Mla Style Papers

MLA Style

There are various academic writing styles used in presenting papers of an academic nature. The most commonly used styles in the writing of academic literary pieces may include The American Psychological Association Style (APA), Turabian style, Harvard Writing Style and The Modern Language Association Style (MLA). The use of any academic writing style is determined by the content of the literary piece to be written as well as the professional field related to the content of the academic paper. In this paper I will highlight the basics of writing a paper in MLA style as well as the guidelines of MLA style.

The MLA style is used in writing of academic papers and their subsequent source citation in the writing of material related to humanities and liberal arts as fields of study. The instructions on how to write an MLA paper are contained in the MLA Handbook meant for research paper writers. MLA style instructions can also be accessed from MLA style manual and guide to scholarly publishing. These resources offer instructions on MLA style research paper writing, footnotes/endnotes, works cited page and in-text citations. MLA style defines the manuscripts’ formats in the use of English language in the writing of academic papers. MLA style also defines the style of referencing that writers may use in the writing of MLA styled research papers and essays both by parenthetical citation and within the works cited list. MLA style does not only give clearly formatted work but also helps the writer build credibility of his work through the demonstration of accountability of showing the sources of the work written. Applying MLA style to the writing of any literary work helps the author avert accusations of plagiarism, which may either occur accidentally due to lack of appreciation of sources used or purposefully.

MLA style writing basics include the use of in-text citations within parentheses with details of the author and page of reference. If there is no page number obtainable as is the case with web references the abbreviation n.pag can be used. The MLA style referenced works cited page ought to present its details in the following format-contributor/s name, name of source material, year of publication, source type and date of access. The general paper format should leave a one inch margin all round the paper.

MLA Style Papers, MLA Samples, MLA Research Papers

MLA style writing should also ensure that all first sentences within all paragraphs are indented. The preferred font for MLA style writing is 12, Times New Roman and all the sentences should be double-spaced. An MLA style paper should also have a header that numbers all pages in a consecutive manner. If there are any notes to be included in the paper, they should be included on a separate page just prior the listing of works cited. The notes section should be titled notes, and the title should be centered. In MLA style longer titles should be italicized all through the work. MLA style paper should not have the title page unless that is a requirement by the tutor or lecturer offering the assignment. In MLA style writing all details such as name of instructor, course, date and name of author should be listed on the upper left hand corner of the paper. In MLA style writing the title should be centered, and it should not be italicized, underlined or placed within quotation marks.