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MLA Style Guide

60 STEPS

1 The first step is to open a new document in Microsoft Word.

We are going to start my creating the header:
Click Insert

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2 Click Page Number

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3 Click Top of Page

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4 Click Plain Number 3

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5 Type your last name to the left of the page number

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6 We have to change the font.
Click Home

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7 Click the font drop down menu

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8 Click Times New Roman

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9 Click Page 1 content

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10 Doubleclick onto the main area of the page to get out of the header settings

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11 We have to set the font for the paper. Click on the font drop-down menu

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12 Click Times New Roman

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13 Type in your name, first and last and Press Enter

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14 Type your instructor's name and Press Enter

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15 Type the name of the class and Press Enter

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16 Type the date: day, abreviation of the month., and year and Press Enter

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17 Click Center Align for the title of your paper

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18 Type the title of your paper and Press Enter

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19 Change the alignment for the body of your paper:
Click Align Left

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20 Start to write you paper

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21 A few more formatting notes:

Highlight all the content and
Click Paragraph...

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22 In the spacing section, Click Line spacing: drop-down menu

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23 Click Double

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24 Click Don't add space between paragraphs of the same ...

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25 Click OK

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26 Highlight the body of the paper

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27 Click Paragraph...

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28 In the Indentation section, Click Special drop-down menu

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29 Click First line

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30 Click OK

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31 Click Page 1 content

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32 Type in Page 1 content and Press Backspace

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33 Press Shift+Backspace

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34 Type up your paper now that it is all properly formatted.

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35 When you are ready to create your Works Cited page, Click Insert

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35b Click

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36 Click Pages

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37 Click Page Break so that you start on a brand new page without any funny issues of where it starts.

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38 Click onto the new Page

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39 Click Home

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40 Click Center

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41 Type Works Cited as the title of this page and Press Enter

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42 Now for the sources, Click Align Left

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43 Click Paragraph...

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44 In the Indentation section, Click Special:

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45 Click Hanging

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46 Make sure that Don't add space between paragraphs of the same style is checked

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47 Click OK

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48 Click Page 2

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49 Type in the author's name: 
Last name, First name.
Punctuation is important!

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50 Type "The Title of the Article in Quotation Marks."
Make sure the period goes before the closing quotation mark.


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50b Click

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51 Click Italic 
Type in The Name of the Journal that Published the Article,
Comma
and Click Italic to turn the italics off

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51b Click

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52 Type the volume and issue number:
vol. #, no. #,
Note: Because the abbreviation is happening in the middle of this "run-on sentence" that includes all the publication information, the abbrev. will be lower case unless it is a proper name, like a month.

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53 Type the page range and a period.

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54 Type the name of the database in Italic
comma,

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54b Click

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55 Paste the permanent link or DOI 
Period.
Press Enter

Repeat for all the sources and put them in alphabetical order based on the first letters of each entry.

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56 Don't forget to SAVE
Click File Tab

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56b Click

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57 Click Save

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58 Click Browse

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59 Type in File name: and Click Save

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59b Click

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60 That's it. Ask a librarian if you need any help formatting you paper in MLA style.

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Here's an interactive tutorial for the visual learners

https://www.iorad.com/player/1651258/How-to-format-your-paper-in-MLA-Style

Best Resources

Handouts


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