MLA RESEARCH PAPER FORMATTING RULES

1. M. L. A. Documentation
How to Start a Dissertation in M. L. A Style

2. Introduction
 Writing in MLA Style is one of a few different
writing styles you can use to format academic
papers that require sources in an educational or
professional setting;
 Many rules of MLA Style repeat themselves as
you use them in your paper, meaning you do not
have to learn hundreds of rules;
 As long as you learn the basic MLA Style
guidelines, you can create a well formatted MLA
Style paper with great success;

3. What is MLA documentation?
 MLA (Modern Language Association)
documentation is a style of citing your sources;
 Documentation is important and necessary in
order to avoid plagiarism— using someone else's
ideas without giving them credit;

4. ‫ية‬‫مهنج‬‫ية‬‫مجلع‬‫ا‬‫ي‬‫يك‬‫ر‬‫م‬‫أ‬‫ل‬‫ا‬‫ة‬
‫للغات‬‫املعارصة‬‫يف‬‫تاب‬‫ك‬‫ة‬‫رسائل‬
‫بحوث‬‫ل‬‫ا‬‫ات‬‫ر‬‫ومذك‬‫تخرج‬‫ل‬‫ا‬

5. THE ORIGIN OF MLA STYLE
 The Modern Language Association of America oversees
MLA Style, publishing the first edition of its MLA Style
Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing in 1985;
 Headquartered in New York City, the MLA is an
American professional organization for scholars of
literature and language, including professors and
graduate students;
 The MLA began in 1883 at Purdue University,
essentially as a discussion group for literature and
modern language;
 Today, several regional associations make up the MLA;

6.  By following the MLA Style, students receive
advice on a variety of rules for creating and
formatting a formal MLA paper, including rules
for:
 The size of the font;
 The type of font;
 The margins of the paper;
 Citing references in the text;
 Citing references at the end of the paper;
 Presenting tables, figures, and illustrations;

7. What Pages Do I Need With My MLA Style Paper?
 Unlike some other formal styles for writing
scholarly papers, MLA Style does not specify a
large number of specific pages that you must
include in your paper;

8.  Title Page:
 MLA Style makes a title page obligatory for the writer;
 The title page may contain the title, author's name,
mailing address, e-mail address, and contact telephone
numbers;
 Some instructors will require you to include the name
of the faculty advisor, the date of submission, and the
members of the committee that will accept the work;
 With MLA Style, a separate title page is not numbered;
 The title of the paper should be centered;
 Do not underline, italicize, or bold the title, and do not
change the size of the font;

9.  Abstract :
 The abstract page, which is a short summary of the
purpose of the paper, is optional;
 Biography:
 The biography page, which provides a short
description of the author and his or her
accomplishments, is optional;
 Dedications & Acknowledgements:
 The dedication page, which allows the author to
dedicate the thesis to a person or multiple people
who helped with the paper;

10.  Table of Contents:
 If the paper is long enough to have sections, you
may include a table of contents page;
 List of Illustrations and Tables:
 This page, if applicable, lists all of the illustrations
and tables you used in the paper, sorted by the pages
on which they appear;
 Data Chapters:
 With the main text, simply select a readable font,
usually Times New Roman at 12 points;
 Double space throughout the main text, and indent
all paragraphs by one-half inch;

11.  Works Cited:
 The Works Cited page in MLA Style is a list of
all sources you referenced in the main text;
 The listing of all sources requires you to follow a
specific set of rules;
 Glossary:
 The glossary page, which is a list of all
confusing and unusual terms used in the text,
along with definitions, is optional;

12. How to Format a Paper in MLA Style
 When formatting your paper in MLA Style, you will
need to follow a series of rules that outline all
aspects of the creation of the paper;
 Most people think of MLA Style when trying to
determine how to cite sources used as references in
the paper;
 However, MLA Style includes rules for many
aspects of formatting the paper beyond citing
sources;

13.  Alignment:
 Align the text flush left;
 If your word processor, such as MS-Word, has a "full
justify" setting, which spreads the text and aligns it both
left and right, do not use it;
 Leave the text ragged on the right side;
 Binding:
 MLA Style calls for binding the pages with a simple paper
clip or spring clip;
 Do not use a staple or other permanent binding system,
unless your instructor requests it;
 Paper:
 Use only white, “8 ½” by “11” paper of good quality;
 Print on only one side of the paper;

14.  Font:
 MLA Style calls for a 12-point font size, along with an easily
readable font, such as Times New Roman;
 For consistency purposes, however, a student should use only
“Times New Roman” 12, “Courier New” 12, or “Calibri” 12;
 Headings:
 In MLA Style, headings and subheads that break up the text are
optional;
 Indentions:
 You will need to indent the first line of any paragraph by one half
inch from the left margin;
 Italics:
 You should use italics for titles of longer works;
 MLA Style also allows use of italics within the body of the text
for emphasis of a particular word or phrase;

15.  Margins:
 All four sides of the MLA paper- top, bottom,
right, and left- require a margin of 1 inch;
 The only items that should appear outside the
margins are the page numbers;
 Spacing:
 You will need to double-space all of the text
within the paper;
 All quotations, notes, and lists of works cited
should be double-spaced;

16.  Page Numbering:
 Place the page number in the upper right corner of every page;
 Use Arabic numerals for the page numbers;
 The page number should appear one-half inch from the top of the
paper and even with the right margin (1 inch from the edge of the
paper);
 Punctuation:
 Follow all standard punctuation marks with just one space,
including colons, commas, periods, and semicolons;
 Quotation Blocks:
 Whenever using a quotation that will be longer than four typed
lines, set the entire quotation block apart by indenting it from the
left margin 1 inch (or 10 spaces);
 Double-space within the quotation block;
 You do not need to use quotation marks with a quotation block;

17.  Works Cited Page:
 The Works Cited page is at the end of the paper;
 It should be a separate numbered page (or pages);
 Center the title, Works Cited, an inch from the top
of the page;
 It should be double spaced;
 Begin each entry at the left margin;
 If an entry runs more than one line, indent each
additional line one half inch from the left margin;
 Your sources should be listed in alphabetical order;

18. The MLA Line by Line
 The mechanics of style are matters of form;
 Such considerations as spelling, capitalization,
treatment of numbers and abbreviations, types of
headings, and systems of citation;
 Styling mechanics is a painstaking process that
leaves little room for paying attention to entire
sentences;

19. Loose, baggy sentences
 "Omit needless words " ;
 Bad prose proliferates because writers model
their style on what they read most, and their
daily fare—whether textbooks, reports,
memorandums, or newspapers—abounds in
circumlocution;
 Here, for example, is a bank president addressing
stockholders in a 1980 annual report:

20.  With the beginning of the new '80s, it is readily
ascertainable that there has been little if any
improvement in the overall national or general local
economy. It is expected by some economists that a
general upturn on the national level should come about
sometime during mid-1981. However, with the increase
in taxes starting in January, mainly an increase in social
security, this will reduce the amount of free funds
available for the stimulation of consumer spending.

21.  In 1980 we saw little if any improvement
in the economy, national or local, and although
some economists expect an upturn in mid-1981,
the tax increases scheduled to begin in January,
mainly for social security, will leave consumers
with less money to spend.

22. Weak Verbs
 Pay attention to the verbs you use, and
when you find a weak one, try
substituting something more vigorous;
 Ask what happens in the sentence;
 Exhume the action, make it a verb;
 Tighten and enliven the wording;

23.  More remote, less densely populated suburbs,
whose lower values were often a function of how far
they were from work centers, and small towns in rural
locations, whose lower values were a reflection of the
difficulty of earning a living, are likely to see
considerable appreciation of their property values in
the next two decades.
 Since many people will no longer have to
commute to work centers to earn a living, property
values in the more distant suburbs and rural areas
should appreciate considerably in the next two decades.

24.  Rural and exurban property values should
appreciate considerably in the next two decades
as it becomes easier for people to earn a living in
areas remote from work centers;

25.  The shelter will be owned by the town, but
it will be run by members of the humane society
and supported, in part, by funds raised by them.
The bulk of the operating funds, however, will
be supplied by the town.
 Although the town will own the shelter and
pay most of the operating expenses, members of
the humane society will run the facility and
provide additional support through fund raising.

26.  The English Department is unusually strong for a
college of this size. It consists of twelve faculty
members, whose fields of special interest cover the
range of English and American literature. The diversity
and educational background of this department is
suggested by the fact that important work published by
its members includes such subjects as Shakespeare,
Milton, lane Austen, Tennyson, Wordsworth, Pope,
Melville, and Southern "agrarian" writers, T. S. Eliot
and Katherine Anne Porter.

27.  The twelve faculty members who compose the
English Department make it an unusually strong one for
a college of this size. Their diverse special interests and
educational backgrounds cover the range of English and
American literature, and their publications include
important works on Shakespeare, Milton, Jane Austen,
Tennyson, Wordsworth, Pope, Melville, the Southern
"agrarian" writers, T. S. Eliot, and Katherine Anne
Porter.

28.  There is a hasty way of writing which is
counterpart to the hasty way of reading. It is
becoming more common every year and raises
less and less protest.
 A hasty way of writing, counterpart to the
hasty way of reading, grows more common
every year and raises less and less protest.

29.  To make the most of your investments, it is
essential that you understand what your goals are
and what your financial temperament is.
 To make the most of your investments, you
have to understand your goals and financial
temperament.

30. Ponderous Nouns
 Wordy writing not only droops from weak verbs
but sags under bulky nouns—especially long
Latinate ones with endings like tion and ment
and ence;
 The inference that because high school
graduates are more likely to be employed than
dropouts, the differences may be attributed to the
possession of a diploma is suspect since dropouts
and graduates may differ in a variety of ways
relevant to both graduation prospects and
employment status.

31.  It is not necessarily the diploma that
makes high school graduates more employable
than dropouts; other differences may affect both
their education and their job prospects.
 One of the effects of this purposeful
disengagement from expertise is that students are
disabused of the notion that engagement in
disciplinary material on a fairly elementary level
requires mastery of that discipline.

32.  By venturing outside their specialties,
teachers disabuse students of the notion that only
those who have mastered a discipline can deal
with its subject matter.
 When teachers venture outside their
specialties, students discover that one need not
have mastered a discipline to deal with its
subject matter.

33.  By venturing into another field, teachers
demonstrate that nonspecialists can deal with the
subject matter to some extent, thus disabusing
students of the notion that any engagement in the
discipline requires mastery.
 The stability and quality of our financial
performance will be developed through the
profitable execution of our existing business, as
well as the acquisition or development of new
businesses.

34.  We will improve our financial performance
not only by executing our existing business more
profitably but by acquiring or developing new
businesses.
 We will work toward a more stable and
profitable financial performance not only by
executing our existing business more efficiently
but by acquiring or developing new businesses.

35. Strings of Prepositional Phrases
 The more reasoned analysis made by the
Saint-Simonians of the nature of the new power
situation in France and of the reasons the present
government could not satisfy the needs of the
people was confirmed by these developments.
 These developments confirmed the Saint-
Simonians, more reasoned analysis of the new
power situation in France and of the present
government's inability to satisfy the people's
needs.

36.  At the meeting there will be a report to the
stockholders on the progress of the Company
during the past year. A discussion period will
also take place, during which the stockholders
will have an opportunity to discuss matters of
Company interest.
 At the meeting the president [or whoever]
will report to stockholders on the Company's
progress during the year and then invite
questions and comments.

37.  How greatly Goethe was under the spell
of the concept of the single ideal of beauty in his
classicistic period is illustrated by the fact that he
was pleased when readers could not distinguish
between his and Schiller's anonymous
publications.

38.  The concept of a single ideal of beauty so
captivated Goethe in his classicistic period that he was
pleased when. . . .
 If you wanted more emphasis on Goethe, you might
prefer to settle for the passive:
 In his classicistic period Goethe was so taken
with the concept of a single ideal of beauty that. . . .
 You might even think of a way to have your cake and
eat it too:
 In his classicistic period Goethe believed so
strongly in a single ideal of beauty that. . . .

39.  The financial statements and related data
presented elsewhere in this report have been
prepared in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles, which require the
measurement of financial position and operating
results in terms of historical dollars without
regard to changes in the relative purchasing
power of money over time.

40.  Following generally accepted accounting
principles, this report states the Company's
financial position, operating results, and related
data in historical dollars, disregarding changes in
purchasing power.

41. Capitalization & Punctuation
 The Titles should appear as follows:
Modernism and Negritude;
Reading Sites: Social Difference and
Reader Response;
Turner’s Early Sketchbooks;
 Strict rules for using capitalization:
 Capitalize only the first word, the last word, and all principal
words, including the ones that are hyphenated;
 Nouns: The Flowers of Europe;
 Pronouns: Save Our Children; The Mouse That Roaed;
 Verbs: America Watches T. V.; What Is Literature?
 Adjectives: The Ugly Duckling;
 Adverbs: Only Slightly Corrupt; Go Down Moses;

42.  Articles: Under the Bamboo Tree;
 Prepositions: The Merchant of Venise;
 Coordinating conjunctions: Romeo and Juliet;
 Italicized Titles:
The Awakening; New Jersey Driver Manual; Dr. Phil Beethoven’s Chavaliers de la
Mort
The Glass
Menagerie
PMLA What’s the
Word?
Mona Lisa
The Waste Land; Standford Encyclopeadia of
Philosophy
History;
Ray of Light
The Statute of Liberty
Wall Street
Journal;
Lexis Nexis Academic; The Nutcracker USS Missouri
Airbus; Boeing
Time Rambo III Rigoletto Challenger; Discovery

43.  Quotation Marks:
"Literary History and Sociology " "Sources of Energy in the Next
Decade"
"Etruscan"
"The Fiction of Langston Hughes" "The Lottery" "Kubla Khan"
"The American Economy before the
Civil War"
"Philosophy of Economics" "The Trouble with
Tribbels"
"They Don’t Care About Us"
"Frozen"
"Desert Rose"
"Preparing for a Successful
Interview"

44.  Scripture:
 The Holy Qu’ran;
 The Bible;
 The Talmud;
 The Torah;
 Laws, Acts, & Political documents:
 Magna Carta;
 Declaration of Indepedence;
 Buildings & Monuments:
 Sears Tower;
 Arch of Constantine;

45.  Using Quotations Accurately:
 Keep your quotations brief as possible through words, lines,
passages, short sentences, and phrases:
 Prose:
 No more than four lines, incorporate it into the text and enclose it in
quotation marks:
 "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Charles
Dickens of the eighteenth century.
 For Charles Dickens the eighteenth century was both "the best of
times ", and " the worst of times."
 Joseph Conrad writes of the company manager in Heart of Darkness,
"He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even
respect. "
 "He was obeyed," writes Joseph Conrad of the company manager in
Heart of Darkness, "yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even
respect " (87).

51. Ellipsis

62.  In N. Scott Momaday’s House made of Dawn,
when Mrs. St. John arrives at the rectory, she
tells Father Olguin, "We live in California, my
husband and I, Los Angeles. . . . This is beautiful
country [. . .]" (29).
Or
 In N. Scott Momaday’s House made of Dawn,
when Mrs. St. John arrives at the rectory, she
tells Father Olguin, "We live in California, my
husband and I, Los Angeles. . . . This is beautiful
country [. . .]" (29; 1st ellipsis in orig.).

63. Translations in Quotations

64. Fidel Castro said: "Vamos
a establecer un
representante real, y un
gobierno democrático."
(Castro).

65.  Fidel Castro said: "Vamos a
establecer un representante real,
y un gobierno democrático“
(Castro) “We will establish a
real, representative, and
democratic government” (My
translation).

67. M. L. A. Citations
 The Modern Language Association recommends
a system of citations:
 The source is introduced by a signal phrase that
names its author;
 The material being cited is followed by a page
number in parentheses;
 At the end of the paper, a list of works cited
gives complete publication information about the
source;

68.  AUTHOR NAMED IN A SIGNAL PHRASE:
Frederick Lane reports that employers
do not necessarily have to use software to
monitor how their employees use the
Web: employers can "use a hidden video
camera pointed at an employee's
monitor" and even position a camera "so
that a number of monitors [can] be
viewed at the same time" (147).

69.  AUTHOR NAMED IN PARENTHESES:
 If a signal phrase does not name the author, put the
author's last name in parentheses along with the
page number:
Companies can monitor employees'
every keystroke without legal
penalty, but they may have to combat
low morale as a result (Lane 129).

70.  TWO OR THREE AUTHORS:
 Name the authors in a signal phrase, as in the
following example, or include their last names
in the parenthetical reference:
Kizza and Ssanyu note that
"employee monitoring is a
dependable, capable, and very
affordable process of electronically
or otherwise recording all employee
activities at work" and elsewhere (2).

71.  FOUR OR MORE AUTHORS:
 Name all of the authors or include only the first
author's name followed by "et al." (Latin for "and
others");
The study was extended for two
years, and only after results were
reviewed by an independent panel did
the researchers publish their findings
(Blaine et al. 35).

72.  TWO OR MORE WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR:
 If your list of works cited includes two or more works by the
same author, mention the title of the work in the signal phrase
or include a short version of the title in the parentheses;
The American Management Association and
ePolicy Institute have tracked employers'
practices in monitoring employees' e-mail use.
The groups' 2003 survey found that one-third of
companies had a policy of keeping and
reviewing employees' e-mail messages ("2003
E-mail" 2); in 2005, more than 55% of
companies engaged in e-mail monitoring ("2005
Electronic" 1).

73.  AUTHORS WITH THE SAME LAST NAME:
 If your list of works cited includes works by two or
more authors with the same last name, include the
author's first name in the signal phrase or first
initial in the parentheses:
Estimates of the frequency with
which employers monitor employees'
use of the Internet each day vary
widely (A. Jones 15).

74.  INDIRECT SOURCE (SOURCE QUOTED IN
ANOTHER SOURCE):
 When a writer's or a speaker's quoted words appear
in a source written by someone else, begin the
parenthetical citation with the abbreviation "qtd.
in."
Researchers Botan and McCreadie point
out that "workers are objects of information
collection without participating in the process
of exchanging the information . . ." (qtd. in
Kizza and Ssanyu 14).

75.  AUTHOR UNKNOWN:
 Either use the complete title in a signal phrase or
use a short form of the title in parentheses. Titles of
books are italicized; titles of articles are put in
quotation marks:
A popular keystroke logging program
operates invisibly on workers‘
computers yet provides supervisors
with details of the workers' online
activities ("Automatically").

76.  CORPORATE AUTHOR:
 When the author is a corporation, an organization, or a
government agency, name the corporate author either in the
signal phrase or in the parentheses:
According to a 2001 survey of human
resources managers by the American
Management Association, more than three-
quarters of the responding companies reported
disciplining employees for "misuse or
personal use of office telecommunications
equipment" (2).

77.  MULTIVOLUME WORK:
 If your paper cites more than one volume of a
multivolume work, indicate in the parentheses the
volume you are referring to, followed by a colon
and the page number:
In his studies of gifted children,
Terman describes a pattern of accelerated
language acquisition (2: 279).

78.  TWO OR MORE WORKS:
 To cite more than one source in the parentheses,
give the citations in alphabetical order and separate
them with a semicolon:
The effects of sleep deprivation have been
well documented (Cahill 42; Leduc 114;
Vasquez 73).

79.  FICTION:
 In citing a passage from a prose, give the page
number and the part or chapter number:
Edna Pontellier, the heroine of
Chopin’s The Awakening, stands alone
in triumph at the novel’s end. In the
words of the narrator, ‘How strange and
awful it seemed to stand naked under the
sky!’ (301; ch. 39).

80.  POETRY:
 For poems, give the number of division first and
then the line number. Use a period between the two:
In ‘Song of Myself’ Whiteman
emerges larger than life itself, ‘a
kosmos, of Manhattan the son,/
Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating,
drinking, and breeding’ (24. 1-2).

81.  VERSE PLAYS:
 For verse plays, MLA recommends giving act, scene, and
line numbers that can be located in any edition of the work.
Use arabic numerals, and separate the numbers with
periods:
In Shakespeare's King Lear,
Gloucester, blinded for suspected
treason, learns a profound lesson from
his tragic experience: "A man may see
how this world goes / with no eyes"
(4.2.148-49).

82.  AN ELECTRONIC SOURCE (WITH OR WITHOUT PAGE
NUMBERS):
 Cite an electronic source much as you cite a print source. If you
know both the author’s name and the page number, present both;
Using Gallup poll results from the last twenty
years, Mark Gillespie points out "critics of capital
punishment contend it unfairly targets minorities
and the poor, and the American public tend to
agree" (2).
Advances in cloning research offer hope to
patients with chronic illnesses or terminal diseases
(Meagher, par. 9).

83.  SACRED TEXTS:
 When citing a sacred text such as the Qur'an, name the chapter and
verse, separated by colons;
Your Guardian-Lord is Allah, who created the heavens and the
earth In six days, and is firmly established on the Throne (of
authority): He draweth the night As a veil o'er the Day, Each seeking
the other In rapid succession: He created the sun, the moon, and the
stars, (all) governed by laws under His command. is it not His to
create and to govern? Blessed be Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer
of the worlds! Call on your Lord with humility and In private: for
Allah loveth not those who trespass beyond bounds. Do no mischief
on the earth, after it hath been set In order, but call on Him with fear
and longing (in your hearts): for the Mercy of Allah is (always) near
to those who do good (7: 54- 6).
The believers must (eventually) win through those who humble
themselves In their prayers (23: 1- 2).

84. Questions or Comments, . . . Please ?