Paraphrase, quote selectively, and avoid summary. –Dennis G. Jerz
  • MLA Works Cited Citation Builder (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog)
    Choose a form, fill it out, and push the button… you will get an individual entry for a “Works Cited” page, which you may then copy and paste into your word processor. My “BibBuilder” is more like a guide than a full-fledged utility, but you may nevertheless find it helpful.
  • EasyBib’s MLA Guide
    Find everything you need to know about formatting a paper, name, number, quotations, works cited, and more in MLA format!

  572 thoughts on “ MLA Format Papers: Step-by-step Tips for Formatting Research Essays in MLA Style ”

  Shruti903 says:

  I really appreciate this page. It was clear and easy to follow, and it greatly assisted me in writing my research paper. Thank you!

  kundan says:

  This guide to formatting MLA style papers is incredibly detailed and helpful! It’s great to have step-by-step instructions for setting up everything from margins to citations correctly. Thanks for sharing—this will definitely make writing research papers in MLA format much easier!