MLA Writing Style
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MLA is an abbreviation of Modern Language Association and it is a style used in the documentation of sources that are used in papers written from research. This particular format looks into features that are distinct and that is the works cited, the second one is the material extracted from another source, which is put down in documentation in the text with a small referral to the full citation at the end of the paper under the works cited. The third feature is the footnotes and endnotes that are used to give information in summary that cannot be accommodated inside the text and notes from the bibliography that contain several sources from the citations.
There are guidelines, which are general in writing using MLA style. The paper should be typed using a computer and printed out on a white paper that measures 8.5 inches by 11 inches. The text on the paper should be double-spaced and the characters should be typed in the Times New Roman font, which is 12pt. The author should leave one space after every period or punctuation marks and they should set a margin space of 1 inch on all sides of the document. Every first line of a paragraph should be indented at a margin of one and a half inch from the left margin and the author should include a header that numbers the pages in the upper right corner of the page. Italics are only acceptable if the author wants to make emphasis in the text or when writing the titles of works that are longer.
In MLA writing style, the first page should have various distinctive features. The name of the author should be at the top-left corner of the page followed beneath it by the name of the instructor, and then right beneath it the name or code of the course and then the date. The author should then double-space and enter the title of the paper and center it then ensure that there is a double space between the title and the first line of the first paragraph. The header in this case should appear on the right hand side corner of the page that is the author’s last name and page number with a space between the two.
There are guidelines to followed in listing the works cited, they should appear as a continuation of the author’s text and they should be paginated in order. The lines of an entry that are successive should be double spaced and the initial line of any entry should flash left and the consecutive line should be indented one and a half inch or simply by five spaces. The list of entries should be ordered according to the alphabetical order of the last name of the various authors and the title of works in the entries should be in italics.
In the MLA writing style the text can be improved by the use of headings for the various sections in order to improve the readability of the work. The sections may be according to the various different chapters covered in the book or even different events in an essay. It is important to note that if a book’s title includes that of another book, it is up to the author to underline the title of the former and the author should ensure that the line is continuous even between spaces.
Quotation marks are necessary to show the works, which are rather short for example “Weep of Joy”, and the quotation marks can work for titles of songs and other unpublished works such as various speeches or dissertations. It is important for the author to use Arabic numbers when referring to the names of Monarchs except for a work that is set at default with the Roman numerical system. In the entries, it is also necessary to separate the name of an author, the title and the information contained in the publication with a period then a space.
Just like the other styles of writing MLA too has, a unique way of presenting the work cited. The author’s last name precedes the first then the title of the book, which should be accompanied by additional information, the city where the source was published with a colon from the house responsible for publication and finally the date.