McGregor 1 How to Format Modern Language Association (MLA) Style Papers The tutorial is designed for Microsoft Word 2013, but the process should be similar for other versions. Complete this tutorial for all papers in this class. 1. Open Microsoft Word prior to typing the content. 2. Double-space the paper by clicking the Home tab. Place your cursor over the Paragraph properties arrow and click it. Figure 1: Page Layout and Paragraph In the Line Spacing drop-down box, click Double, and while there, change the After in the Spacing from 10 pt to 0 pt, and click the OK button. Figure 2: Spacing and Line Spacing
McGregor 2 3. Next, the margins must be set to one inch on all four sides. Click Page Layout menu and click the dropdown arrow below or beside Margins. Select Normal from the list, which should be the 1 margin option. Figure 3: Changing the Margins 4. To set the font, click the Home menu. Select Times New Roman in the Font style box and 12 in the Font Size drop-down box. Figure 4: Changing the Font Type and Size
McGregor 3 5. MLA Style papers do not require a title page, so a student may begin typing the paper immediately. The student's name, instructor's name, course and section number, and day month and year are placed in the upper left-hand corner of the page. Enter down a space and type a title for the paper. Remember that titles should directly represent the information described in the paper. Center the title by clicking the Center button, enter down a space, click the Align Left button to begin the body content of the paper, and press the Tab button on the keyboard for the first indent of the paper. Figure 5: Required Paper Identification Information 6. The header must be added. Click the Insert menu, click the Page Number drop-down box, and select the number that appears in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Figure 6: Header Page Numbering
McGregor 4 Click the Home menu, select (or highlight) the new number 1, and change the font to Times New Roman, 12-point font. Click in front of (to the left of) the page number, type your last name, and hit the space bar one time. All of these steps place your information and the page number on the correct pages. When you are finished, click back to the Header & Footer Tools Design tab and click the Close Header and Footer button. Figure 7: Add Information and Change Font 7. If writing a research paper, complete this step. If not, then move on to the final step of saving, step 8. Create a Works Cited page by clicking into the paper below the last line of typing. Click the Insert menu, and then click Page Break. Figure 8: Inserting a Page Break Type Works Cited at the top of the new page and center it, using the Home menu to change the alignment. Enter down a space, and left align the cursor. Figure 9: Works Cited Centered on the Last Page
McGregor 5 On the Paragraph section, click the Special dropdown box, and click Hanging to create a hanging indent for all Works Cited entries. Type and format the Works Cited entries as directed in the MLA handbook. Figure 10: Hanging Indent 8. You may save the paper, and for the sake of opening the file on Works, Word, Word Perfect, or another word processing program, you should save the file in Rich Text Format (.rtf). Click the File menu in the upper, left-hand corner of the screen. Click Save As, then click the Browse button. Figure 11: Save in Other Formats If you have not inserted your flash drive, do so now. On the left side, find the flash drive (likely E:/ drive) and click on it. From the Save as Type dropdown, select Rich Text Format (*.rtf), and name the file according to your name and the title of the paper. Click the Save button when finished. Figure 12: Saving in Rich Text Format