CNX229: Everyday Design

MLA stands for Modern Language Association, which is a professional organization for individuals who teach and study modern languages and literature. As part of their work, the MLA introduced a citation style guide, which can be used to format research papers. This guide is what Professor Laurie would like you to use to format your papers and works cited pages. 

The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) has a great set of pages dedicated to explaining MLA and how to use it. For more detailed instructions, or for questions that you have that you don't see an answer to here, please refer to their page. 

The following guidelines are taken from the Purdue OWL MLA Guide. 

Remember, if Professor Laurie's instructions require something other than strict MLA format, follow your Professor's instructions! 

General Format 

• Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5" by 11" paper. 
• Double-space your text, and use a legible font (like Times New Roman). Font size should be 12 pt. 
• Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation. 
• Set all margins of your document to 1 inch. 
• Indent the first line of each paragraph one half inch from the left margin. Use the "Tab" key to help with this. 
• Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner, one 1/2 inch from the top and flush with the right margin. 
• Use italics throughout your essay to indicate titles of longer works and emphasis only when absolutely necessary. 

Your Works Cited Page 

Remember: 

• Always begin your Works Cited page on a separate page at the end of your paper. It should have the same one-inch margins and last name,  page number header as the rest of your paper 
• Label the page Works Cited - do NOT italicize the words or put them in quotation marks. Only your title should be centered. 
• Double space all citations, but do not skip spaces between entries. 
• Indent the second and subsequent lines of citations by 0.5 inches to create a hanging indent. 
• List page numbers of sources efficiently, when needed. 
• For a span of pages, use "pp." Example: pp. 250-277. For a single page, mark it with the abbreviation "p." before the page number. Example p. 57. 
• If you're citing an article or publication that was originally issued in print form but that you retrieved from an online database, you should type the online database name in italics. 

To cite a podcast, use the general MLA format template, which can be found on Purdue OWL's site, as follows:

Author. Title. Title of container (do not list container for standalone books, e.g. novels), Other contributors (translators or editors), Version (edition), Number (vol. and/or no.), Publisher, Publication Date, Location (pages, paragraphs URL or DOI). 2nd container’s title, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location, Date of Access (if applicable).

An example of this would be as follows, for an episode of Ghosts in the Burbs, a storytelling podcast:

Liz Sower, narrator. "29 - The Rental.' Ghosts in the Burbs, iTunes app, 4 Dec 2017. 

For more details on citing a podcast episode, visit the MLA Style Blog at: https://style.mla.org/how-do-i-cite-a-podcast-episode/.