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Are you writing a paper? Does your teacher say you need to cite your sources? Do you
need to use MLA format? Then we can help you!
There are many important parts of MLA. But today we are going to talk about the most
basic part, how to set up your paper.
MLA format requires you to do the following things to your paper: Set all margins to one
inch; set the line spacing to double spacing; set the font to Times New Roman, size 12;
insert a header that includes your last name and the current page number and center your
title.
The first thing you'll need to do is open Microsoft Word. Word will open a new document
for you.
Now we'll set all of the margins to one inch. This creates an one inch border around your
whole paper.
To do this, click on "Page Layouts." Then, click on "Margins." Make sure "Normal" is
selected. This will set all of the margins to one inch.
The next thing you need to do is make sure your paper is double spaced. To do this, go
back to the Home" tab. Click on the little arrow to the right of the word "Paragraph."
This will bring up a pop-up box. Click on the down arrow under "Line Spacing" and select
"Double."
You also want to make sure you don't have extra space between your paragraphs. There's
two ways to do this. You can click on the box next to "Don't add space between paragraphs
of the same style."
Or, you can set the "Before" and "After" spacing to zero points. Both ways will work. Make
sure you remember to click "OK" when you're done.
Next, you'll want to set your font to "Times New Roman," and your font size to size 12.
To do this, stay on the "Home" tab. Click on the font drop down arrow. Scroll down to
"Times New Roman" and click on it.
Next, click on the font size drop down arrow and click on "12."
After you change the font an font size, you'll want to insert your header. MLA requires the
header to include your last name and the current page number.
To do this, click on the "insert" tab. Next, click on "Page Number," hover over "Top of
Page," and click on "Plain Number 3." This will insert your page number.
Now you'll want to add your last name to the header. To do this, click to the left of the
number and type your last name. Make sure there's a space between your last name and
the page number.
Like the rest of your paper, you'll want your header to be Times New Roman, size 12.
To do this, highlight your header. Then click on the font drop down arrow and click on "Times
New Roman." Next, click on the font size drop down arrow and select the number "12." This
will change your header.
We're almost ready to start writing, but first you should enter your information on the left
side of the paper. You need to type four things here: your first and last name, your teacher's
name, the name of your class and the date.
Most of this information is pretty easy to enter. The tricky part is the date. In MLA,
you write the date a little differently. First you type the day, then the month, and finally
the year. It might look like this- 4 May 2014.
After you enter your information, it's time for your title. Even if you don't know what
you're going to title your paper, it's a good idea to put something as a placeholder.
To do this, click on the second set of lines in the paragraph section. Remember, do not
bold or underline your title.
Now you're ready to start typing! Good luck and look for more of Team MLA's videos!