MLA document formats

In the humanities the most influential writing and documentation style is that of the Modern Language Association of America （MLA）, one of the largest academic organizations in the world. MLA documentation style is common in English, foreign languages, comparative literature, and other humanities courses.

　　Nuts and Bolts presents here a concise guide to MLA style. The full MLA format is available in a book, The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed., which can be ordered directly from the MLA （http://www.mla.org/cgi-shl/hazel.exe?client=64517211&action=detail&template=bookinfo.html&item=S177; $14.75 shipping）. It is aimed primarily at undergraduates. Graduate students and professional scholars may wish to consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, 2nd ed., which contains helpful information on publication. It can also be ordered from the MLA.

　　Paper and binding

　　Use sturdy white, unlined 8.5" by 11" paper. Essays should be stapled or paper-clipped in the upper left corner. Don't use binders or plastic covers unless your teacher wants them, nor should you hold your paper together by folding or tearing pages.

　　Margins, line spacing, and paragraphs

　　Except for page numbers （see below）, use margins of one inch on all sides. The essay or report should be double-spaced throughout （including quotations, notes, and the list of works cited）, with no blank lines between paragraphs. The first line of each new paragraph is indented a half-inch on the left （or five spaces if you use a typewriter）. Set-off quotations are indented one inch on the left.

　　Printing and fonts

　　Type or print; don't turn in handwritten formal work. Print on only one side of the page, in black ink. Use a plain serif or sans-serif font—no cursive fonts, for instance. Good serif choices are Times Roman and Palatino; good non-serif choices are Arial and Helvetica.

　　Traditional MLA style prefers underlining to italics, but this is gradually changing as high-quality printers become the norm. Use italics for emphasis if your teacher allows.

　　Page numbers

　　Starting with the first page, put page numbers a half-inch from the top edge of the paper, flush with the right margin. Type your last name before the page number （Harvey 1）, in case the page comes loose. Word processors automate this process, so make sure you know how to use the pagination command.

　　Spaces between sentences

　　In the old days of typewriters and nonproportional fonts （in which every letter, from i to w, takes up the same space）, the rule was to put two spaces between sentences to improve readability. But if you print from a computer, you should put just one space between sentences.

　　Heading

　　At the top of the first page of the essay （below the top margin, of course, and flush with the left margin）, place your name, your professor's name, the course name or number （including section number if the course has multiple sections）, and the date you're turning in the paper, each on a separate line with double-spacing throughout.

　　Title

　　Research papers don't need title pages. Instead, place a centered title on the first page of the essay, separated from the heading by a blank line. If the title extends to a second line, double space between the lines and again to the first line of the essay （with no blank line）. Don't italicize or underline the title （though if you use a book title in your paper's title, you should italicize or underline it）.

　　Make sure your essay has a meaningful title that is more than a bare-bones identifier （not Essay #1 or Essay on Management）. It should signal to the reader what your essay is about （like Deming's Total Quality Management Perspective or Jefferson on Slavery）. A common academic device to create a bit of elegance is to use a title and subtitle, separating them with a colon. Typically the titles are balanced so that one is broad and the other more focused, or one uses a key term and the other starts to delimit and explain it:

　　Mysteries of State: An Absolute Concept and its Late Medieval Origins

　　Often you'll see a pithy quoted fragment before the colon:

　　"Hell Strives With Grace": Reflections on the Theme of Providence in Marlowe

　　Here's an example of the first page of a paper, MLA-style:

　　Late corrections

　　Sometimes you will discover mistakes in what you thought was a final draft, when you no longer have time to print out a corrected version. In such cases, you should hand-correct the printed version （that's one reason to double-space essays）. It's usually okay to turn in an essay with one or two such corrections. How to do it: Cross out the mistake with a single horizontal line. Mark the insertion point with a caret （^）. Neatly write in the correction above the printed line. Don't write below the line or in the margin. If you need to make a more substantial correction, make a clean printout.