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MLA Style Details
Page Layout
Your page
layout matches the standard's specifications. This includes the physical
appearance of the your pages and paragraphs, including font usage,
spacing, margins, and correct ordering of your document's components.
Margins
MLA specifies
that margins should be at least 1" on all four sides of the page, with a
1½" left margin for bound documents,
including most theses and dissertations. All pages
in a document use the same margin.
Note that the running head at the top of
pages, and the page number (usually) at the top of pages fall outside of
the page margins, ½" in from the
top or bottom of the page, and ½"
from the right edge of the page.
Font Usage
All text in
an MLA-style document is double-spaced, and all text uses the same font.
The most popular fonts for MLA-style documents are 12-point, serif fonts
such as Times Roman or Book Antigua. Some institutions specify a
non-proportional (fixed-width) font such as Courier.
Headings and Paragraphs
MLA style
specifies the appearance of five levels of headings, several text
paragraph types, and reference entry paragraphs, as summarized in the
following table.
Paragraph Type |
Description |
Chapter Heading |
A
chapter heading, which starts on a new page. This style is
typically used only in multi-chapter documents such as theses
and dissertations. This is a center-justified, capitalized (all
caps) text, followed by an indented paragraph. |
Heading 2 |
The first subheading level within a chapter, used to start a
major new section within the chapter or document. This is
center-justified, headline-capitalized, bold text, followed by an
indented paragraph. |
Heading 3 |
The second subheading level, used to start new subsections
within major sections. This is center-justified,
headline-capitalized text, followed by an indented paragraph. |
Heading 4 |
The third subheading level, used to start another level of
hierarchy in a section. This is left-justified, italicized,
bold,
headline-capitalized line of text, followed by an indented
paragraph. |
Heading 5 |
The fourth subheading, . This
is left justified, sentence-capitalized text, followed by an
indented paragraph. |
Indented Paragraph |
Standard, indented, double-spaced paragraphs. The first line is indented ½" from the left margin of the page. |
Block Paragraph |
Non-indented text paragraphs, which means that the first line is
not indented. These are typically used to follow a block quote
that falls in the middle of a logical paragraph. |
Block Quote |
A
long quote (3 lines or more) that is indented 1" from the left margin as a block,
and is double-spaced. |
Reference Entry |
Bibliographic entries in the Works Cited section of a document.
These paragraphs use a hanging indent: the first line of the
paragraph is flush with the left margin of the page, and
subsequent lines are indented ½". |
Reference Entries and
Parenthetical Citations
Without a doubt, the most complicated and difficult to
use feature of MLA style is the formatting of reference entries. The
Sixth edition of the MLA Handbook uses over one hundred pages to describe
different reference entry formats. The
formatting of specific reference entries can be exceedingly complicated,
including where commas and periods go, what gets underlined or
italicized, and other details.
The vast majority of writers purchase software to help
format their MLA reference entries, rather than trying to work out all
of the details for each and every reference entry.
The following table shows several reference entry
examples. As you can see, you need to carefully format each unique
reference entry type, and most writers quickly conclude that paying a
little for software that takes care of these details is very worthwhile.
Reference Type |
Example |
Book |
Hillerson,
Gary. The Joy Of Drumming. 4th ed. Vol. 2. Atlanta: Oh
Press, 2002 |
Journal Article |
Lange, Mark.
"The Ethics Of Barter." Psychotherapy Quarterly 17.3 (Spring
2002): 2 |
Report from the GPO |
United States.
Senate. Report On Government Reports. By John Doe. Washington:
GPO, 1998. 12-16 |
Published Dissertation |
Lange, Mark.
My Scholarly Dissertation. Diss. New York U, 2001. Ann Arbor:
UMI, 2002 |
Movie |
The Life Of
Gary. Dir. Gary Hillerson. Prod. Stan Jones. Adapt. Mark
Lange. 1989. DVD. Educational Movies, Inc, 2002. |
Parenthetical Citations
MLA style
uses parenthetical citations in the body of the document to refer to
entries in the references section. The purpose of these citations is to
allow a reader to trace information that you present to a source in your
bibliography.
MLA citations include the author name, and if available,
the publication date. If your bibliography includes more than one author
with the same last name, then you should include the author's first
initials in any citations for that last name.
Most of the
MLA-style software products that format
reference entries also format and insert parenthetical citations into
your documents.
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