MLA Style Essay
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010Writing MLA Style Essays made easy
When students are first asked to write an MLA Style essay, they start to bother about the style more than the essay topic and the content. Writing in any of academic style formats, MLA, APA, Harvard et al ensures careful documentation of research ideas and their accessibility throughout the essay. Any serious writing is expected to be consistent in its style, usage and documentation, and writing your academic essays in the styles approved by an academic organization makes them worth serious attention.
Once you become aware of the intricacies of these academic styles, you will realize their feasibility and ease. Let us guide you through quick essentials of MLA style essays. However, if you are not sure of writing your first academic assignment in the given academic format, just get in touch with us and we will make sure you get the best of what you deserve.
Presentation and Layout:
- Choose a standard, easily readable typeface, times roman or Arial, and type size, e.g. 12 point.
- Leave margins of one inch at the top and bottom and on both sides of the text.
- Do not justify the lines at the right margin.
- An essay should be double-spaced throughout, Leave one space after a period or any other punctuation mark.
- Turn off word processors automatic hyphenation feature.
- Use only white, 8 ½ -by-11 inch good quality paper for printing.
- There is no title page. Instead, type your name, your instructor’s name, the course number and the date on separate lines. Flush all entries with right margin. Write the title in the center. Do not use capitalization, bold or a larger font. Keep it with the text format.
- Number all pages consequently throughout the MLA Style essay in the upper right hand corner, one half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. Type your last name before the page number.
Using Quotations:
- Keep the quotations running less than four lines with the text. Use quotation marks. Add book information in parenthesis. E.g. Alexander Pope defined wit as “what oft was thought but never so well expressed” (Essay on Criticism 12). The details therefore in the parenthesis are: (Name of the book space page number).
- For quotations running more than four lines, or quotations that are to be emphasized, set them off the text. Indent set off quotation one inch from the left margin. The first word of the paragraph another half inch from the left margin. Do not use quotation marks. The rules of parenthesis remain the same.
Format of the list of works Cited:
- For references used in the MLA style essays, works are to be cited at the end of the essay. The format for citing a work is:
- Last name of the author, First name. Name of the book. Publisher: Place, year of publication.
