Lastname 1

Student Name

Professor Tatu

English 110

29 February 2008

MLA Manuscript Format

Each academic discipline has its own conventions for documenting research and formatting manuscripts. These conventions are usually agreed upon and published by a professional organization such as the Modern Language Association (MLA). The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, now in its 8th edition, establishes guidelines for research writing in the fields of English language and literature, composition, rhetoric, and the study of modern languages. The basics of MLA style are included in the St. Martin’s Handbook.

In addition to firm guidelines for citing research in student writing, MLA Style dictates certain manuscript conventions, which are illustrated in this handout. The following paragraph from the St. Martin’s Handbook offers an explanation of the first page and title page:

The MLA does not require a title page. Type each of the following items on a separate line of the first page, beginning one inch from the top and flush with the left margin: your name, the instructor’s name, the course name and number, and the date. Double-space between each item; then double space again and center the title. Double-space between the title and the beginning of the text. (Lunsford 308)

The entire manuscript should be double-spaced, but do not skip extra spaces between paragraphs, or leave extra space before or after the title. Some versions of Microsoft Word (inc. Office 2013) have default margins of 1.25” for the left and right margins. Go to the “Page Layout” menu and look for margins in the Page Setup section of the toolbar, and if necessary, change the settings to one-inch margins top, bottom, left, and right. Finally, all your text should be aligned left. Do not “justify” the text. You’ll also want to check the Paragraph settings and make sure there’s a check mark in the box labeled “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.”

You’ll notice that the long quotation above is indented one full inch from the margin, and that it is double-spaced, just like the rest of the paper. That’s the correct format for long quotations of four lines or more. The manuscript format also requires you to “include your last name and the page number on each page, one-half inch below the top and flush with the right margin” (300). This is accomplished on most word processors by creating a header. Whatever text you type in the header is what will appear on each page, so be sure to use the code for a page number instead of typing the number in manually.

A few notes about typography, which come from Professor Tatu rather than the MLA. The practice of underlining titles of longer works (e.g., books, magazine titles, movies, etc.) comes from the days of typewriters, on which italics were not really an option. On a PC or Mac, italics are every bit as easy to use as underlining. While a few professors still prefer that you underline titles, the MLA now makes clear that italics are preferred.Your own title should not have any special formatting (bold, italics, underlining, etc.) and should be in the same size font as the rest of the paper.

Another holdout from the days of typewriters is the practice of typing two spaces after a period. Typists did that because all the keys on a typewriter produced the same sized characters. An extra space after a period was necessary so the reader could tell visually where a sentence ended, and to help distinguish a period from a comma. This practice is not necessary on a PC or a Mac because computers and printers use proportional type face. In other words, the computer automatically inserts a little extra space after a period; a gap of two spaces is overkill and really doesn’t look right. The same goes for extra spaces after a paragraph. They are not necessary, and they may even make it look like you’re trying to “pad” the essay by inserting extra white space. Finally, use only a 12-point font in your papers. Smaller fonts are hard to read (especially for your poor professor, who may have thirty five or forty papers to grade at any given time), and larger fonts can cause your readers to suspect you’re trying to stretch out your page count and make the paper look longer than it really is.

Because I have quoted from the St. Martin’s Handbook in this sample essay, I’ll have to include a works cited page. I will begin this on a new page and center the words Works Cited, in regular font, at the top of the new page. In order to start a new page in Microsoft Word, I’ll hold down the control (CTRL) key and tap enter. I’ve also included several other “works cited” entries for illustration purposes. To be clear, however, you should only list works that you actually have cited on the works cited page.

If you have questions about any of these manuscript conventions, please feel free to ask. I’ll even be happy to sit down at a computer with you and show you how to do the formatting in Microsoft Word. Alternatively, you can download a copy of this file and use it as a template for your own papers. Simply save the file under a different name and replace my text with your own.

When uploading your files to Moodle, please give them a good file name. I suggest using your own last name and a short title (either your own title or the title of the assignment) as the file name. That way, when I have seventeen files that are all called “paper one,” I'll know which one belongs to you.You will submit multiple drafts of some assignments, and you'll want to save each one as a separate file. Please use the following letters after the basic file name: “a” for first draft, “b” for mid-process draft, and “c” for final draft. If you end up writing more than three drafts, just continue with this lettering system.For example, Harold's H. Student's mid-process draft of writing project # 1 would be saved as “hstudent_wp1b.doc” (without the quotation marks).

Lastly, there are a few things you should know about file formats and extensions. Most Lafayette students use Microsoft Word 2013 for word processing. This version of Word is “backwards compatible," meaning that files created in 2013 will open in older versions, and vice versa. Most times, Word 2013 will add the extension “.docx” automatically to any file you save. Mac users, however, need to be especially cautious to save their files in a format that can be opened on a PC. If the MacOS does not automatically give your file a “.docx” extension, please check to make sure you are saving it in the proper format. N.B.: Historically, I've had a lot of trouble handling “open document” or OpenOffice files, such as *.odt files, and I am absolutely unable to open Mac Pages files. I strongly suggest using Word for this class. If I can't open your file, I can't give you feedback!

Works Cited

Lunsford, Andrea. The St. Martins Handbook 7th ed. New York: 2008. Print.