Centennial High School
English Department MLA Style Guide: Manuscript Form
Manuscript form: The way in which your document appears on the page, including margins, spacing, font, paragraph indentions, headings and
headers, parenthetical documentation, formatting of quotes, and so on.
When you open a document in the new Microsoft Word, you must perform several steps prior to typing the first word in order to make sure your
document appears in proper MLA format. Take the following steps:
1.
First, use the “Save As” command and save your document as a “Word 97-2003 Document” so that others may open it even if they don’t
have a more recent version of Microsoft Word.
Click first on the Microsoft symbol and
then this line. Name your document
something you can remember easily and
keep saving it every few minutes as you
type/edit. This procedure will save you
from the heartache of an unexpected
power surge or system crash. Further,
you need to make at least one “backup”
copy of every file you create.
2.
Select the “Insert” tab and then “Page Number,” “Top of Page,” and “Plain Number 3.”
This is the Page # symbol.
You want to select the first
option: top of page.
Here, select Plain Number 3.
Insert your cursor to the left of
the number, type your last
name, and hit the space bar one
time (as indicated below).
3.
4.
Here, you must change BOTH the FONT AND the SIZE of your text to make it fit MLA format. MLA guidelines suggest using a very easy to read font that has
a highly distinctive italic format, such as Calibri or Arial (for San Serif) or Times New Roman (for Serif).
Once you do so, a box will appear. Type your last name, skip a space, highlight both your name and the page number, and right click. Another box will
appear. Change the font to Times New Roman (or Arial, if you prefer) and the size to 12 point. These are the only acceptable font sizes for MLA. Once you
have finished, hit “Close,” and your header will be ready regardless of document length.
After you type your info,
highlight it and right click.
Highlight your name AND the
number 1 and change both the
FONT (Times New Roman or
Arial) and SIZE (12 pt only).
Make sure there’s a space
between your name & number.
Close the Header and Footer
box.
5.
Your next step involves changing the line spacing of your document. Here, you will want to select the “Line Spacing” button. Set it at either 1.5 or 2.
Technically, MLA says to double space your paper; however, the double spacing on the new Word looks like triple spacing. Check with your teacher to see
what he or she prefers.
Here’s the line spacing
button.
6.
IMPORTANT: BEFORE TYPING A SINGLE WORD, you must select “Page Layout” and “Paragraphs” to change the spacing after your paragraphs to ZERO pts.
This is extremely important.
If you don’t have this set
correctly, you will have extra
spaces after every line in
your heading, your title, and
between paragraphs. Set
the box in the lower right to
ZERO pts.
7.
Now you must type your heading. It consists of your name, the teacher’s name, the class, and the date, in that order. Once you have typed the
information, highlight the text and change the font to Times New Roman (or Arial) 12 point font to match your header.
Notice the order of the parts
of the header. Yours should
look EXACTLY the same!
Here, you must change the
font and size to match that of
your header.
8.
Once you have completed these steps, you may type your title and center it directly below the heading. Your introductory paragraph goes immediately
after the title. Notice that the paper doesn’t employ any special text effects—no underlining, boldfacing, special fonts, bigger sizes, extra spaces, etc. Your
Notice the writer has
centered the title and has
formatted the document so
that all lines appear
equidistant from each other.
paper should look EXACTLY like this one.
9.
th
Consult your teacher and the MLA Handbook itself for further rules regarding MLA format. The sample MLA document appears on pp. 320-321 of the 6
th
edition; however, you must purchase a 7 edition book and an access code to the new MLA website to access sample papers for the new edition. The
subscription to both are valid for the life of the edition, and they are relatively inexpensive in terms of the depth and breadth of resources available online.