MLA stands for Modern Language Association.  Its purpose is for there to be a consistent style of formatting research essays and articles in the fields of languages, arts, and humanities in academia.  

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The research paper formatted in MLA style consists of a proper MLA heading on page one, a centered title, an essay with multiple paragraphs, and a separate works cited page (started at the top of the final page of the paper).

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The MLA heading is left-aligned and double spaced and consists of the writer's name, the professor's name, the course title, and the date the assignment is submitted.  The date is formatted day month year with no commas:  10 February 2021.

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The title of the paper should not use special formatting such as underlining or quotation marks and should be centered after the MLA heading.  All important words plus the first word should be capitalized in the heading.  Ex: 

 

Great Danes:  The Gentle Giants of the Dog World

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or

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An Analysis of Man Versus Nature in Jack London's "To Build a Fire"

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*It is okay to use quotation marks or italics for a work of literature within the writer's title. 

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The document is set up on a page with one inch margins, left aligned paragraphs, double spaced throughout (including works cited page) with the author's last name and page number at the top right corner of each page including the works cited page..

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The introduction should include a strong thesis statement (like a topic sentence for the entire paper) at the end of paragraph 1 that states the author's stance or the paper's focused topic and purpose.

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Most body paragraphs should include evidence (either quoted or paraphrased) with parenthetical citations after said evidence.  Parenthetical citations usually consist of the author's last name and page number like this (Brown 27) but may consist of the title if the author is not known like this ("Fruitbats and the Ecosystem").

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Sources on the Works Cited page should be alphabetized by the first letter of the author's last names or the first letter of the title if there is no author.  Sources are double spaced with no extra spacing between each source.  Sources should be formatted with a hanging indention (sort of backwards from the regular way a paragraph is indented; see below).

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Sources should include the author, title (in quotes or italics, depending on the source), publication information, a link if the source is electronic, and the date the source was accessed.  

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