Writing Center

• Home
• Writing Tips
• OWL
• Workshops
• FAQ
• Staff

• Home
• Writing Tips
  • Downloads
  • Links
• Online Writing Lab
• Workshops
  • Classes
  • Schedule
• FAQ
  • Students
  • Instructors
• Staff
  • Administration
  • Assistants
  • Consultants
  • Satellites
• Classroom Presentation

• Search site:
  

• Contact Us
  • Patrice Hollrah, Ph.D
  • Jacquie Elkouz
  • writingcenter@unlv.edu
  • Office: 702-895-3908

What is the MLA format?

MLA stands for the Modern Language Association, and the MLA format is the common format used in English and in some of the Humanities courses. For a complete guide to the MLA documentation style, please consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students may also consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition).
For more information on the MLA format, please go to the following links:

• UNLV Lied Library: http://www.library.unlv.edu/help/style.html
• The OWL at Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
• Diana Hacker’s Documenting Sources, based on the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd ed.): http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/pdf/Hacker-MLAupdates.pdf

Why do we need to format papers?

When writing academic papers or scholarly articles, it is essential to follow the guidelines required by your department or by the journal to which you are submitting. These guidelines not only apply to the mechanics of writing (punctuation, use of italics, names and numbers, quotations), but to the general format or appearance of the paper, and to the documentation of sources, both in the text and in the list of Works Cited.

The MLA Format of the Research Paper

• Margins: one inch (1") on all sides (top, bottom, left, right)

• Indents:
• one-half inch (1/2”) from the left margin for the first word of a paragraph
• one inch (1”) from the left margin for set-off quotations

• Text Formatting:

• the text is left-aligned (not justified at the right margin);
• the text is double-spaced throughout, including quotations and the Works Cited page;
• Times New Roman is a good choice for typeface, and 12 points for size

• The First Page: The MLA format does not require a cover page for a research paper but it requires that the first page look like this:

• one inch (1”) from the top and flush left, your name, the instructor’s name, the course number and the date
• one-half inch (1/2”) from the top and flush right, your last name and the page number. In Windows 2007, click “Insert” in the main toolbar. In the “Header & Footer box, click “Page Number.” Select “Top of Page” and “Plain Number 3.” In the open header, type in your last name, followed by a space. Click the red “X” to close the header.
• Click here for an example first page.

The Documentation of Sources

Why must we cite our sources?

Whenever we use the work of previous writers and researchers, we must acknowledge our debt to them and provide our readers with the possibility of easily locating our sources for their own purposes. Above all, we must always avoid plagiarism, which is “to use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one’s own” (The American Heritage College Dictionary [4th ed.; 2004; print]). For more on plagiarism, please go to http://writingcenter.unlv.edu/writing/plagiarism.html

• Citing Sources in the Text (Parenthetical Documentation):

1. The MLA format requires the author’s last name and a page number in the parenthetical reference.

1. The following example comes from page 214 of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th ed.),

Medieval Europe was a place both of “raids, pillages, slavery, and extortion” and of “traveling merchants, monetary exchange, towns if not cities, and active markets in grain” (Townsend 10).
“(Townsend 10)” provides your readers with enough information to find the source in the Works Cited list at the end of your paper:

Townsend, Robert M. The Medieval Village Economy. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1993. Print.
  

• Citing Sources in the Works Cited List:

1. Click here for a sample Works Cited page with examples from Chapter 5 of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed.  Entries have been chosen to represent a variety of works:
1. a scholarly edition,
2. two or more books by the same author,
3. a legal source,
4. a work on the Web cited with print publication data,
5. two works cited only on the Web,
6. an article in a newspaper,
7. a television program, and a work in an anthology.

1. The entire text is double-spaced
2. The list is in alphabetical order
3. Use a hanging indent for entries longer than one line. To create a hanging indent in Word 2007, select your text, right-click then click on “Paragraph.” In “Indents & Spacing,” select “Hanging” in the “Special” drop-down menu, and then click on “OK.”

 
Conclusion

This brief overview of the MLA formatting has covered some of the basic requirements you will need to follow in your research papers. You will find more information at http://writingcenter.unlv.edu/writing/downloads.html. Remember, the best source is always the book itself, the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). You will find it at the Lied Library, and the Writing Center has copies available to students coming for consultations.