1. Elements of MLA Format and Documentation
Presentation by Katie Bierach ‘09
California Lutheran University Writing Center
Updated by Amelia Wayne ’11 April 5, 2010

2. Format Black ink on white paper 12 point, Times New Roman font
“In the academic community, submitting a paper with incorrect formatting is like running around without your pants on.”
-Dr. Marja Mogk
Black ink on white paper
12 point, Times New Roman font
Double space it all (heading, title, notes, quotes and works cited)
One inch margins on all sides
Indent the first word of each paragraph one-half inch
No extra spaces between paragraphs
No title page necessary
Place last name and page number in the top, right corner, ½ inch from the top of the page, against the right side margin.
In Word, click View  Header Footer, tab twice

3. Example of First Page Format

4. Quick Tips Be brief, clear, and accurate.
Remember: your job is to argue a point.
Use your MLA handbook! Use it for all questions of formatting, citation, or style. It is not a scary book.
Italicize titles of books, magazines, films, albums, and websites.
Enclose in quotations titles of chapters, articles, scenes, songs, and particular website pages.

5. Using Quotes
If you quote or paraphrase someone, you need to cite the source.
If the source is questionable, your paper loses credibility.
Quotation marks mean you give the words and punctuation marks exactly as presented in the original.
Use ellipsis to indicate omissions from the quoted passage. Use spaces between each period . . .
Use single quotation marks for quotations within the passage you are quoting.
Semicolons, colons, exclamation points and question marks go outside closing quotation marks unless part of the quoted material.

6. Using Quotes
A quote running one to four lines should be incorporated into the text.
If the quote is longer than four lines on your page, start it on a new line, indent the whole block one inch and do not use quotation marks.
For poetry: up to three lines can be incorporated into the text. Use a slash with a space on each side ( / ) to indicate line breaks.

7. Parenthetical Documentation
As Joseph Gibaldi states in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, at the end of the sentence containing a quotation or paraphrase, “identify the location of the borrowed information as specifically as possible” (239).
Notice that because the author’s name is in the text, it is not needed in the reference for that sentence.
“References in the text must clearly point to specific sources in the list of works cited” (Gibaldi 238).
Notice that the reference is after the closing quotation mark and followed by the punctuation mark.
If citing multiple works by the same author, put a comma after the last name, add the title of the work and the relevant page number.
If the quotation, whether of poetry or prose, is set off from the text Type a space after the concluding punctuation mark of the quotation and insert the parenthetical reference. (241)

8. Formatting Your List of Works Cited
A list of every source that was cited in the paper (listed only once).
Type “Works Cited” at the top of the page.
Goes at the very end of the paper (after the conclusion).
Each source in the Works Cited is listed in Alphabetical Order by the authors’ last names.
If a source has no documented author, it goes behind all the others with authors.
If there are more than one of this type, they are organized in Alphabetical Order by their titles.
Use hanging indentation: only the first line of each source touches the left margin; all others are indented one half inch (one tab space).

9. Citing Periodicals
Here is the order to arrange your information when citing periodicals:
Author’s name
Title of article
Name of periodical
Series number or name (if relevant)
Volume number (for a scholarly journal)
Issue number (if needed)
Date of publication
Page numbers
Bierach, Katie. “A Fascinating Article.” Scholarly Journal (2007):
“3.2” indicates volume 3, issue 2.
Citing a Newspaper Article:
Chang, Kenneth. “The Melting (Freezing) of Antarctica.” New York Times 2 Apr. 2002, late ed.: F1+.
(Gibaldi 186)
Punctuate correctly!
(Gibaldi 184)

10. Citing a Published Book or Textbook
The order to arrange information when citing a book:
Author’s name
Title of a part of the book
Title of the book
Name of the editor, translator, or compiler
Edition used
Number(s) of volume(s) used
Name of the series
Place of publication, name of the publisher, and date of publication
Page numbers
The Basic Book Entry:
Bierach, Katie. The Novel I’ll Write. Penguin: New York, 2011.
And for textbooks:
Crane, Stephen: The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil War Ed. Fredson Bowers. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1975.

11. Recent Changes in MLA Style
The most visible changes found in MLA 7 include:   • No more underlining -- publication titles and the name of the online product accessed are now italicized   • No more URLs -- MLA no longer requires URLs, but Gale is adding a document URL below the citation to easily lead readers back to the original source   • Continuous pagination -- this is no longer an issue for scholarly journal citations; both volume and issue numbers are required, regardless of pagination   • Publication medium -- since all documents are accessed from an online Gale resource, the citation will always include the medium “Web.” In addition, MLA has eliminated the requirement to include the name of the service (“Gale”) and the name of the subscribing institution   • New abbreviations -- when certain metadata is missing, such as publisher or page numbers, there are suggested abbreviations to display denoting that fact