How to Format a Paper in MLA Style: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

To format a paper in MLA style, set one-inch margins on all four sides, use a readable 12-point font such as Times New Roman, and double-space every line including the Works Cited list. Add a flush-left heading with your name, instructor, course and date, then a centered title, half-inch paragraph indents, and a Works Cited page with hanging indents.

That is the whole job, honestly. MLA formatting is less about creativity than about five document settings you apply once, plus a handful of habits while you type. Get those right and most instructors never comment on the format at all.

The rules below follow the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, the current version. One caveat before anything else: your instructor’s written instructions beat this page every time. Plenty of English departments want a title page, a different font, or a specific heading style. When the two disagree, go with the assignment sheet.

Element	Required setting	Value
Paper	Standard white paper	8.5 by 11 inches
Margins	Equal space on every side	1 inch
Font	Legible and consistent	12-point Times New Roman or similar
Line spacing	Double-spaced everywhere	2.0, including the Works Cited page
Running head	Last name and page number, right corner	0.5 inch from top, flush right
First-page heading	Name, instructor, course, date	Flush left, double-spaced
Title	Centered, Title Case, unstyled	No bold, italics, or quotation marks
Body paragraphs	First line indented	0.5 inch, using the Tab key
Block quotations	Indented from the left margin	1 inch, no quotation marks
Works Cited	New page, centered heading, alphabetized	0.5-inch hanging indent

What You Need

You need four things: a word processor, your assignment instructions, complete information about every source you used, and an MLA resource to check against. That last one can be the 9th edition of the MLA Handbook or your library’s style guide.

A blank document is fine. If your instructor shared a template, start from the template instead and do not fight its settings. Templates often arrive with margins and spacing already correct, which saves about ten minutes.

Rough out your source details before you format anything: author, title, publisher or website, date, and page numbers. Missing publication details are the most common Works Cited error, and chasing them at the end means scrolling back through old browser tabs.

How to Format a Paper in MLA Style: Step-by-Step

Work through these in order. Each step builds on the last, and you can see the result after every one, which makes fixing a mistake far cheaper than correcting a whole document at midnight.

1. Set the Paper and Font

Choose standard white 8.5-by-11-inch paper. Then set margins to one inch on all sides, pick a readable 12-point font such as Times New Roman, and turn on double spacing for the whole document.

In Google Docs, open Format and choose Page style (called Document in some versions), then set margins to 1 inch. For spacing, click the line spacing button in the toolbar and choose Double, or open Format and choose Paragraph, then Line spacing: Double.

In Microsoft Word, go to Layout, click Margins, then Normal. Set the font with Home, Font, then Line and Paragraph Spacing, then 2.0. The quickest check is the paragraph mark symbol in Word with Show/Hide formatting turned on: double-spaced lines show a double arrow between them.

You will know it worked when a fresh paragraph starts on the next double-spaced line and nothing hugs the top or side edges.

2. Create the First-Page Heading

In the upper-left corner of page one, type four lines: your full name, your instructor’s name, the course name and number, and the date. Each line is double-spaced from the next, and the whole block is flush left with no indentation.

MLA does not require a separate title page. The first page of the paper carries the heading block, and the title follows on that same page. Plenty of courses still ask for a title page anyway, so check the assignment sheet.

A correct block looks like this:

Jordan Reyes
Prof. Alina Marsh
English 203: American Literature
3 October 2026

Group projects are the usual exception. With two or more writers, list each contributor’s name on its own line in the same position.

3. Format the Title and Opening Paragraph

Center the title one line below the heading block, still double-spaced. Use Title Case, which capitalizes the main words and leaves short articles and prepositions lowercase unless they start or end the title. Leave out quotation marks, italics, bold and underlining.

A plain centered line with no extra decoration is what you want:

Fear and Memory in The Great Gatsby

Then start the essay. The first paragraph begins at the left margin with no indent, because it follows a centered title rather than another paragraph. Later paragraphs get the half-inch indent from step 4.

4. Indent Paragraphs and Use the Correct Spacing

Indent the first line of every body paragraph one-half inch from the left margin. Press the Tab key once to do it. Using the spacebar is the single most common formatting error, because spaces land wherever the default stops are set, which is often at 0.5 inch but frequently is not.

Keep left and right margins at one inch, stay double-spaced, and do not press Enter twice between paragraphs. A blank line there pushes the text half a line out of alignment and shows up on every page after it.

For a 12-point Times New Roman document, one-half inch is five spaces if you must count, but Tab is the correct mechanism. A default first-line indent set in the paragraph settings is also fine and travels to new paragraphs automatically.

The correct pattern looks like this: flush left at the margin, tab to one-half inch, run to the right margin, then the next paragraph starts the same way with no blank line between.

If the indent looks wrong on screen, turn on the ruler. The first-line marker should sit exactly halfway between the page edge and the one-inch margin marker.

5. Integrate Quotes and Parenthetical Citations

Every borrowed idea needs an in-text citation showing the author’s last name and, when the source is short or has no pagination, the title or page number. Parenthetical citations go inside the sentence before the closing punctuation, separated by a space or comma.

A paraphrase with a page number looks like this: Gatsby’s obsession with repeating the past shapes the novel’s central tension (Fitzgerald 45). A quotation includes the page number after the closing quotation mark and before the parenthesis: the green light “glittered and GREEN” (Fitzgerald 89).

For works with three or more authors, name the first author followed by “et al.” For two authors, use both last names. When two sources share an author, add a short form of the title: (Locke, “Property” 24).

Quotations of four lines or fewer run inside your paragraph. Anything longer becomes a set-off quotation, indented one inch from the left margin, double-spaced, with no quotation marks and a parenthetical citation after the final punctuation.

6. Build the Works Cited Page

Start a new page, center the heading Works Cited in plain text with no quotation marks or italics, then alphabetize entries by the first author’s last name. Include only sources you actually cited in the paper.

Give every entry a half-inch hanging indent, which means the first line sits flush left and every line after it is indented one-half inch. Do not number entries and do not separate them with blank lines. Double-space the entire list.

Three entries cover most student work. A book:

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Simon and Schuster, 1945.

A journal article:

Banerjee, Projit. “Digital Memory and the Archive.” Journal of Modern Culture, vol. 12, no. 2, 2019, pp. 44-61.

A web page:

“Hanging Indent Definition.” Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hanging%20indent. Accessed 28 Sept. 2026.

In the 9th edition the webpage name acts as the container and takes the main title position. If a detail is genuinely missing, check the source once more before guessing, and never fill in a publisher you cannot confirm.

7. Proofread the Final Paper

Set the document down for a few minutes, then come back and read it as a grader would. Page through with the paragraph marks visible so you can see double spacing, indents and any stray tab characters.

Run this list: one-inch margins on every page, 12-point font throughout, double spacing with no exceptions, running head on every page including page one, heading block in the correct order, title centered with no decoration, half-inch first-line indents on every paragraph after the opening one, in-text citations in alphabetical match with the Works Cited list, entries alphabetized with hanging indents, and one space after each period rather than two.

In Google Docs, Format and then Paragraph confirms indentation; Insert, then Header and Footer confirms the running head. In Word, use Layout and then Page Setup, and double-click the top of any page to inspect the header.

If the paper is finished, print it on 8.5-by-11-inch white paper in black ink, or export a PDF and check the page count before uploading.

Common Mistakes

Formatting errors cost points even when the argument is strong. These are the ones teachers see most often.

Trusting Word’s built-in citation tool. References, then Bibliography, then Insert produces a heading in the wrong size and the wrong spacing, and student reports on r/MicrosoftWord describe losing grade points over exactly that heading. Type the entries yourself or fix the generated heading before you submit.

Treating a short essay like a research paper. A five-paragraph response essay rarely needs a Works Cited page or a running head. Ask your instructor what the assignment expects.

Using footnotes. MLA papers carry source information in parentheses in the text, not in notes. Endnotes belong only to genuinely explanatory material.

Writing “References” instead of “Works Cited.” Center the words Works Cited, unformatted, on its own page.

Mixing citation formats. APA-style commas and years inside the parenthesis, or a missing page number, break the pattern.

Putting quotation marks around paraphrases. If you reworded the idea, no quotation marks, only the citation.

Adding a title page nobody asked for. MLA papers use the first page header block. A separate cover page is optional and instructor-specific.

Typing the running head into the body text. Your last name and page number belong in the document header, half an inch from the top, flush right. This is the most misunderstood rule in the set.

Two habits catch most of the rest. Paste sources as plain text into a scratch document and re-apply italics by hand, because copying from a website strips formatting. And turn on the ruler so you can see whether an indent is really half an inch rather than guessing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Start with the assignment sheet, then work down the list: page setup, heading block, title, indents, citations, Works Cited. To format a paper in MLA style, do those six things in that order and most of the grading risk disappears before you begin arguing the topic.

Finish with one slow pass with the formatting marks showing, and read the running head and Works Cited heading twice, since those are where marks get taken off for reasons that have nothing to do with your argument.