How to Write an Academic Paper (The Simplified Version): Part Two

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How to Write an Academic Paper (The Simplified Version): Part Two

The MLA Writing Format

As mentioned earlier on, an academic paper needs to be in the right format for it to be recognized by an academic institution. If you have basic computer skills, good grammar, and the Microsoft Word processor, may prove to be of help in this case.

As mentioned in Part 1 article of this series, there are several scholarly writing formats. However, most institutions prefer the MLA as well as the APA formats. In this article, we shall discuss more on the MLA format;

Before, writing the essay, ensure that your document has the right page settings

i) Normal margin layout

ii) Use New Times Roman font (unless required otherwise by the instructor)

iii) No hyphenation

iv) Double-spacing

v) Left-indentation

An MLA paper should have the following Sections:

  1. Header- This should contain the student’s last name and the page number.
  2. Student details- Should contain the student’s names, name of instructor, course, and date
  3. Title- This is basically the title of the essay. It should be centered and written in Title Case.
  4. Essay- This comprises the introduction, body, and conclusion. At the beginning of every paragraph, ensure that you indent the first sentence. Make sure that you use
  5. Citations/ references- At the end of your paper, ensure you write where you got your information. This needs to be on its own page at the bottom of the assignment. A writer should understand that the reference page is not included in the assignment word count.

For more on this, check out the following 10 minute video on how the MLA paper should be outlined:

You can also check out some MLA sample papers here. Otherwise you can send a question or comment in the comment section below and we will be glad to help you out. In the Part 3 section, we shall discuss on how to write the citation/reference page.