Paper Format How to make your paper legit according to the MLA (Modern Language Association)

What You Need to Have in your Paper:  Times New Roman, 12-point font  Heading  Page Number  Double Spaced Text  1-inch margins all the way around the page

Font and Sizing  MLA formatted text is Times New Roman font, size 12. → It should all look like this.  Changing the font is one of the easiest things to do.  The formatting toolbar has shortcuts to font and size. Just select the text and change what you need.  If you loose the toolbar, you can change the font and size and many other options in Format  Font

Heading  Should include your name, the teacher’s name, the name of the course, and the date (the date should be in the form shown). →Ex: Thomas King Professor Jones ME 152 May 1, 2008

Page Number  You should include your last name and the page number in the header (different from the heading), aligned to the right.  To do this, go to View  Header and Footer  Right align, type your last name, then click on the insert page number button. 

Double Spacing Making your paper double spaced is very easy. Simply highlight what you want double spaced, go to Format  Paragraph, then under the “line spacing” drop down menu, select “double”.  A little shortcut I like to use is just pressing Ctrl + 2 before I type anything— it does the same thing.

Margins  Margins should be 1 inch on top, bottom, left and right sides.  To change the margins, go to File  Page Setup, then you can change each margin individually. Set them all to 1” for proper MLA format.   Note: Double-clicking the rulers on the left side and top of the page will also take you directly to the Page Setup window.