MLA Template
Student A. Sample
Professor
Course 111
17 Month Year
Typing Template for MLA Papers This is an electronic template for papers written in MLA style. The purpose of the template is to help the student set the margins and spacing. Margins are set at 1 inch for top, bottom, left, and right. The type is left-justified only—that means the left margin is straight, but the right margin is ragged. Each paragraph is indented five spaces. It is best to use the tab key to indent. The line spacing is double throughout the paper, even on the works cited page. Only one space is used after punctuation. The font style used in this template is Times New Roman, a font preferred by MLA and most professors in the Humanities disciplines. The font size is 12. You can change the font style if you wish, but it must be an easy to read, professional-appearing font, though we prefer the Times New Roman font.
When you are ready to write, and after having read these instructions completely, you can delete these directions and start typing. The formatting should stay the same. However, one item that you will have to change is the page header, which is placed at the top of each page along with the page number. The words included in the page header should your last name, so that if the pages are intermixed with other papers they will be identifiable. When using Word 2003, double click on the words in the page header. This should enable you to edit the words. You should not have to edit the page numbers. If you change the font style of the main text of the paper, be sure to change the font style in the header also.
In addition to spacing, MLA style includes a special way of citing resource articles. See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Section 6, (237-260), for detailed information on in-text citations. The MLA Handbook also discusses the desired tone of writing, grammar, punctuation, formatting for numbers, and a variety of other important topics. Although the MLA style
Professor
Course 111
17 Month Year
Typing Template for MLA Papers This is an electronic template for papers written in MLA style. The purpose of the template is to help the student set the margins and spacing. Margins are set at 1 inch for top, bottom, left, and right. The type is left-justified only—that means the left margin is straight, but the right margin is ragged. Each paragraph is indented five spaces. It is best to use the tab key to indent. The line spacing is double throughout the paper, even on the works cited page. Only one space is used after punctuation. The font style used in this template is Times New Roman, a font preferred by MLA and most professors in the Humanities disciplines. The font size is 12. You can change the font style if you wish, but it must be an easy to read, professional-appearing font, though we prefer the Times New Roman font.
When you are ready to write, and after having read these instructions completely, you can delete these directions and start typing. The formatting should stay the same. However, one item that you will have to change is the page header, which is placed at the top of each page along with the page number. The words included in the page header should your last name, so that if the pages are intermixed with other papers they will be identifiable. When using Word 2003, double click on the words in the page header. This should enable you to edit the words. You should not have to edit the page numbers. If you change the font style of the main text of the paper, be sure to change the font style in the header also.
In addition to spacing, MLA style includes a special way of citing resource articles. See the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Section 6, (237-260), for detailed information on in-text citations. The MLA Handbook also discusses the desired tone of writing, grammar, punctuation, formatting for numbers, and a variety of other important topics. Although the MLA style
Cited: Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 2003. Last Name, Author’s First Name, and Second Author’s First Name and Last Name. “Title of Article.” Periodical, volume number (year of publication): inclusive pages. Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title of Work. Location: Publisher, Publication Date. Note: Detailed information on references can be found in the MLA Handbook, Section 5 (139-235).