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MLA Citation Guide: General Rules

MLA General Guidelines

- MLA papers should be double spaced.

- Papers should be printed in a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman).

- Leave only one space after periods or punctuation marks.

- Margins for MLA papers should be 1 inch on all sides.

- Indent the first line of each paragraph one-half inch from the left margin.  

- Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner. 

- Use italics throughout an MLA paper to indicate the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary, provide emphasis.

- If you have any endnotes, include them on separate page before your Works Cited page.  Entitled the section Notes, centered and unformatted.

- Instructors may make changes to the guidelines to the student's paper.  Always follow specific instructions created for assignment. 

MLA Works Cited

Entries created for research need to be put in a list called Works Cited.

Citations in your text need to be in the Works Cited list and items in the Works Cited list need to have corresponding citations in the text of your paper or project.

The Works Cited list needs to be put at the end of the paper after any endnotes.

If there are 2 or more citations the Works Cited list need to be created on a separate page from the main body of the paper. This page will be titled Works Cited and centered at the top.

All entries in the Works Cited list should have a hanging indention and be in alphabetical order by the term that comes first in each item.

 

Example of a MLA Work Cited page.

MLA Cover Page Example

Here are the rules students should use for formatting the first page of their paper. 

- Students should not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested by your instructor.

- On the first page in the upper left-hand corner the student should list their name, their instructor's name, the course, and the date students are handing in the paper.

- The title should be after the student's, professor's course and date information.  It should be centered before the beginning of the first paragraph.  

- Double space between each line of the title page.

- Students need to create a header in the upper-right hand corner that includes their last name followed by a page number.  Pages of the students paper should be numbered consecutively.  

- Instructors may make changes to the guidelines to the student's paper.  Always follow specific instructions created for assignment. 

Example of MLA cover page:

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