[Your Last Name] 1

Your Full Name

Instructor or Professor's Name [e.g., Professor Rusty Shackleford]
Name of Class [e.g., English 101.01]
Date [e.g., 29 February 2011]
Title of Paper: An Informative Title
This template is designed to help you quickly format research papers according to
Modern Language Association (MLA) style conventions; it is based on the MLA Handbook for
Writers of Research Papers (7th edition). To use this template, simply click on a shaded field
and replace the highlighted text with your own. You will also want to highlight and replace all
bracketed text; for example, this paragraph and “Your Last Name” in the header. Remember to
delete the brackets as well. Also remember to leave one space between your last name and the
page number in the header.
Keep in mind that this template is not intended to replace the handbook; it is intended to
help you apply the handbook’s guidelines to your paper with your word-processing software.
One thing I will point out here is that throughout this template, I am only inserting one space
after each period. Either single-or double-spacing after a period is acceptable in MLA style; just
be consistent and be aware of any classroom or editorial guidelines you are supposed to be
following.
When you refer to somebody else’s work in your paper—be that reference a quotation,
summary, or paraphrase—you should cite the original author in you text. MLA style requires
parenthetical citations in the body of your text and a detailed works cited page at the end of your
paper. For guidance concerning in-text citations, please refer to the MLA Handbook, the Purdue
Online Writing Lab (OWL), or other resources provided by your teacher.
MLA style requires you to place long quotations in a separate block of text called a block
quotation. In MLA style, a long quotation is defined as one comprising more than four lines of
prose or more than three lines of verse. Block quotations look like this:
Block quotations are indented one full inch from the left margin of the paper. Do
not use quotation marks for a block quotation; the format itself tells your reader
that they are reading a quotation. At the end of the quotation, you need a
parenthetical citation. For most quotations in MLA style, parenthetical citations
come before the final punctuation mark of the sentence in which they appear, but
for block quotations, the parenthetical citations appear after the final punctuation
mark of the quotation. There’s an example below.
If your block quotation contains multiple paragraphs, indent the first line
of each paragraph after the first. (Grauman 2)
List the entries on your works cited page in alphabetical order by the first letter of the
first line of each entry, usually the first letter of the author’s last name. The first line of each item
should be left justified, but every subsequent line should be indented one half inch; this is called
a “hanging indentation.” For further guidance in constructing a works cited page, please refer to
the MLA Handbook, the Washington State University Library’s “MLA Quick Reference Guide”,
the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), or other resources provided by your teacher. For your
convenience, I have included templates for several common source types: books with a single
author, print journal articles with a single author, single-author journal articles from an online
database, and single-author short works from a web site. I have also included an example book
citation. You will want to replace all of this with your own entries.
 [Your Last Name] 2

Works Cited
Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of
Publication. Print
Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Title Volume and Issue
Number separated by a decimal point [e.g., 14.3] (Year of Publication): Page Numbers
[e.g., 122-55]. Print.
Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. “Article Title.” Journal Title Volume and Issue
Number separated by a decimal point [e.g., 14.3] (Year of Publication): Page Numbers
[e.g., 122-55]. Title of Online Database. Web. Date of Access [e.g., 29 February 2011].
Author's Last Name, Author's First Name. “Title of Work on Web Site.” Title of Web Site. Web
Site Sponsor or Publisher, Date of Publication or of the Most Recent Update to the Page
[e.g., 29 February 2009]. Web. Date of Access [e.g., 29 February 2011].
[Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: Modern
Language Association of America, 2009. Print.]