MLA Modern Language Association

A few simple things MLA papers use a 12 font and are double spaced. They use Times New Roman and have 1 inch margins around the paper. They have a heading that is as follows: Name Teacher Class Date The title is centered, still in 12 font and is not in quotation marks, italicized or underlined as this would mean it has been published.

Using Quotes from texts When using a direct quote from texts you must put them in quotation marks and they CANNOT be left free standing in the paper. They must be introduced. For example, According to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “To be or not to be; that is the question” demonstrates Hamlet’s internal struggle with himself. Therefore, he is suffering from the universal theme of man vs. self.

Cont. Notice that the quote is introduced meaning it cannot start a sentence or a paragraph. Direct quotes are in quotation marks and are not changed even if there are spelling or grammar errors. If you do not introduce the author in the source than you will use (Shakespeare Hamlet v:ii). You must cite after direct quoting.

Paraphrasing Paraphrasing is taking an author’s words, ideas, or notions and putting them into your own words. You do not use quotation marks but you must make it your own. Paraphrasing can become a difficult because people will put the quote too closely to the original. All paraphrasing must be cited.

What we cite Anything and everything that is not your own words. You must cite an author’s ideas, words, notions etc. You cannot claim them as your own. Common Knowledge. For research writing there is a limited amount of common knowledge allowed. Remember that just because you know it does not mean that everyone else does. You have to support it with facts.

In text citation In text citations are citations that are in the paper. They must match the work cited page. You will never cite in text with a web address. For example ( This does not work because google is a large entity and no one would even know where to look.

Work cited Alphabetical order Basic Book format Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Random House, Author’s last name. First name. Book title(italicized). City of Publication: Publishing house, year of publication. The second line and thereafter is indented. MLA is a format that must be followed correctly. It is not up for creative interpretation.

Web sources Jones, John. “Obamacare- a scare.” USAtoday June Web. Things that are italicized: Book, journal, magazine titles, movie titles and television shows.