Research Argument Essay Final Draft

Typical MLA Format for Final Versions of Written Assignments

2

Vaughn

Your Name

Class Name & number

Instructor Name

Date (Day Month Year) -e.g.: 10 Jul. 2015

Title (Please be creative and make up your own title.)

Your final typewritten versions of your papers should be double-spaced throughout, and you should use Times New Roman 12-point font. You should have the standard one-inch margins on the top, bottom, left, and right. You should use the left hand justification for the entire document except the title, which should be centered, and your last name and page number on multi page documents, which should be justified to the right. (See below for more on this.)

Each paragraph should begin with the standard indentation as shown here. You can achieve the indentation by either presetting the document to indent automatically when you use the return button or by hitting the tab button once when you begin a new paragraph.

In addition, if you have a multi-page document you should have your last name and the page number in the upper right hand corner of each page. This can be achieved by creating a header, setting the justification to the right side, typing your last name, then choosing "insert page number" from the word processing menu. (Different versions of word processing software do this differently. In the Writing Center they can show you how to do it on their computers.) The program will automatically put the correct page numbers in for you. Magic! (See the back of this page.)

With the exception of my title in the header, this document is an example of what your written assignments should look like when you turn in your final version. Appropriate formatting may affect the grades you receive on your future writing assignments which is why I'm being picky about it now. If you have trouble using word processing programs please ask the tutors in the Writing Center for help. Once you learn the basics you will see that it is pretty easy to format your papers however an instructor asks you to.

This is standard MLA formatting. In addition, citations should be done in MLA format with in-text parentheticals after all citations whether paraphrased or directly quoted. When you mention the author in the sentence, whether you are quoting directly or paraphrasing, only a page number is required in the parenthetical. According to Winnie T. Pooh, "The door was much bigger when I entered Rabbit's house. Now it seems to have shrunk." (17) On the other hand, according to Bob T. Builder, doors cannot enlarge or shrink at will, and he thinks it is much more likely that Mr. Pooh grew while visiting Rabbit. (123) If you do not mention the author, you must include the last name in the parenthetical whether or not you are quoting directly or paraphrasing. "There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that both doors and bears can grow and shrink at will if there is magic in the air." (Carroll, 64) While it may be true that this is the case, other researchers have found that doors and bears can only grow or shrink in inverse proportion to each other. (DesCartes, 445) Last but not least, please make sure to include a works cited page at the end of your paper. You can check Purdue's OWL website for proper MLA formatting of the works cited (or works consulted if you want to include sources that you consulted but did not cite) page.