MLA Formatting tips

I am a writer in my spare time, but during the day like most of you, I have another career.  185 days out of the year, I teach high school students about the wonders of science and the world.  Over the past decade or so, I have had to spend more and more time going over the basics of writing and formatting a research paper as this is something that seems to get overlooked in their Grammar courses and a skill they will need in college.  So for my blog post today, I decided to share with you what I share with my students. I call this: "the Basics of MLA Formatting."

Enjoy!

Drakov

MLA Formatting Tips

Your paper should be double spaced, Times New Roman font and size 12 font.

Do NOT use second or first person in the body of your paper.  This is only allowed in the conclusion where you are giving your opinion and possibly in your introduction.

The beginning of each paragraph is indented 5 spaces (Tab)

Papers should have an Introduction, a Body, and a Conclusion.

Name, date, teacher and class info goes on the cover page only.  NOT on page 1 of your actual paper.  Page one should have a title and the number “one” as a header.  Each following page should have “last name and page number” as the header, including your Works Cited.

Citations must be used for any information that is borrowed, copied or paraphrased that you DID NOT KNOW prior to research.  This includes: specific dates, amounts, times and other relevant facts.  When in doubt, cite your source. 

Any sources listed in your Works cited MUST BE cited at least once in your paper.

Citations are typically author and page or paragraph number, or title and page or paragraph number.  See Owl Purdue for help. (MLA)

“Works Cited” page is single spaced, reverse indented for wraparound citations.  Alphabetical order by sources with authors first, then titles if no publisher or author is available (N.p.)  Do not use bullets, numbers or letters to organize it.  WEB pages must be denoted as “Web” and include an access date.  Ex:  16 November 2017

Try Easywhois.com for web pages to find authors or publishers.                        

If you are directly quoting (word for word) 3 or more sentences it must be single-spaced and indented 10 spaces within your paper.

Proof read your work run a spelling and grammar check on Word.  Wait a few days and check your work again.