MLA Formatting

Writing in MLA Formatting

We use the MLA format for writing papers at Madison Middle School. By following a few simple steps you will have your papers looking professional quickly. First start by setting up your paper. You will need to set your margins to one inch. Your margins are the white space around your paper. You have a margin on the top, bottom, left, and right of your paper. Next, you will set up your header. Your header will be at .5 inches from the top. It will be right justified with your last name, one space, and the page number. Be sure to insert a header with a page number. If you format it correctly, you will only have to do this once. When typing your paper you will use a special font and font size. Unless you are told

Your heading will be on the left side (left justified) of your paper. The top line will be your name. The second line will be your teacher’s name. The third line will be the name of your class. The fourth line will be the date. In MLA, we use the international format. It is typed with the day (in numeral format), month (written out), and then the year in numeral format. Your date should look like: 20 February 2015. Notice that there are no commas or periods in this format. Your paper should have a well thought out title. Do not underline, italicize, or bold your title. Remember the rules of capitalization for your title. The first word, last word, and any other words that give significant meaning should be capitalized. Your title should be centered on the page. Formatting your paragraph helps you reader understand your argument. When typing paragraphs in MLA format we indent the first line. Your tab button should be automatically set up to indent precisely 5 spaces. Do not use the space bar to indent. You will not put an extra space between paragraphs. Your whole paper will be double-spaced. You will identify your paragraphs by the indentation. Remember when typing to put one space between each word. You will also put one space after the period that ends a