MLA Essay Formatting Pattern

MLA essay format also known as the Modern Language Association of America is used mainly for writing papers on arts and humanities. This style of writing is followed mainly in the United States and Canada. There are certain basic formatting patterns that is followed for any essay writing. The necessary norms are that the essay must be computer generated on a standard white 8.5 by 11 inch paper. The written text will have a margin of 1 inch on all sides. There will be a header which will generally carry the last name of the writer or the title of the essay along with page numbers at the upper right hand corner of the page. The text has to be double spaced with the font being Times New Roman and the font size 12 points. The first line of a paragraph will be indented one half inch ( five spaces or press the tab button once) from the left margin. Space to be pressed only once after each punctuation mark. If indeed, a teacher asks for end notes it would be on a separate page, after the essay and before the ‘works cited’ page.

The basic difference that a MLA format essay will have from an APA or Chicago or Harvard formatting are in the writing patterns of the in-text citations given within the essay and the works cited page list. given below are examples of MLA in-text citations and references.

For in-text citation it would be :

Passive euthanasia as described by Kappel “is, roughly, to countenance the death of someone by withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, or by administering pain-killing drugs in doses that accelerate death” (Kappel, p.2).

As Dowbiggin tells us, “suicide was beyond criticism, Hume contended, because, in the natural scheme of things, all voluntary deaths were the result of the laws that governed the universe. Suicide provided…(Dowbiggin, p.31)

An in-text citation for a direct quotation of an author, taken from another author’s book or written article (here the article is one page long so no numbers are given, instead the title of the article has been given):

Defined by Wolhandler has special legal meaning, “Courts have defined legal competence as the ‘mental ability to make a rational decision, which includes the ability to perceive, appreciate all the relevant facts, and to reach a rational judgment upon such facts.’ In the euthanasia context…..” ( Cited in Le Baron, Definitions).

The works cited page for the above in-text citations would be:

For net citation

Kappel, K. The Morality of Euthanasia. University of Copenhagen. 2001. Web.

19th January 2010. Available from

http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/kappel/tekster/pdf/The%20morality%20of%20euthanasia.pdf

For book citation

Dowbiggin, I. A Concise History of Euthanasia: Life, Death, God, and Medicine.
Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield. 2007. Print.

The correct way to write a MLA essay is to practice writing in this format. Browse through as many MLA essay samples and essay examples as possible, to understand the formatting well. If you still have any confusion over the MLA pattern of writing essays don’t hesitate to call

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