owl purdue mla research paper

Citation Guides

• AMA Citation Examples
• APA Citation Examples
• APA Sample Paper
• Chicago General Formatting
• Chicago Citation Examples
• Chicago Sample Papers
• MLA General Formatting
• MLA Citation Examples

MLA Sample Paper

• Theological/Philosophical Citations

The following PDF provides a sample paper written in the MLA style to demonstrate visually how the guidelines work in action. This PDF is used with thanks and full credit to the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) , which maintains a robust online guide to a variety of style guides, avoiding plagiarism, and writing at the academic level in general. They are strongly recommended as a resource if you need something more in depth than this guide provides.

“MLA Sample Paper.” MLA Sample Paper - Purdue OWL® - Purdue University , Purdue OWL / Purdue University, 21 Oct. 2019, owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_sample_paper.html. Accessed on 28 Sept. 2023.

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• Last Updated: Jun 14, 2024 4:03 PM
• URL: https://libguide.umary.edu/citations

English Education & English Writing: MLA Sample Paper from OWL Purdue

• Books & eBooks
• Dissertations, Videos, & Reviews
• English Education
• Research Methods
• Linguistics
• Discourse Analysis
• Writing Centers
• Creative Writing
• MLA Sample Paper from OWL Purdue
• Search Terms
• Who to Stalk?
• Sample Articles
• Capstone Presentations

Sample Paper Formatted in MLA Style from OWL Purdue

• Sample MLA Paper Below is a sample paper from OWL Purdue formatted to MLA Standards

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Deadline Extended for Our Information Literacy Prize: Apply Now !

What’s New on MLA Handbook Plus ?

What is mla handbook plus .

MLA Handbook Plus is a new, subscription-based digital product providing online access to the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook. To learn more about MLA Handbook… Read More

What’s New in the Ninth Edition of the MLA Handbook (Spring 2021)

Published in April 2021, the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook works as both a textbook and a reference guide. You can order a copy… Read More

MLA Guide to Digital Literacy , 2nd Edition: An Interview with the Author

by Ellen C. Carillo

Ellen C. Carillo talks to the MLA about the MLA Guide to Digital Literacy , second edition. Read More

How do I alphabetize Irish surnames in the works-cited list?

This post explains how to alphabetize Irish surnames Read More

Teaching Resources

A Century of Queer Korean Fiction : An Interview with Samuel Perry

Toward Educational Justice: An Interview with the Editors of Teaching Literature and Writing in Prisons

Henrique Maximiano Coelho Neto’s Sphinx: A Neo-Gothic Novel from Brazil : An Interview with M. Elizabeth Ginway

A Reflection on Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities on Its Twentieth Anniversary

Teaching Claire de Duras’s Ourika

Teaching Nineteenth-Century Activist Rhetorics Today: An Interview

How and Why to Teach Late-Twentieth-Century Mexicana and Chicana Writers: An Interview

Advice from the Editors

Similar but Different: Using Compare with and Compare to

Forego versus Forgo

Was and Were with the Subjunctive

Their , There , and They’re : Learn the Difference

Attributive Nouns; or, Why There Is Sometimes No Apostrophe in Terms Such As Teachers Union

Terms for Key Concepts

Laying versus Lying

Getting to the Bottom of Principle and Principal

Ask the MLA

How do i alphabetize a works-cited-list entry that begins with a hashtag or another symbol.

The MLA recommends that writers should “ignore symbols when alphabetizing” (“How”). This includes hashtags. Thus, if an entry begins with a hashtag or another symbol,… Read More

How do I cite a work accessed through Wayback Machine ?

Wayback Machine is an archive of websites that lives on the Internet Archive ’s site, so you would treat the Internet Archive as the container of… Read More

MLA Research Paper Formatting

• MLA 9th Template & Paper Sample
• Finding Sources for Your Paper
• Detailed Comparison (Printable)
• Additional Resources

MLA Style (9th Edition)

• Sample Papers

You are going to love this! Save this template somewhere safe or e-mail it to yourself. Then resave it immediately with the name of your new document. This will keep your template safe and ready to reuse again for future assignments.

This template will be sufficient for most student MLA papers. For more information on formatting your paper, consult the official MLA Style website:  https://mlahandbookplus.org/books/book/5/chapter/56247/Introduction-to-Formatting-Your-Research-Project  or pages 1-14 in the MLA Manual. 

• Purdue Owl Sample Paper Sample paper is downloadable.
• Sample Papers - MLA Style Center PDFs available of the 2022 MLA Student Essay Contest winners.
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Polk State College is committed to equal access/equal opportunity in its programs, activities, and employment. For additional information, visit polk.edu/compliance .

MLA: MLA Guide

Fonts - MLA

"Choose an easily readable typeface (e.g., Times New Roman) in which the regular type style contrasts clearly with the italic." 

Some examples:

• Times New Roman

Basic MLA Citation

Author Last Name, First Name M. “Article Title in Quotation Marks in Title Case.” Title of Main Work in Italics: Subtitle Also in Italics , vol. ##, no. ##, DD Mon. YYYY, pp. #-##. Database Name in Italics , https://FullURLorDOInumber.

NOTE: One of the only difference between MLA 8th, and 9th, is that you now include the http:// and https://

Basic In-Text or Parenthetical

Author's Last Name and page number in parentheses.

(Shakespeare, 115)

Sample MLA Paper by OWL Purdue

MLA Handout

Citation Help Guide

For additional formatting help, see the Citation Help Guide

Need more help? Check out these online sources

• Last Updated: Dec 7, 2023 5:09 PM
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Citing Your Sources

• Introduction to Citing Sources

Online MLA guides

Sample papers.

• Chicago/Turabian
• Citing Computer Code
• Citing Data
• Citing Film and Video
• Citing Generative AI
• Citing Images
• Citing Online Sources
• Citing Sound Recordings
• Citations Formatters
• Citation Management Software (redirect to a guide) This link opens in a new window
• Plagiarism Avoidance (redirect to a guide) This link opens in a new window

MLA style for documentation is widely used in the humanities, especially in writing on language and literature.

• The MLA Style Center A quick guide to works cited, FAQ, and overview of the changes in the 8th edition, guidelines for formatting your paper, and more.
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide (the OWL at Purdue) This resource offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.
• MLA Format A user-friendly guide from EasyBib.
• MLA Sample Paper (Purdue OWL)
• Sample Papers in MLA Style (The MLA Style Center) The three sample research papers (First-year course in expository writing, Second-year course in African American studies, and Fourth-year course in English literature) are typical of the papers that might be submitted in different kinds of courses.
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• URL: https://guides.libraries.uc.edu/citing

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Citation Guide: MLA

• Legal Citation
• Government Publications
• Engineering
• Other Styles
• MLA Resources
• Basic Citations
• Creating an MLA Research Paper
• Basic Quotation Guidlines
• MLA Style Center MLA Handbook Website
• OWL Purdue MLA Formatting and Style Guide The following overview should help you better understand how to cite sources using MLA 9th edition, including how to format the Works Cited page and in-text citations.
• The Writing Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison MLA These webpages explain how to correctly format in–text citations and works cited list entries for some of the most common print and electronic sources.

MLA provides preliminary official  guidance  for citing information produced by generative AI.

• Writers should not credit the AI as an author. 
• Description of the content of the generated product should be treated as the title of the source, as if it were an article or chapter title. 
• Cite a generative AI tool whenever you paraphrase, quote, or incorporate into your own work any content (whether text, image, data, or other) that was created by it 
• Acknowledge all functional uses of the tool (like editing your prose or translating words) in a note, your text, or another suitable location 
• Take care to vet the secondary sources it cites

In-text example:

While the green light in  The Great Gatsby   might be said to chiefly symbolize four main things: optimism, the unattainability of the American dream, greed, and covetousness (“Describe the symbolism”), arguably the most important—the one that ties all four themes together—is greed.

Works Cited entry example:

“Describe the symbolism of the green light in the book  The Great Gatsby  by F. Scott Fitzgerald” prompt.  ChatGPT , 13 Feb. version, OpenAI, 8 Mar. 2023, chat.openai.com/chat

These are basic guidelines to citing sources for your works cited page using MLA style. If you need to cite a different type of source, see the MLA style guide in the Reference area of the library (2nd floor) or use one of the links listed on the right.

Book by One Author

Mantel, Hilary.  Wolf Hall . Picador, 2010.

Book by an Unknown Author

Beowulf . Translated by Alan Sullivan and Timothy Murphy, edited by Sarah Anderson, Pearson, 2004.

An Edited Book

Sánchez Prado, Ignacio M., editor.  Mexican Literature in Theory . Bloomsbury, 2018.

Online Works

Article on a website.

Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.”  The Atlantic , 28 Dec. 2014, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/ the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-thecreative-entrepreneur/383497/.

Book on a website

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.”  The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe , edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58.  HathiTrust Digital Library , hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924079574368.

Journal Article in a Database

Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.”  The Georgia Review , vol. 64, no. 1, spring 2010, pp. 69-88.  JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.

Songs, Recordings, and Performances

Song from an album.

Snail Mail. “Thinning.”  Habit , Sister Polygon Records, 2016. Vinyl EP. 

Song on a website

Snail Mail. “Thinning.”  Bandcamp , snailmailbaltimore.bandcamp.com.

Concert Attended in Person

Beyoncé. The “Formation” World Tour. 14 May 2016, Rose Bowl, Los Angeles.

Movies, Videos, and Television Shows

A movie viewed in person.

Opening Night.  Directed by John Cassavetes, Faces Distribution, 1977. 

A Movie Viewed Online

Richardson, Tony, director.  Sanctuary . Screenplay by James Poe, Twentieth Century Fox, 1961.  YouTube , uploaded by LostCinemaChannel, 17 July 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMnzFM_Sq8s.

A Television Show Viewed on Physical Media

“Hush.” 1999.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Complete Fourth Seaso n, created by Joss Whedon, episode 10, Mutant Enemy / Twentieth Century Fox, 2003, disc 3. DVD.

A Photograph Viewed in Person

Cameron, Julia Margaret.  Alfred, Lord Tennyson . 1866, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

A Painting Viewed Online

Bearden, Romare.  The Train . 1975.  MOMA , www.moma.org/collection/works/65232?locale=en.

An Untitled Image from a Print Magazine

Karasik, Paul. Cartoon.  The New Yorker , 14 Apr. 2008, p. 49.

• Formatting the Paper from The OWL at Purdue .
• How to cite within your paper (parenthetical citations) from The Writing Center at UW-Madison .
• MLA In-Text Citations - Basics from The OWL at Purdue .
• The Works Cited Page from The Writing Center at UW-Madison .
• MLA Handbook (9th ed.) This resource from the OWL at Purdue lists the changes made in the new edition of the MLA Handbook.

Typically, parenthetical citations follow the format of the author's last name followed by a page number. The following are basic guidelines only. For works with no author, or special cases, see  this site  for more guidelines.

Direct Quotations (copied exactly from the original text)

Quotations that are less than four lines: place a parenthetical citation  after  the quotation mark, but  inside  the period.  Example:

"A savory pie or tart can be the star of a brunch, lunch, casual supper, or buffet" (Malgieri 121).

Quotations that run more than four lines in your paper: use  block quote format  and  do not  use quotation marks. The parenthetical citation goes  after  the last period of the quotation. Block quotes should be double-spaced and indented one inch from the left margin.  Example:

So Kilgore Trout had a depressing childhood, despite all of the sunshine and fresh air. The pessimism that overwhelmed him in later life, which destroyed his three marriages, which drove his only son, Leo, from home at the age of fourteen, very likely had its roots in the bittersweet mulch of rotting Erns. (Vonnegut 34)

Paraphrasing (writing an author's ideas in your own words)

If you paraphrase an author, place the parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence or paragraph. Example:

States with a high celebrity population, such as California and New York, should consider writing legislation that makes it unlawful to publish non-newsworthy photographs of celebrities that exploit their image, so as to protect the celebrities' privacy (Willis 202).

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Citation Guide

• APA Style - 7th Edition

Introduction to MLA Style

Creating mla citations: examples, paper formatting guidelines & sample papers, in-text citations & the list of works cited, examples of works cited & in-text citations, software tools for mla style, works cited for this page.

• Chicago/Turabian Style
• Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
• Tools for Managing Citations
• Citation Season!

What is MLA Style?

MLA stands for Modern Language Association. MLA Style is an established style for formatting your paper and giving credit to your sources. 

This page provides resources for all the elements of a preparing a paper in MLA Style, including formatting, in-text citations, and the works cited list.

Disciplines at Caldwell that use MLA Style include English, history, theology, philosophy, and others.

MLA Quick Links

• Quoting and Paraphrasing in MLA Format This video course is all about quoting and paraphrasing sources in your paper! Learn rules of quoting and paraphrasing responsibly, and see examples of in-text citations in MLA format.
• Purdue OWL Guide to MLA Style Purdue OWL has resources about many citation styles. Here is their section on MLA

An Article from a Journal Found in a Library Database (a source in two containers)

from MLA Handbook chapter 5.100-103, The Three Most Common Types of Entries

A Chapter or Section of a Book Accessed through an Online Repository (a source with two containers)

An Episode of a TV Show Watched on an Online Platform (a source in two containers)

A Chapter or Section of a Print Book (a source in one container)

A Print Book (a source that is self-contained)

• Sample MLA Papers These sample student papers show MLA formatting for all details of a research paper. Look a the structure of the page, how quotes are incorporated, and how works are cited.
• Formatting Your Research Project (MLA Handbook, Ch. 1) Instructions for formatting your paper in MLA style, including margins, title, headers and footers, headings and subheadings, etc.
• The Writing Process Purdue OWL's Guide to academic writing in MLA Style, including grammar, mechanics, and punctuation.
• Mechanics of Prose (MLA Handbook, Ch. 2) Guidance on all the details of writing, such as spelling, grammar, punctuation, how format titles and names in your paper.

In-Text Citations

• In-Text Citations: The Basics Basic instructions from Purdue OWL about how to format in-text citations in MLA Style. This is how you credit your sources when you mention them in the text of your paper.
• Citing Sources in the Text (MLA Handbook, Ch. 6) This chapter starts with the basics of citing your sources in the text of your paper. It covers many situations you might encounter.

Works Cited Page

• MLA Style 101 This video course goes through each "element" of the MLA works cited page entry (like author, title, publisher) and shows how to identify what belongs in each element. This will help you create works cited page entries and know how to edit citations that a database generates!
• Interactive Practice Template Learn how to create citations for your Works Cited page!
• How to Cite Books This page from Purdue OWL covers the basics of citing books as well as what to do in a variety of situations. This page has guidance on multiple authors, an organization as author, translations, anthologies, and more.
• How to Cite Electronic Resources (aka things you found online) This page from Purdue OWL covers works cited page entries for most kinds of online sources, including scholarly journal articles in a library database, ebooks, government agency websites, online news, a YouTube video, personal email correspondence, and more.
• Citation Examples from the MLA Handbook This is a regularly updated list of citations for a wide variety of sources. It's organized by source, so scroll down or use ctrl-F to search the page for the kind of source you want to see, like "translated book" or "YouTube Video".

Journal Article Found in a Library Database

Works cited page entry.

Lorensen, Jutta. “Between Image and Word, Color, and Time: Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series.”  African American Review , vol. 40, no. 3, 2006, pp. 571-86. Academic Search Premier, each.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? Drect=true&db=f5h&AN=24093790&site=eho st-live.

In-text citation

(Lorensen 577)

Newspaper Article Found in a Library Database 

Fessenden, Ford, et al. "The Battle for New York's Key Voting Blocs in the Primaries."  New York Times , 19 Apr. 2016, p. A 14.  ProQuest Central , ezproxy.caldwell.edu:2048/login?url=http:// search.proquest.com/ docview/1781721245?accountid=26523.

(Fessenden et al. A14)

Article from an Online News Source

Chang, Kenneth. “NASA Will Send More Helicopters to Mars.” The New York Times , 27 July 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/07/27/science/mars-sample-mission-nasa.html.

Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdrich.  The Crown of Columbus . HarperCollins Publishers, 1999. 

(Dorris and Erdrich 110-12)

Article or Specific Chapter from a Book 

Copeland, Edward. “Money.”  The Cambridge Companion to Jane Austen , edited by Copeland and Juliet McMaster, Cambridge UP, 1997, pp. 131-48. 

(Copeland 135)

Webpage on a Website 

“Infographic: Benefits of Language Learning.” Modern Language Association , 2022, www.mla.org/Resources/Advocacy/Infographics/Infographic-Benefits-of-Language-Learning.

("Inforgraphic: Benefits of Language Learning")

Film on an App 

Mamma Mia . Directed by Phyllida Lloyd, Universal Pictures, 2008. Netflix app. 

( Mamma Mia ) or ( Mamma Mia  59:03-61:23) - cite a specific scene with timestamps in the page number spot

There are many tools that can help you create, manage, and organize your citations and your references page. Here are some that the library provides or recommends for students and faculty. 

NoodleTools is an online tool that helps you take notes and correctly format citations. MLA, APA, and Chicago/Turabian citation styles are included. Use throughout your research project to track sources, take notes, create outlines, collaborate with classmates, and format bibliographies. Use this link to create an account.

• ZoteroBib ZoteroBib is a free service that helps you build a bibliography from any computer or device, without creating an account or installing any software. It's from the team behind the open source citation management app Zotero. ZBib can create a draft citation from a link or ISBN and has helpful templates for you to use to manually create citations. You can use it for MLA, APA, or Chicago Style.

The information on this page comes from the MLA Handbook, 9th Edition. This book can be cited in MLA style like this:

MLA Handbook.  9th ed., Modern Language Association of America, 2021. 

The elements used here are: [2. Title of source]  MLA Handbook.  [5. Version]  9th ed., [7. Publisher]  Modern Language Association of America, [8. Publication date]  2021. Because the publisher is an organization who is also the author, this organization - the Modern Language Association - is only listed once, as the publisher. 

An in-text citation for this handbook could be ( MLA Handbook  45) to refer specifically to something on page 45. 

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ENGL 102 Research Guide: Purdue OWL MLA Guidelines

• Narrowing Your Topic
• Finding Sources
• Research Log
• Zotero Guide
• How to Read a Journal Article
• Purdue OWL MLA Guidelines
• Stakeholder Analysis

If you are viewing this on a mobile phone, CLICK HERE .

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

In this section

Subsections.

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

• Writing Lab
• Skip Navigation
• Research and Citation
• MLA Overview and Workshop
• MLA Formatting and Style Guide
• MLA In-Text Citations: The Basics
• MLA Formatting Quotations
• MLA Endnotes and Footnotes
• MLA Works Cited Page: Basic Format
• MLA Works Cited Page: Books
• MLA Works Cited: Periodicals
• MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources
• MLA Works Cited: Other Common Sources
• MLA Additional Resources
• MLA Abbreviations

MLA Sample Works Cited Page

• MLA Sample Paper
• MLA Tables, Figures, and Examples
• MLA PowerPoint Presentation
• MLA Undergraduate Sample Paper
• MLA Classroom Poster
• OWL Mail MLA FAQs
• MLA Mini-posters
• Giving to the OWL

Suggested Resources

• -How to Navigate the New OWL
• -Media File Index
• -OWL Exercises

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/). When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice at bottom.

MLA (Modern Language Association) style is most commonly used to write papers and cite sources within the liberal arts and humanities. This resource, updated to reflect the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (7 th ed.) and the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3 rd ed.), offers examples for the general format of MLA research papers, in-text citations, endnotes/footnotes, and the Works Cited page.

Contributors: Tony Russell, Allen Brizee, Elizabeth Angeli, Russell Keck, Joshua M. Paiz, Michelle Campbell, Rodrigo Rodríguez-Fuentes, Daniel P. Kenzie, Purdue OWL Staff Last Edited: 2013-02-14 10:32:55

This handout provides an example of a Works Cited page in MLA 2009 format.

"Blueprint Lays Out Clear Path for Climate Action." Environmental Defense Fund . Environmental Defense Fund, 8 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Clinton, Bill. Interview by Andrew C. Revkin. “Clinton on Climate Change.” New York Times . New York Times, May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Dean, Cornelia. "Executive on a Mission: Saving the Planet." New York Times . New York Times, 22 May 2007. Web. 25 May 2009.

Ebert, Roger. "An Inconvenient Truth." Rev. of An Inconvenient Truth , dir. Davis Guggenheim. rogerebert.com . Sun-Times News Group, 2 June 2006. Web. 24 May 2009.

GlobalWarming.org . Cooler Heads Coalition, 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Gowdy, John. "Avoiding Self-organized Extinction: Toward a Co-evolutionary Economics of Sustainability." International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.1 (2007): 27-36. Print.

An Inconvenient Truth . Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Al Gore, Billy West. Paramount, 2006. DVD.

Leroux, Marcel. Global Warming: Myth Or Reality?: The Erring Ways of Climatology . New York: Springer, 2005. Print.

Milken, Michael, Gary Becker, Myron Scholes, and Daniel Kahneman. "On Global Warming and Financial Imbalances." New Perspectives Quarterly 23.4 (2006): 63. Print.

Nordhaus, William D. "After Kyoto: Alternative Mechanisms to Control Global Warming." American Economic Review 96.2 (2006): 31-34. Print.

---. "Global Warming Economics." Science 9 Nov. 2001: 1283-84. Science Online . Web. 24 May 2009.

Shulte, Bret. "Putting a Price on Pollution." Usnews.com . US News & World Rept ., 6 May 2007. Web. 24 May 2009.

Uzawa, Hirofumi. Economic Theory and Global Warming . Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003. Print.

The Writing Lab & OWL at Purdue University care about accessiblity and content quality. Contact Jeff Bacha to share your comments and concerns. The OWL at Purdue now conforms to W3C.org -validated and CSS 2.0 standards. Additionally, the site passes the Cynthia Says test for ADA Section 508 compliance .

Copyright ©1995-2015 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use .

MLA 8th ed. Style Guide

• Formatting Your Paper
• In-Text Citations examples
• Websites/pages

Sample Paper

• MLA 8th ed. Sample Paper Find examples of how to format and use MLA citation style in papers. Features both in-text and work cited page citations.

Below are some basic guidelines to use when formatting your research paper using MLA citation style.  However, some professors may have specific preferences when using MLA.  Make sure to follow your professor's specific guidelines over MLA recommendations.

Font: 

The Modern Language Association (MLA) permits any font to be used for papers. However, they do recommend that the font be legible and distinct when using the regular and italics of that font.  

Using 12 point font is recommended.  

Line Spacing and Margins:

Use one inch margins on all sides of the document. 

Put only one space after periods. 

Double space between all lines in the document. 

When a quote is more than four (4) lines long, make it a block quote with a margin of one half inch from the left margin.  

Headings and Title: 

MLA does use headers that feature numbers that only number the pages.  When using numbers as a header, make sure the numbers are set in the top right hand corner of the document.  They need to be one-half inch from the top of the page and flush with the right margin. 

MLA does not use a title page; however, if your professors requests a title page, then use a title page for your paper.  

Purdue Online Writing Lab.  General Format , 2020.  https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_general_format.html . 

        Accessed  8 April 2020. 

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• Ask a Librarian

Locating and Using Images for Presentations and Coursework

• Free & Open Source Images
• How to Cite Images
• Alt Text Image Descriptions

Copyright Resources

• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States from Cornell University Library
• Copyright Overview from Purdue University
• U.S. Copyright Office
• Fair Use Evaluator
• Visual Resources Association's Statement of Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study
• Creative Commons Licenses

Attribution

Again, the majority of images you find are under copyright and cannot be used without permission from the creator. There are exceptions with Fair Use, but this Libguide is intended to help you locate images you can use with attribution (and in some case, the images are free to use without attribution when stated, such as with stock images from pixabay). ***Please read about public domain . These images aren't under copyright, but it's still good practice to include attribution if the information is available. Attribution : the act of attributing something, especially the ascribing of a work (as of literature or art) to a particular author or artist. When you have given proper attribution, it means you have given the information necessary for people to know who the creator of the work is.

Citation General Guidelines

Include as much of the information below when citing images in a paper and formal presentations. Apply the appropriate citation style (see below for APA, MLA examples).

• Image creator's name (artist, photographer, etc.)
• Title of the image
• Date the image (or work represented by the image) was created
• Date the image was posted online
• Date of access (the date you accessed the online image)
• Institution (gallery, museum) where the image is located/owned (if applicable)
• Website and/or Database name

Citing Images in MLA, APA, Chicago, and IEEE

• Directions for citing in MLA, APA, and Chicago MLA: Citing images in-text, incorporating images into the text of your paper, works cited APA 6th ed.: Citing images in-text and reference list Chicago 17th ed.: Citing images footnotes and endnotes and bibliography from Simon Fraser University
• How to Cite Images Using IEEE from the SAIT Reg Erhardt Library
• Image, Photograph, or Related Artwork (IEEE) from the Rochester Institute of Technology Library

Citing Images in Your PPT

Currently, citing images in PPT is a bit of the Wild West. If details aren't provided by an instructor, there are a number of ways to cite. What's most important is that if the image is not a free stock image, you give credit to the author for the work. Here are some options:

1. Some sites, such as Creative Commons and Wikimedia, include the citation information with the image. Use that citation when available. Copy the citation and add under the image. For example, an image of a lake from Creative Commons has this citation next to it:  "lake"  by  barnyz  is licensed under  CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 .

2. Include a marker, such as Image 1. or Figure 1., and in the reference section, include full citation information with the corresponding number

3. Include a complete citation (whatever the required format, such as APA) below the image

4. Below the image, include the link to the online image location

5. Hyperlink the title of the image with the online image location

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• Last Edited: Jun 8, 2023 3:28 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/images