MLA style

Examples of MLA style in the following topics:

• When to Use MLA Style

• When to Use MLA Style

  • MLA style, the house style of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA), has two official publications.
  • The first MLA style guide is the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, called the MLA Handbook for short.
  • The second is the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing, called the MLA Style Manual for short.
  • MLA style includes many basic grammatical rules.
  • For example, MLA style does use the Oxford comma, which some other citation styles (e.g., AP style) do not.

• MLA: Tables and Figures

  • However, it's important to make sure you incorporate this extra information in a way that is easy to understand and in line with the conventions set forth in MLA style.
  • MLA style specifies three ways of presenting images: tables, figures, and examples.
  • In MLA style, you should present a table immediately after the paragraph in which you mentioned it.
  • Include the citation information, with the same formatting, as in a note in MLA style (i.e., formatted the same as a citation in your Works Cited section, except using commas instead of periods).
  • A figure, by the MLA's definition, is anything that is not a table or an example.

• MLA: Block Quotations

  • In MLA style, format quotations of more than lines of prose or more than three lines of verse as block quotations.
  • As should the rest of your paper, a block quotation in MLA style should be double-spaced.

• MLA: First Page

  • MLA style has specific formatting rules for the first page of your paper.

• Overall Structure and Formatting of an MLA Paper

  • Every paper written in MLA style follows the same basic formatting rules.
  • In MLA style, you should italicize (rather than underline) the titles of books, plays, or other standalone works.
  • Unlike some other citation styles (e.g., APA), MLA style does not have specific rules for how to format such headings.
  • However, it's a requirement in MLA style, so double-check all your lists and series to make sure you include it!
  • MLA style in particular includes an explicit rule to use only single spaces after periods:

• MLA: Abstract

• MLA: Headings

• MLA: Tables

• MLA: Figures