MLA format essay: general rules and requirements
The paper written in the MLA format can be used in the liberal art and humanities field. Mostly, the provided information in such essays is dedicated to researchers or writers in different reports. It is very important to protect writers from allegations of plagiarism when it comes to referencing.
There are some general rules to follow when you write the MLA format essay:
- Margin. It should be set to one (1) inch on all sides.
- Font Size and Type. The main text’s font for such format is 12-pt.
- Spacing. The entire paper should be double-spaced. Especially, the title and body paragraphs. By using punctuation, make sure you observed one space after periods.
- Text Indentation. Here, it is suggested that you make use of the Tab key for uniformity, instead of smashing the space bar few times.
- Order of Pages and Pagination. If you are not sure about pages order or pagination, make sure your instructor gives you guidelines.
- Endnotes. You should place the endnotes on a separate page preceding your Works Cited page. Endnotes can be placed under the “Notes” section.
Title Page
MLA format doesn’t require a title page, so you should include it to your work if the instructor asked you to. In this case, the title page will be counted as the Page 1. Here, you need to fill up the necessary names, course and the date.
Once you put the date, press double-space once more then type the Title of your MLA format essay. Try to avoid the formatting of the Title, such as italicizing or underlining. Make sure your Title consists of all capital letters or has quotation marks.
Section Headings
If you need to write a long paper in MLA format, you have to use section headings to improve the overall readability of your paper. Mostly, these headings look like the individual chapters of the book and name parts of the essay.
This is the example of how you can create the section headings:
1. Soil Conservation
1.2 Terracing
1.1 Erosion
2. Energy Conservation
2.2 Alternative Sources of Energy
2.1 Traditional Sources of Energy
3. Water Conservation
The following examples can help you more:
- Level 1 Heading: Bold, Flush left
- Level 2 Heading: Italicized, Flush left
- Level 3 Heading: Bold, Centered
- Level 4 Heading: Italicized, Centered
- Level 5 Heading: Underlined, Flush left
The main body of MLA format essay
After you have finished the two phases above, you can learn more about the body of your future paper.
There are some general guidelines for you to make a body of your research paper. You should try to avoid adding extra spaces between paragraphs. This is more appropriate for business writing. Just follow the tips to make it right.
Text Citations
Text citations is the important phase of any research paper. You should properly use citations in order to avoid some serious allegations of plagiarism. The last one is a huge issue, since many inexperienced writers ignore the general rules or do not respect their more successful colleagues.
Here, we suggest you a short list of guidelines in order to avoid being caught on plagiarizing:
- In the MLA format essay, include a page for Works Cited by referencing outside sources.
- Many students are confused, since they think that the Works Cited is the same as Bibliography, but it is not.
- Create a header for the Works Cited in your paper. The whole page should be double-spaced.
- The citation list has to be in an alphabetic order.
The essay in MLA format is not an easy assignment to complete. However, if you follow all mentioned steps properly, you can create a great paper.
