MLA Essay Format PDF

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Nancy Smith Dr. Kimberly Carter English 1010, MWF 12:00 September 5, 2019 How to Properly Arrange an Academic Essay in MLA Format Academic essays conform to the format specified by the Modern Language Association. There are other ways to format an essay, but English professors generally use MLA format in their classes and require it for their assignments. Each paragraph will explain a different part of this document. First, notice the header at the very top of the page in the right corner. This header should be located one half inch from the top of the page, and it will repeat on every page of the essay. I call it the secondary header. The next header is called the main header. It only appears on the first page of your essay, and it is always against the left margin. The first line is your name. On the next line, type my name. I am your professor, and the professor’s name goes on the second line. On the next line, give the course details. Normally, you would only give the name of the course, but I am teaching two writing courses, so more details are better, like the days and time of your class. On the last line, type the date. It doesn’t matter if you type the date the assignment is due or the date that you complete the assignment. The next line is where you type the title of your essay. Notice that the first word and all of the important words begin with a capital letter. The little prepositions and articles do not begin with a capital letter. The title is also centered on the page.

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On the next line, you begin the essay. Paragraphs always begin with an indented line. You should generally just click the tab button once. MLA format requires that the indention be one-half inch, which is about eight or nine spaces. Look at the general formatting of this paper. The margins are one inch all around except for the repeating header, which is at one-half inch. The entire paper is doublespaced. There is no triple-spacing or single-spacing. The vertical spacing should be completely uniform and set at double-spaced. This essay is left-justified, which means that all words on the left side of the page begin against an invisible barrier, but the words on the right side of the page are uneven. This is good. Do not fully justify your papers to make them even all around because this will result in unnecessary spaces between words and letters. Notice, too, that there is no boldfaced font. This essay is typed in Times New Roman, which I like. Use that or Arial or Calibri. Do not use any fancy fonts. A font does not make writing good. Wingdings will earn you an F, and Comic Sans will get your nothing but scorn and an eyeroll. I think that this covers everything. If you have any questions, just ask. If I left anything out, I will cover it in lecture as it comes up in class. I hope that this document helps you....