What does it take to come up with an excellent essay? How do you create an A-level essay? The easiest way to achieve that is to use a proper writing style and abide by the generally accepted formatting rules You can create an interesting essay, but if you don’t format it correctly, you will never get a good grade, mind you. Therefore, before embarking on writing an essay, you should consult with your professor about what formatting style you are to use.
The primary goal of this article is to cover the basics of MLA format essay — a well-known style guide which is used mostly in the humanities. Simply put, if you took a course in y Literature, Modern Languages, Media Studies, Literary Criticism or any other related disciplines, your tutor will most likely ask you to format your paper using the MLA style manual. In this article, we’ll analyze the MLA formatting and style guide and explain how to cite your essay correctly.
MLA Essay Format Fundamental Rules
MLA is mostly used by secondary or post-secondary students, professional writers, scholars, and editors. The latest print version of the MLA guide came out in 2016. However, its authors are currently working on other publications.
If you were assigned to write an MLA format essay, they expect you to follow the Modern Language Association guide which instructs students on how to format their papers and cite used sources. This style guide also contains information on how long your paragraphs should be, how to use punctuation marks, how to format titles, and so on.
Let’s try and figure out how to cite an essay in MLA and analyze the rules you are required to abide by when using this style.
MLA Essay Cover Page
No matter what academic assignment you do, you must always use the title page, so you simply can’t afford to make any mistakes here! The primary goal of the cover page for essay MLA is to inform the readers of the title, author’s name, and university name. Keep in mind that the Modern Language Association style guide doesn’t require students to create the title page. However, to avoid misunderstanding, you are to consult with your tutor because every higher educational establishment has its own requirements for this task. Also, keep in mind that having the cover page makes your writing look more professional.
MLA Essay Title
If you’re expected to submit an essay with the cover page, you probably wonder how to title an essay MLA. To comply with your professor’s requirements, your title should have the following compulsory elements:
- Essay title,
- your name and surname,
- information about your class,
- the name of your professor,
- due date.
According to this guideline, you should follow these rules:
- All the letters on this page should be capitalized.
- All text on the page should be double-spaced.
- Indicate the name of your higher educational establishment.
- Skip to ⅓ and add the title of your writing.
- Skip a few lines down for writing your personal information.
As you can see, essay titles in MLA aren’t compulsory, but you should always consult with your professor.
MLA Essay Header
You should always use headings or subheadings to improve the readability of your assignment. You are also allowed to add individual chapters and mark all sections with Arabic numerals.
Keep in mind that the MLA guide doesn’t have any specific requirements regarding book headings. For instance, if you decide to use only the Level 1 headers, all of them should be grammatically identical. If one heading is too short, it means that you should make all other headings short as well.
When analyzing the MLA format essay header, you need to adhere to these requirements:
- 1st level — bold and flush left,
- 2nd level — italicized and flush left,
- 3d level — centered and bold,
- 4th level — italicized and centered,
- 5th level — underlined, flush left.
Keep in mind that following these rules ensures better readability of your essay.
MLA Format Essay Outline Structure
Before we start analyzing the basic guidelines, it is necessary to say that the primary goal of the essay outline is to provide the audience with the general plan of your essay. In other words, you should inform them of the main aspects which you will cover in your essay.
Let’s explore the basic rules of formatting the MLA format essay outline:
- Enumerate all the key points of your essay.
- Start by writing the word “Outline” in the center of the line.
- Begin your outline with the word “Thesis.” This section should provide a brief overview of your essay.
- Always use Roman numerals when numbering every level.
- Every section of an outline should be written in complete sentences.
- If you use subheadings, mark them by using letters a, b, c, d, etc.
To sum up, MLA style is less complicated than Chicago or APA formats. Use our article, and you won’t face any formatting-related difficulties when dealing with it!