Part 2 of How to Set your Paper up in MLA Style
- 1. This is the second part of a two-part series. Start with the one about the more general areas of setting up your document in MLA style first.Another thing is to take care of is the header. This is something that prints on the top of every page. If you use the footer it will print on the bottom, but MLA requires a header.I’m still using Word 2007. If I remember correctly, I think you click “View” in Word 2003.
- 2. Click on Insert.Then click on Header.
- 4. This will open a different function. You can either hold down ctrl + R at the same time or, on the “Home” tab click on the button with an arrow below to move the paragraph to the right side of the page.
- 5. It will then look like this. You need to delete the extra return (backwards P) and type your last name, a space, and then use the page number function to add a counting page number to each page.
- 6. When you click on “Page Number,” this box will open. Make sure your cursor is in the correct place (after the space after your name) and hold your mouse over “Current Position.”
- 8. Your header will now look like this. But notice that if you put your cursor to the left of the number, it turns gray. This is because this is a counting number, meaning it will change with each page.You’re done with the header, so click the “Close Header and Footer” button.
- 9. Your paper will now look like this. Notice that the header is gray while “Sample Text” is black. This is because this will print on every page and you can’t change it unless you go back into the header function.
- 10. Next you need to make sure that your margins are set right. Go to the “Page Layout” tab.
- 12. Make sure that everything is set to 1”, all the way around. To change this to your default, see the first video/slideshow.
- 13. The next thing to do is set up your first page. Remember that this only goes on your first page. On the very first line of your paper, put the following:-your name-your professor’s name-your class, including course and section numbers-the dateIt will look like this. Note thatthese lines and the next are notindented like the paragraphsthat follow.
- 14. On the next line type your title and center it. There is no extra space between the identifying information and the title. If you notice, I have an extra return after my title entered already. This is so I don’t have to uncenter what I just centered. It will look like this:
- 15. To center a paragraph in your text, use the function Word provides, not spaces or tabs to insure accuracy. You can do this by either holding down ctrl and E at the same time, or clicking the button on the “Home” tab.
- 16. Lastly, indent your paragraphs as shown in the previous video/slideshow.