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MLA Style (9th ed.)

A guide to writing and citing in MLA format.

Document Set Up

Font

  • Times New Roman
  • 12 point

Line Spacing

  • Double-spaced: including title, headings, citations, and all text lines of the paper (i.e. everything!)

Margins

  • 1-inch margins all the way around (this is probably the default of your program)

Alignment

  • Do not justify the right margin (make the right margin even); for text use flush left
  • Do not divide words at the end of a line (do not use hyphenation)

First Page

Start off with a four-line heading in the upper left corner (but not inside the top margin) of your first page, including: your name, your professor's name, your course, and the assignment due date.

Doe 1

Jane Doe

Prof. Smith

ENGL 1301.6001

13 Oct. 2021

Title of Your Paper

Don't label any of these elements! Just list the info itself. It will be double-spaced

Inside the margin/header, in the upper right corner, you'll include your last name and page number.

 

Last Page: Works Cited

  • The Works Cited should be its own page and not be combined with the final page(s) of your paper.
  • Center the title (Works Cited) on the top line.
    • If you only used one source, the title should reflect that as Work Cited rather than Works Cited. No other formatting should be done.
  • References should be listed in alphabetical order by whatever the first name or word is.
    • A work without an author will be alphabetized by the first word of the article title.
  • All references will be double-spaced, just like everything else. They will also use a hanging indent.

Doe 5

Works Cited

Avirgan, Jody. "Not All Privacy Policies Are Created Equal." FiveThirtyEight, 12 Feb. 2016, fivethirtyeight.com/features/not-all-privacy-policies-are-created-equal.

Jackson, Michael, and Paul Lieber. “Countering Disinformation: Are We Our Own Worst Enemy?” The Cyber Defense Review, vol. 5, no. 2, 2020, pp. 45–56. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26923521.

The other pages of this guide will help you create the citations themselves. If you need additional help, please get in touch with a librarian!