Step 1: make sure the page layout has a 1" margin on all sides.

Check the Margins

1. Click the Layout tab

2. Click Margins

3. Choose 1" on all sides

Step 2: set the font and size to Times New Roman and 12.

Font and Size

1. Click in the Font section.

 

 

 

2. Choose Times New Roman under Font:

3. Choose 12 under Size:

4. Click Set As Default

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. Choose All documents based on the Normal.dotm template?

6. Click OK

 

Now, all new documents on your computer will use these settings.



Step 3: set the line spacing to Double.

Line Spacing

1. Click in the Paragraph section.

 

 

2. Choose Double under Line spacing:

3. Check that the Spacing Before: and After: are 0 pt.

4. Click OK

 



Step 4: type your name, professor's name, course name, and date. Your professor may want you to specify the name of the assignment, too.

Name and Course Info

1. Starting on the first line, type your first and last name. Press Enter.

2. Type your professor's name. Press Enter.

3. Type the course name. Press Enter.

4. Type the day, month, and year. Press Enter

Your professor may want you to include the name of the assignment, too. Follow your professor's directions!

 

 

Step 5: center the title & indent the first line of the paragraph.
Titles: Capitalize content words (nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs), subordinating conjunctions, and the first and last words.

Title and First Line

1. Type the title of the essay.
Examples of correctly capitalized titles:
Social Change within Japan
A Place to Call Home
From Pleasure to Pain
Why Are You in My Space?

2. Click the center button in the Paragraph section. Press Enter.

 

 

3. Click the left button in the Paragraph section.

 

 

 

4. Press the Tab key on the keyboard. This is the first line of your essay.

 

5. Start typing your essay.

Your professor may want page numbers. The next step tells you how to insert page numbers.

Religion at School




Religion at School

Step 6: insert page numbers with your last name. Remember to follow your professor's directions.

Page Number

1. Click the Insert tab.

 

2. Click Page Number.

 

3. Choose Top of Page.

 

4. Choose Plain Number 3 or one with the number in the top right corner.

 

 


5. Before the page number, type your last name.

 

6. Click Close Header.


You now have completed the basic formatting. Congratulations!

Here is a video you can also view: MLA Format Setup in Word 2010

part tells you how to create the final Works Cited page, where you list all of the sources you used in your research paper.







For the Works Cited page, you must start a new page and center Works Cited.

In-line Citation and the Works Cited Page

Throughout your essay, you should have been citing your sources.
Generally, the author's last name and page numbers are in parentheses ( ) after the quotation or information used.
Look at the example of in-line citation on the right.


1. Now let's make the Works Cited page. Start a new page and type Works Cited on the first line.

 

 2. Click the center button in the Paragraph section. Press Enter.

 

 

 

3. Click the left button in the Paragraph section.

 

 

 

4. Start typing the sources. The sources must be listed in alphabetical order by the author/editor's name.

5. The first line of each source is never indented, but any hanging lines are indented one Tab.

These websites can help you format the sources for the Works Cited page:
EasyBib

Son of Citation Machine



...34% of non-Hispanic black women had hypertension, compared with 21% of non-Hispanic white women and 23% of Hispanic women (Matthau 29).


Works Cited



Works Cited

Author's last name, First name. Title of Book.City of Publication: Publisher, year published.

          Print/Web/DVD.

Author's last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal volume#.issue# (year):

          pages. Print/Web/DVD.

Author's last name, First name. "Title of Article." Title of Journal day Month year: pages.

          Print/Web/DVD.


The Essay