Position Paper *PLEASE READ DETAILS*

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Joe Smith (Student’s name)

Ms. Dickinson (instructor’s name)

English 1101 (class name—no abbreviations)

25 April 2014 (Date of submission)

Formatting an MLA Document

(title centered and all important words capitalized)

First line of each paragraph is indented by ½ inch. In Word 2007/2010/2013, click on

“Paragraph,” open the menu list under “Special,” and choose “First line.” You can do this before

you begin typing, but first highlight the entire document by holding down the Ctrl and the A keys

at the same time. Once the indentation is set, every time you press the “Enter” key, the new

paragraph will be indented by ½ inch. Do NOT indent paragraphs by pressing on the space bar,

which is the long middle key.

The margins should be set to one inch all around. Every line should be uniformly double-

spaced. The font type should be Times New Roman, and it should be size 12—including the

header information (the last name/page number in the upper one-inch margin). You can highlight

the entire document before or after you begin writing. Then, click on the line-spacing button and

choose “2.0” from the available options. Do NOT double-space by hitting the “Enter” key at the

end of each line.

You can insert the header information (last name and page number) by double-clicking

into the upper one-inch margin. Once the area becomes active, click on the “Page Number”

button. Then, click on “Top of Page.” From the roll-down menu, choose the third option from the

top—“Plain number 3.” Once the page number is inserted, simply type in your last name in front

of it. The last step is to highlight both the name and the page number and change the font type

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and size to Times New Roman, size 12. Do NOT insert the page number manually because it

will not be updated automatically on each page.

There is no need to insert two spaces between words. Eliminate the wide gap between

paragraphs. This is how: Highlight the whole document. Then, click on “Page Layout.” Then,

adjust the “Spacing” numbers to 0.

If your paper requires a works cited page (if does if you include any borrowed

information), then make that page the very last page of your paper. Center the words Works

Cited in the middle, as you will see below on the sample citation page. Then adjust the

indentation to achieve the special effect this page requires. This special effect is called “hanging

indentation.” Before or after you type up the citations, highlight the citations, go to

“Paragraphs,” find “Indentation” and choose “Hanging” from the roll-down menu. Second and

subsequent lines of long citations will be indented correctly. Do NOT use the space bar to indent

the second, third, etc. lines, as it will destroy the formatting.

Finally, when you finished the paper itself, you can insert a “page break” to keep the

body of your paper separate from the Works Cited page. Click on “Insert” and “Page break” after

you position the cursor where the page break should go. If you click on the paragraph button that

looks like this ¶, you can see the formatting information on the page. The page break should

appear right below your text. From now on, no matter whether you add to or delete from your

text, the Works Cited page will always begin on the top of the last page.

See below what a works cited page should look like.

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Works Cited

Atkins, Jed, W. “Classic Communication.” Duke Magazine, 8 Aug. 2016.

www.dukemagazine.duke.edu/article/classiccommunication/.

Ruland, Richard, and Malcolm Bradbury. From Puritanism to Postmodernism: A History of

American Literature. Pinguin, 1991.

Muller, Timo. “The Vernacular Sonnet and the Resurgence of Afro-Modernism in the 1940’s.

American Literature, vol. 87, no 2, June 2015, pp. 253-273.

Hays, Peter L. “Hemingway as Social and Political Writer.” The Hemingway Review, vol. 34, no.

2, Spring 2015. doi:10.1353/hem.2015.0011.

Norman, Beatrix. “Writing with the Help of Literature.” Teaching English in Two-Year Colleges,

vol. 8, no. 4, 2014, pp. 22-29. Galileo,

www.galileo.com/norman_beatrix&writing_literature/3200.

Smith, Andrew. Gothic Literature, 3 rd

ed., Edinburgh UP, 2013. EbscoHost eBooks,

www.ebscohost_ebooks.com/smith_andrew_gothic_literature?3499210567.

The Bible. Authorized Kings James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.