MLA Format

The Modern Language Association (MLA) is responsible for establishing and promoting guidelines for one of the many style formats available for research writing. At Trinity Episcopal School, we use MLA as our go-to style guide. The MLA formatting guidelines are easy enough to apply to essays, most lab reports, and much of the research and writing assignments students are asked to complete.

Basic MLA Formatting Guidelines

• Clean white paper, 8.5 x 11
• 1-inch margins
• Double-spaced
• 12-point font, Times New Roman or Arial
• Student, class and due date information at the top, left-aligned
• Running header in the upper right-hand corner at .5-inch, including student's last name and page number
• Title center-aligned and unformatted
• Paragraphs indented .5-inch (tab key is best)
• In-text/parenthetical citations throughout where sources are used
• Complete bibliographic citations at the end on a separate "Works Cited" 
• Bibliographic citations in alphabetical order and aligned using hanging indent

Review this example paper to see MLA formatting guidelines in practice:
Example 1