MLA Essay Checklist



MLA Checklist

The Basics

o text is double-spaced including quotations

o Times New Roman font

o 12 pt. font size

o no bold writing

o 1 inch margins on all four sides

o Cover page: 1/3rd of the way down the page you should place your title. Your name should be centered in on the page. Course name, teacher’s name and date are centered at the bottom of the page.

o Your title should be in Title Case, not in all capital letters. (The first word and all the 'main' words in a title should have initial capitals, and all the 'joining' words should be left in lower case, e.g.: To Be, or Not to Be, That is the Question)

o Book Titles or Major Works should be underlined or italicized, not both. “Short Stories”, “Poems”, “Articles” should be put in quotations marks.

o header numbering all pages consecutively (except cover page) in the upper right-hand corner, one-half inch from the top and flush with the right margin. Includes last name, followed by a space with a page number; number all pages consecutively with Arabic numerals (2, 3, 4, etc.) Example: See top of the page

o only one space after periods or other punctuation marks

o strong thesis statement included in the intro

o proper indentation (first line of each paragraph moved to right five spaces/tabbed once. Indenting is not an afterthought. If you need an arrow to indicate it is indented then it is NOT!)

o proper paragraphing (at least 4 sentences per paragraph AND at least 4 paragraphs in the essay)

o use transition words to allow your essay to “flow” Examples: additionally, furthermore, particularly, nevertheless, all things considered, meanwhile

o no personal pronouns (“you don’t know how important voting is until…”) Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

o no narrative language (“I will write”, “in my essay”, “I believe”, “in conclusion”)

o then and than used correctly

o their, they’re, there used correctly

o whether and weather used correctly

o “back in the day” or “now a days” is not used

o sentences express complete thoughts (be careful with “But” or “Because”)

o abbreviations are not used (etc., esp., … )

o proper punctuation

o no “texting” language: gonna, wanna, sorta, etc.

o contractions are NOT used (can’t, won’t, isn’t, doesn’t)

o proper spelling (numbers less than 20 are spelled out)

o the author is addressed by full name or last name only, NOT FIRST NAME

In Text Citations (Note: bolding is only for indication of the items highlighted-it is not to be done in your paper!) Generally, an in text citation includes the author's last name and the page number(s) of the information used. No commas inside parenthesis! Period for sentence goes AFTER parenthesis. See examples below.

o Direct Quotations Place the author's name either in parentheses or within the sentence. For example:

According to Jones,  "Students often had difficulty using MLA style" (199).

OR

She stated, "Students often had difficulty using MLA style," but she did not offer an explanation as to why (Jones 199).

o Summary or Paraphrase Indicate the source by the author and the page number(s) in the parentheses. For example:

According to Jones, MLA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (199).

o Works with more than one author For works with two or three authors, give the last name of each person listed. For example: (Rabkin, Greenberg, and Olander).

For works with more than three authors, use the first author's last name followed by et al. For example: (Wong et al. 145)

o Place long direct quotations in a left-indented block. MLA requires that any quotation over 4 lines (or 3 lines of verse) be started on a new line, indented 1 inch from the margin, double spaced without quotation marks, essentially a block quote. Make sure to include a colon. For example:

Jones's study found the following:

Students often had difficulty using MLA style, especially when it was their first time citing sources. This difficulty could be attributed to the fact that many students failed to purchase a style manual or to ask their teacher for help. (199) 

o If no author listed Where you'd normally put the author's last name, instead use the first one, two, or three words from the title. Don't count initial articles like "A", "An" or "The". You should provide enough words to make it clear which work you're referring to from your Works Cited list. If the title in the Works Cited list is in italics, italicize the words from the title in the in-text citation.

If the title in the Works Cited list is in quotation marks, put quotation marks around the words from the title in the in-text citation.

For example:

Cell Biology. Home > Cell Biology | Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, 8 Oct. 2017, cellbiology.yale.edu/. This is your works cited entry so your in text citation would be (Cell Biology 12)

“Nursing.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, 2017, dictionary/nursing. ("Nursing" 12)

The Works Cited Page

o the title “Works Cited” is centered at the top of the page

o each source listed on my works cited page is cited at least once within my paper.

o include only sources mentioned in the paper; if you did not cite them in your paper, do not include them here! Always cross-reference your paper and your Works Cited page to make sure you have everything.

o items on the Works Cited page are arranged in alphabetical order by last name of the author. If no author is given, list it according to the title, excluding articles.

o the first line of each entry is flush with the left-hand margin. Subsequent lines of the entry are indented five spaces/tabbed once (This is called a hanging indent).

Example:

“Nursing.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, 2017, dictionary/nursing.

o the list is entirely Double-spaced- Do not quadruple-space between entries

o there is a period at the end of each entry. See example above.

o each type of text is cited according to MLA guidelines ()

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