MLA Paper Format : What Pages Do I Need With My MLA Style Paper? By Brian Scott At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Unlike some other formal styles for writing scholarly papers, MLA Style does not specify a large number of specific pages that you must include in your paper. APA Style, for example, requires a title page, an abstract page, and a table of contents, among several other types of optional pages. MLA Style, however, does not even require a title page.

I will discuss optional pages you can use in your MLA Style paper in this article, along with some methods you can use to format your paper in MLA Style.

1) TITLE PAGE. MLA Style makes a title page an optional choice for the writer. If you decide to use a title page, center the text. The title page may contain the title, author's name, mailing address, e-mail address, and contact telephone numbers. Some instructors will require you to include the name of the faculty advisor, the date of submission, and the members of the committee that will accept the work. With MLA Style, a separate title page is not numbered. If you're writing an extremely formal paper, such as a thesis or dissertation, you almost certainly should include a separate title page, unless your instructor specifies differently. If you include the title on the first page of the main text, you should number it, but this format is limited to a less formal paper.

2) APPROVAL PAGE. The approval page, which contains all signatures of approval from members of the thesis approval committee, is optional.

3) ABSTRACT PAGE. The abstract page, which is a short summary of the purpose of the paper, is optional.

4) BIOGRAPHY PAGE. The biography page, which provides a short description of the author and his or her accomplishments, is optional.

5) DEDICATION PAGE. The dedication page, which allows the author to dedicate the thesis to a person or multiple people who helped with the paper, is optional.

6) EPIGRAPH PAGE. The epigraph page, which may contain a poem or quotation, is optional.

7) TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE. If the paper is long enough to have sections, you may include a table of contents page.

8) LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES. This page, if applicable, lists all of the illustrations and tables you used in the paper, sorted by the pages on which they appear.

9) PREFACE. The preface, which is an optional page, may introduce the paper by discussing a related idea that doesn't quite fit within the parameters of the main text.

10) MAIN TEXT. With the main text, simply select a readable font, usually Times New Roman at 12 points. Double space throughout the main text, and indent all paragraphs by one-half inch.

MLA Style does not require headings, chapters, or any other method for breaking up the main text. MLA Style also does not prohibit any methods for breaking up the text, however. If your instructor doesn't specify a method for breaking up the text, you can use a few different optional methods. If you choose to use chapters, you can use the following methods for breaking up the text within the chapters.

You can use an extra blank line to separate ideas. Just hit the Enter key an additional time after completing a paragraph. Keep in mind, though, that this method might be ineffective if the blank line occurs at the end of a printed page. Some writers combat this problem by typing three asterisks, centered on the page, in place of the blank line. Others actually type "[blank line]" flush left in place of the blank line.

You may use headings to break up the text and organize similar ideas. MLA Style prefers using an Arabic number with each heading. You also should type each heading flush left with no extra blank lines before or after the heading. For example:

1. Economic Growth 2006

2. Economic Growth 2007

3. Economic Growth 2008

Finally, you may simply use an Arabic number to signify related ideas in the text. Just type "1" centered on a blank line before the first idea, "2" centered before the second idea, and so on.

11) ENDNOTES. If you choose to list endnotes, you need to use a separate page immediately following the main text. An endnotes page is optional in MLA Style.

12) WORKS CITED. The Works Cited page in MLA Style is a list of all sources you referenced in the main text. The listing of all sources requires you to follow a specific set of rules.

13) GLOSSARY. The glossary page, which is a list of all confusing and unusual terms used in the text, along with definitions, is optional.

14) INDEX. If you choose to include an optional index page, it will list the various proper nouns and ideas that you've included throughout the main text, listed alphabetically and linked to the page numbers on which the items appear.

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