Standards of MLA

• The main users of MLA style are the humanities fields, including English studies, comparative literature, foreign languages and literature, cultural studies, and other fields of language and culture. MLA style dictates the standards of writing for these academic fields, including specific formatting and layout, stylistic technicalities, and ways of citing sources and preparing a manuscript for publication.
  
  

Use of MLA Style

• The use of a common style allows for consistency within a field. The use of MLA throughout the humanities makes it simpler to follow a text since the format and source references are familiar. According to the Purdue Owl, use of MLA style provides cues to readers that help them navigate the writing and locate sources and establishes a writer's reliability in a field of academics "by demonstrating an awareness of your audience and their needs as fellow researchers."
  
  

General Guidelines of MLA Style

• Some of the general guidelines of MLA style include the lack of a title page and, in the upper right-hand corner of all pages, a header that lists the author's last name and the page number. Other general guidelines include writing in a legible font and using a one-inch margin on all sides and a one-half-inch indent at the beginning of paragraphs.
  
  

In-Text Citations

• In MLA style, when the author refers to the works of others, the source information is put within parentheses after a quote or paraphrase. The word or phrase used in the parenthetical citation must be the first word or phrase listed on the works cited entry. Most parenthetical citations will be in the author-page style, where the author and page number of the source are listed within the parentheses without any punctuation.
  
  

Endnotes and Footnotes

• MLA style discourages the use of endnotes and footnotes because they can distract the reader, but certain publishers or instructors may require them. MLA style allows endnotes and footnotes for bibliography notes, which refer to other publications the reader may want to consult. It also allows for explanatory notes, which contain additional information that may digress from the flow of the paper.
  
  

Works Cited

• The works cited page is a list of all of the sources cited within the main text of a paper. It is found on a separate page at the end of the paper with the same one-inch margins and header including last name and page number as the rest of the paper. The title "Works Cited" is centered and all citations are double spaced. The entries are listed alphabetically by author's last name or by the title of the work if the author is unknown.