MLA style writing is stressing me out where do i even start

[TerryDoo]

I need to put this out there because I feel like I'm the only one in my ENGL 101 class who didn't learn this in high school. My professor just dropped our first research paper assignment, and the rubric says "Must follow MLA style writing guidelines strictly." I literally froze. I know it has something to do with double spacing and a "Works Cited" page, but that's about it.

I went to the library website, and there are like a million pages of rules. Italics vs. quotation marks for article titles? What is a hanging indent and why does it sound like a punishment? I don't even know how to format the header on the first page. My roommate told me just to use an online citation generator, but my TA said those are often wrong and that I need to actually understand the why behind the rules.

Does anyone have a super simple, step-by-step guide for total beginners? Like, "MLA style writing for Dummies"? I want to get this right because I know it's used in all my humanities classes from now on. I'm actually excited to sound like a "real" academic, I just need someone to hold my hand through the first paper! Any advice would be a lifesaver.

 

[Karen]

Okay Terry, let's break this down into baby steps because MLA is actually very logical once you see the pattern:

The Physical Setup:

• 12pt font, Times New Roman (or whatever your prof allows)
• Double spaced everywhere, no extra spaces between paragraphs
• 1-inch margins all around
• Header on first page: Your Name, Professor Name, Class, Date (top left)
• Your last name and page number in top right corner (header section)

The Paper Structure:

1. Header (as above)
2. Centered title (no bold, no italics, just regular)
3. Your essay
4. Works Cited page (starts on new page at the end)

The Citation Basics:

• When you quote or paraphrase, put (Author Last Name Page Number) at the end. Example: (Smith 24).
• Works Cited entries are alphabetical by author's last name
• Hanging indent = first line normal, second line indented (Word can do this automatically under Paragraph settings)

Your Lifeline:
Bookmark Purdue OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide. It has examples for everything including TikTok videos and Twitter threads now. You'll use it for all four years.