1. English III East View High School
MLA Format
English III
East View High School

2. What is MLA? MLA stands for Modern Language Association
Most common style for writing papers within the libral arts & humanities (i.e., English) with respect to:
Formatting & page layout
Stylistic technicalities (quotations, abbreviations)
Citing secondary sources
Creating the Works Cited page

3. MLA—Why do we need it?
MLA makes it easy for your reader to navigate your paper/essay because a universal format is used. MLA standards allows YOU to:
Give readers structure so they can follow your ideas and topics
Keep your reader’s attention by not distracting them with unfamiliar formatting
Maintain “neatness in your paper”
Organize secondary sources & prevent plagiarism
Present sources for follow-up

4. Sections General Rules & Formatting Paper
In-text Citations (will be coming)
Works Cited Page (will be coming)

5. Basic Guidelines Font: Times New Roman (preferred), Arial, Calibri
Font Size: 12 point (always)
Margins: 1” on all four sides
Title: center of paper
Spacing: Double space throughout body of paper
Page number: beginning on page 1, upper right hand corner followed by last name
Title of books: italicized always
Paragraph: press TAB button to indent first line of each paragraph by .5”
Title pages are forbidden

6. Formatting/Setting up first page
On the upper left hand corner of the page type:
Student’s name
Teacher’s name
Course name (Eng 8)
Date
*One space between each line
*Do not stray from this order. 5 points will be deducted off your grade!

7. Title of Document
After setting up the first four lines on the upper left hand side of your paper, press enter twice and press the center align button
Type the title of your paper
No bold
No underline
No larger fonts
Press enter twice and tab once to begin typing first paragraph

8. Your first page 1” Name, Teacher, Class & Date Page # & last name
title
Indent 1st line 1” 1” 1”
Last sentence is thesis

9. Using Microsoft Word to format paper in MLA
Originally I wanted to show you a youtube video of how to actually format your paper, but WPS does not permit youtube, and I couldn’t find anything anywhere else….. So I will show you instead!