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MLA Formatting

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Just a Quick Overview!

Title Page, Heading, and Header

Title page: not required in MLA Format

Heading:

Place in upper left corner
Information required: writer’s name, professor's name, course name/number, date.
Double-space between items in header; double-space between header and centered title of your paper.

Header: writer’s last name plus page number on every page (including the first page, which also has the heading, and Works Cited pages), in upper right corner

In-text Parenthetical Citations

Author’s last name and page number appear in parentheses, if the author's name has not been included in the text introducing the quotation. If the author’s name is incorporated in the text, place only the page number in parentheses.

Note: No punctuation is inserted between name and page number.
Note: No abbreviation (p.) or word (page) is included to identify the number as a page number.

When you include a short quotation in the text of the paper:

  • Introduce the quotation with a comma, if it is a whole sentence embedded within your sentence.
  • Close the quotation with quotation marks.
  • Place the parenthetical citation directly after the quotation marks.
  • End the sentence with a period.

Indented Quotations

If a quotation is longer than four lines in your text, it should be indented.

  • Indent quoted material ten spaces, or one inch, from the left margin.
  • Double-space the quotation.
  • Do not use quotation marks around an indented quotation.
  • The parenthetical citation comes after the final period in the quotation and has no period after it.
  • In general, introduce the quotation with a colon.

Footnotes and Endnotes

·         In MLA format, use footnotes or endnotes only to give the reader additional information or sources related to the paper but not directly included in the paper. The footnote appears at the bottom of the page on which the reference occurs. Most word-processing programs format the footnote automatically, but the rule is that the footnote appears four lines below the bottom of the text, is single-spaced, and follows paragraph indentation (first line indented). If two or more footnotes appear on the same page, doublespace between them.

·         For endnotes, start a new page after the text of your paper ends, with the title of Notes, before your Works Cited page. Double-space throughout your Notes page; that is, double-space each note and double-space between notes. Be sure to list any sources mentioned in notes in your Works Cited.

Bibliography

·         The bibliography is called Works Cited. It is double-spaced throughout; that is, double-space each entry and double-space between entries. It follows the "hanging indent" style; that is, the first line of each entry is at the margin, with successive lines of the entry indented. The sources are listed alphabetically by author’s last name.

 

This information was taken from the BCWC Manual. You can find it as well as examples at http://www.bridgewater.edu/WritingCenter/manual/MLAformat.htm
 
Also, A Writer's Reference By Diana Hacker is a great reference. =]

"We learn from failure, not from success!"
-Dracula, Bram Stoker