In the world of academia, it is a given fact that MLA (Modern Language Association) writing style is one of the most typically utilized along with APA (American Psychological Association), Chicago, Turabian and many more for writing scholarly documents especially when it comes to citations and formatting the paper in modern academic writing. This formatting style was developed by Modern Language Association of America and a set of unique guidelines and rules for organizing an academic or scholarly paper have been developed in order to make the presentation of school papers more professional. MLA papers must meticulously observe the rules and standards mandated by the Modern Language Association (MLA) especially if it is a research paper, term paper, thesis, and any other kind of academic papers for school in order not to make your grades suffer because of any mistakes, errors or flaws. MLA formatting style is utilized for several types of scholarly documents on psychology and its sub-branches, sociology, social sciences, and as well as for creative writing.
General Guidelines for MLA Writing Style
When authoring an academic paper, there are some general guidelines that should be followed correctly. MLA academic papers according to MLA’s rules and guidelines should be double spaced. Use font names which are legible and easy to read. Font names that are usually used are Times New Roman, Calibri, and Arial. Once you have chosen your preferred legible font, set the font size to 12 pt. Margins must be set to once inch in all sides of the paper. It is also required for the writer half inch indentation for the first line of every paragraph.
Normally, a MLA (Modern Language Association) academic or scholarly document doesn’t require a MLA title page. However, this formatting style mandates every scholarly document written in MLA writing style should have four lines on upper left corner of the page containing the name of the author, name of the instructor, course, and the date. After the four lines that you provided, the title of your scholarly document must follow and it should be situated in the center.
Be reminded that when writing an academic paper in MLA format, an abstract and introduction must be presented. Abstract is a part of your paper that should contain a short description of your study, and the introduction is the part of your document which explains the purpose, objectives of your study, and as well as statements that briefly explains the background of your research.
In addition, a MLA style of academic paper require an in text citation, presenting all the sources you have utilized. All cited materials in text should as well appear in the works cited page. The citation in your works cited page which is placed at the end of your MLA paper should be arranged alphabetically. This part should follow all the rules and guidelines imposed by Modern Language Association (MLA). Though it is indeed one of the hardest parts when it comes to writing a scholarly document, you must do your best to familiarize the guidelines in order to obtain desirable grades.
Dane Cauton is a Registered Nurse in the Philippines who have a passion in writing. He loves to write any topics under the sun especially educational ones. He is a steadily recognized as an achiever ever since. He joined lots of academic contest not only medical related contests but article writing as well.
During college days, he was the editor-in-chief of their school paper. He was sent by the school to attend a press conference held in Michigan related to proper citing of sources used when creating scholarly works.