Essay

Basic MLA: 10 things to check for before you submit your essay

1. Set the spacing to “double,” with no extra spaces between lines and paragraphs.

2. Set the margins to 1-inch.

3. Left-justify the paper, meaning, the left margin is straight and the right margin is jagged (see below for an example).

4. Use 12-point, Times New Roman font.

5. Include a heading that is located at the left margin—here is how it should look:

John Doe

Prof. Kolkmeyer

English 30

21 May 2020

6. Your title should be centered and it should be original

Indent to show the start of a new paragraph. Then continue all the way to the left margin and it will go to the next line automatically. Only hit the “return” key when starting you are starting a new paragraph.

Like this. The indentation here indicates the start of a new paragraph. Now, like in the prior paragraph, you continue to type until the end of the line and automatically drops to the next line when it reaches the end, and so on…

7. Use “quotation marks” for article, essay, chapter, interview titles titles (see the sample paragraph below).

8. In-text quoting and citations should not clutter up the paper. Here’s an example of a paragraph that might appear in the body of the essay. Notice that page number references are in (parenthesis), not used in the signal phrase. The latter should indicate the context and/or speaker. All quotes should have signal phrases, but there are options:

Imagine education today without a computer. Initially, it seems this will create an unfair advantage, with those who have access to computers having more advantage over those who do not have access. Neil Postman, in 1992, points out this future in “The Judgment of Thamus,” an argument for being skeptical about how quick we are to embrace new innovations. Postman claims that the printed word and orality had reached a workable compromise in the four centuries that followed the invention of the printing press. However, at the onset of computers in the classroom becoming the norm when he wrote this piece, Postman asks, “Now comes the computer, carrying anew the banner of private learning and individual problem-solving. Will the widespread use of computers in the classroom defeat once and for all the claims of communal speech? Will the computer raise egocentrism to the status of a virtue?” (11). On the surface, yes; what Postman predicts in 1992 has happened, but “communal speech,” is different today, and if this is understood, a new compromise can be reached.

9. Here’s what a Works Cited page should look like with three sources from the class materials cited in a paper:

Works Cited

Chaplin, Charlie, director. Modern Times. United Artists, 1936.

Kelly, Kevin. Interview with Kirkpatrick Sale. “Interview with the Luddite.” Wired, 6 Jan. 1995,

https://www.wired.com/1995/06/saleskelly/. Accessed 23 June 2020.

Postman, Neil. “The Judgment of Thamus.” Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to

Technology, Knopf, 1992, pp. 1-12,

https://rws511.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/68739355/Postman_thamus.pdf. Accessed 16

Aug. 2020.

10. If you have questions, go to the Purdue OWL website’s “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” The “MLA In-text Citations: The Basics,” “MLA Formatting Quotations,” and the “Sample MLA Paper” are useful to check out. Here’s the link to the page with the drop-down menu that includes the latter: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html