Instructions to Format a Manuscript following Modern Language Association (MLA) Style in Microsoft Word 2007


Setting Page Margins | Setting Line Spacing | Creating a Header | Entering Document Information | Formatting the Works Cited Page

Set Top, Bottom, Right, and Left Margins to 1"

  1. To set the margins, select the Page Layout tab.
  2. Click on the "Margins" icon.
  3. Choose the "Normal" margin setting  (1" for each of the margin settings).
Margins
Figure 1 Format Margins 

Set line spacing to double spaced.

  1. On the Home tab, click the arrow to the right of "Paragraph"
  2. Under "Line Spacing," select "Double."
  3. Make sure both Before and After spacing are set to 0 pts.
  4. Click OK.
Line Spacing
Figure 2 Set line spacing to double space.
 

Create a Header with your last name and the page number.

Every page of a manuscript in MLA format has a header in the upper right-hand corner of the manuscript, approximately 1/2" from the top of the page.  To create the header and set the page numbering to automatically increment each page,
 
  1. From the Insert tab, select Page Number and Top of Page.
  2. Choose "Plain Number 3" (see Figure 3).
  Page numbers
Figure 3 Set page numbering

4.  Use the left arrow to move one space to the left of the page number; type your last name and a single blank space.
5.  Double click outside of the "header" box to return to your document.

Header with last name
Figure 4 Creating a header with your last name..
 

Enter document information.

  1. Type your name and then press the Enter key once.
  2. Type your professor's name, and then Enter.
  3. Type the course identification, and then Enter.
  4. Type the date.  Press the Enter key once only.
  5. Click on the Align Center icon (see Figure 6).
  6. Type the title of your paper, capitalizing the first word and all major words and proper nouns.  Do not use italics, boldfaced type, underlining, or all caps to format your title.  Do not type a period at the end of the title.  Press the Enter key once.
  7. Click on the Align Left icon (see Figure 6).
  8. Depress the Tab key to indent 1/2 inch to begin your first paragraph and begin typing your document. (See Figure 5 for an example of a properly-formatted MLA-style manuscript.)
Note: Do not hit the return or enter key at the end of a line; allow the word processor to automatically wrap the text to the next line.  Depress the enter key only once at the end of each paragraph, and use the tab key to begin a new paragraph.

Formatted paper
Figure 5 A properly formatted MLA-Style paper.
 
 

Format the Works Cited page.

Immediately after typing the final line of your paper, depress the CTRL key and the ENTER key at the same time.  This will take you to the first line at the top of the next page.  Your header and page number should already appear.
  1. On the "Home" tab, click on the Align Center icon.

Align
Figure 6 Center the "Works Cited" title..
  1. Type Works Cited (do not underline, boldface, italicize, or enclose in quotes).
  2. Depress the Enter key once.
  3. Click on the Align Left icon (see Figure 6).
  4. On the Home tab, click the arrow to the right of "Paragraph"
  5. Under "Special," select "Hanging."
  6. Click OK.
Hanging indent
Figure 7 Set "Hanging indents."

  1. Type your first works cited entry. (Note: For most sources, follow the guidelines for citation of sources in the 5th edition (1998) of the MLA Handbook; for electronically-accessed sources, follow the guidelines in The Columbia Guide to Online Style (1998).  Both of these style guides are available in the reference section of the library.   (NOTE: You may also want to consider using the References feature available in Microsoft Word 2007.  For more information, see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100674921033.aspx.
  2. A properly formatted MLA/COS style Works Cited page is shown in Figure 7, below.
  3. At the end of each entry, depress the Enter key only once.  Do not introduce extra spaces between entries!
  4. Repeat steps 5, 6, and 7 for each entry.
   
Works Cited
Figure 7 A properly-formatted Works Cited page in MLA format.  

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© J. Walker, 2008.
Last modified 9 Apr. 2008.
URL=http://personal.georgiasouthern.edu/~jwalker/tutorials/mlaword2008.html

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