Skip to Main Content

Writing and Citing

This guide will help students use various reference and citation formats.

Setting Up Your MLA Paper

Writing a paper can be challenging enough for new students, however, seeing the words Your Paper Must Follow MLA Format Guidelines for the first time in the assignment instructions can be terrifying. 

Have no worries though, think of formatting your paper as a simple organizational task. Once you have used the APA format a few times you'll begin to notice patterns, techniques and short-cuts for setting up future papers. In the end, the APA paper format will help you write organized papers that allow your readers to focus on your content rather than on your presentation style. 

Below are some resources and paper samples to help you format according to MLA Format Guidelines


Sometimes seeing a sample paper can help you understand how all the pieces fit together. Take a look at these sample papers and formatting examples. 

Quick Links to MLA Paper Format Elements

From the Purdue OWL