8.6 MLA Format Basics

Notes

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is used in English classes to format papers and cite sources.

• Paper: 12-point readable font (such as Times New Roman), double spaced, 1-inch margins.
• Heading (top left): your name, teacher's name, course, date (22 October 2026). Header: last name and page number, top right.
• In-text citation: author's last name and page number in parentheses, no comma: (Garcia 47). The period goes after the parentheses.
• If you name the author in your sentence, cite only the page: Garcia argues that... (47).
• No author: use a shortened title in quotation marks: ("Saving Bees" 3).
• Works Cited: a separate final page listing sources, alphabetized by author's last name, with a hanging indent.
• Example: As one historian notes, the town "doubled in size within a decade" (Okafor 112).