Student’s Name
Street Address
City, ST ZIP Code
e-mail
phone
fax
Title of Paper
The MLA style guidelines provide rules for scholarly writing. This template provides a basic layout for a term paper using these guidelines. Two typical elements of MLA term papers are provided as examples in this template: source citations and quotations.
1.Source Citations
Per MLA guidelines, all sources must be cited on the Works Cited page, located at the end of the paper. Within the body of the paper, a pointer containing the author’s last name and a page range within parentheses (Erickson 24-67) indicates the cited text. The author’s last name corresponds with the entry on the Works Cited page, allowing readers to look up the source of the citation.
2.Quotations
Guidelines for quotations are based upon the length of the quote. Quotes with fewer than four lines of prose or three lines of verse are quoted directly in the sentence. According to the MLA, include this type of quote “directly in the sentence and enclose it within quotation marks.”
Quotes longer than four lines of prose or three lines of verse follow different guidelines. Introduce these quotations with a colon:
Start long quotes on a new line. Indent the quote one inch from the left margin. Also, double-space the lines and omit quotation marks. The Long Quote style in this Microsoft Word template is provided for formatting.
If you quote more than one paragraph, indent the first line of each paragraph an additional quarter inch. When quoting verse, maintain line breaks from the original work. Include a pointer after the closing punctuation, such as the one that follows. (Erickson 34)
For additional examples and comprehensive style guidelines, refer to the MLA Web site.
Works Cited
Author’s Name. Title of Book. City: Publisher, Year.
Author’s Name....