mla essay introduction examples

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MLA Sample Paper

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This resource contains a sample MLA paper that adheres to the 2016 updates. To download the MLA sample paper, click this link .

Sample Essays: Writing with MLA Style

Congratulations to the students whose essays were selected for the 2024 edition of Writing with MLA Style! Essays were selected as examples of excellent student writing that use MLA style for citing sources. Essays have been lightly edited. 

If your institution subscribes to MLA Handbook Plus , you can access annotated versions of the essays selected in 2022 and 2023. 

Writing with MLA Style: 2024 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2024 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The selection committee for high school submissions was composed of Lisa Karakaya, Hunter College High School; and Heather Smith, Dedham Public Schools. The selection committee for postsecondary submissions was composed of Rachel Ihara, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York; Tarshia L. Stanley, Wagner College; and Joyce MacDonald, University of Kentucky.

High School Essays

Miguel Kumar (Ransom Everglades School)

“McCarthyism at the Movies: The Effects of Hollywood McCarthyism on the American Public”

Catherine Mao (Hunter College High School)

“ Beauty Is in the Eye of the Beholder, and the Beholder Is a White Man: The 1875 Page Act, Eugenics, and Beauty Standards for Chinese Women versus American Women ”

Undergraduate Essays

Rachelle Dumayas  (California State University, Sacramento)

“Should Deaf Children Get Cochlear Implants?”

Holly Nelson (Johns Hopkins University)

“Creating Space? Representations of Black Characters in Regency Romance”

Chloe Wiitala (University of Minnesota, Duluth)

“ Reanimating Queer Perspectives through Camp: A Study of Frankenstein and Its Parodic Film Adaptations ”

Writing with MLA Style: 2023 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2023 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2023 selection committee was composed of Ellen C. Carillo, University of Connecticut (chair); Rachel Ihara, Kingsborough Community College, City University of New York; and Tarshia L. Stanley, Wagner College.

Caroline Anderson (Pepperdine University)

“ L’Appel du Vide : Making Spaces for Sinful Exploration in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ”

Hunter Daniels (University of South Carolina, Aiken)

“Biblical Legalism and Cultural Misogyny in The Tragedy of Mariam ”

Aspen English (Southern Utah University)

“Putting the ‘Comm’ in Comics: A Communication-Theory-Informed Reading of Graphic Narratives”

Raul Martin (Lamar University)

“The Book-Object Binary: Access and Sustainability in the Academic Library”

Grace Quasebarth (Salve Regina University)

“Finding a Voice: The Loss of Machismo Criticisms through Translation in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits ”

Writing with MLA Style: 2022 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2022 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2022 selection committee was composed of Ellen C. Carillo, University of Connecticut; Jessica Edwards, University of Delaware (chair); and Deborah H. Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago.

Kaile Chu (New York University, Shanghai)

“Miles Apart: An Investigation into Dedicated Online Communities’ Impact on Cultural Bias”

Sietse Hagen (University of Groningen)

“The Significance of Fiction in the Debate on Dehumanizing Media Portrayals of Refugees”

Klara Ismail (University of Exeter)

“Queering the Duchess: Exploring the Body of the Female Homosexual in John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi ”

Yasmin Mendoza (Whittier College)

“Banning without Bans”

Niki Nassiri (Stony Brook University)

“Modern-Day US Institutions and Slavery in the Twenty-First Century”

Samantha Wilber (Palm Beach Atlantic University)

“‘Pero, tu no eres facil’: The Poet X as Multicultural Bildungsroman”

Writing with MLA Style: 2019 Edition

The following essays were selected for the 2019 edition of Writing with MLA Style. The 2019 selection committee was composed of Jessica Edwards, University of Delaware; Deborah H. Holdstein, Columbia College Chicago (chair); and Liana Silva, César E. Chavez High School, Houston, Texas.

Catherine Charlton (University of King’s College, Nova Scotia)

“‘Coal Is in My Blood’: Public and Private Representations of Community Identity in Springhill, Nova Scotia”

Alyiah Gonzales (California Polytechnic State University)

“Disrupting White Normativity in Langston Hughes’s ‘I, Too’ and Toni Morrison’s ‘Recitatif’”

Meg Matthias (Miami University, Ohio)

“Prescriptions of (Living) Historical Happiness: Gendered Performance and Racial Comfort in Reenactment”

Jennifer Nguyen  (Chaminade University of Honolulu)

“The Vietnam War, the American War: Literature, Film, and Popular Memory”

Emily Schlepp (Northwest University)

“A Force of Love: A Deconstructionist Reading of Characters in Dickens’s  Great Expectations ”

Generate accurate MLA citations for free

• Knowledge Base
• MLA format for academic papers and essays

MLA Format | Complete Guidelines & Free Template

Published on December 11, 2019 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on May 6, 2024 by Jack Caulfield.

The MLA Handbook provides guidelines for creating MLA citations and formatting academic papers. This includes advice on structuring parenthetical citations, the Works Cited page, and tables and figures. This quick guide will help you set up your MLA format paper in no time.

Cite your MLA source

Start by applying these MLA format guidelines to your document:

• Use an easily readable font like 12 pt Times New Roman
• Set 1 inch page margins
• Use double line spacing
• Include a ½” indent for new paragraphs
• Include a four-line MLA heading on the first page
• Center the paper’s title
• Use title case capitalization for headings
• Cite your sources with MLA in-text citations
• List all sources cited on a Works Cited page at the end

Alternatively, you can automatically apply the formatting with our MLA docx or Google Docs template.

Table of contents

How to set up mla format in google docs, header and title, running head, works cited page, creating mla style citations, headings and subheadings, tables and figures, frequently asked questions about mla format.

The header in MLA format is left-aligned on the first page of your paper. It includes

• Your full name
• Your instructor’s or supervisor’s name
• The course name or number
• The due date of the assignment

After the MLA header, press ENTER once and type your paper title. Center the title and don’t forget to apply title-case capitalization. Read our article on writing strong titles that are informative, striking and appropriate.

For a paper with multiple authors, it’s better to use a separate title page instead.

At the top of every page, including the first page, you need to include your last name and the page number. This is called the “running head.” Follow these steps to set up the MLA running head in your Word or Google Docs document:

• Double-click at the top of a page
• Type your last name
• Insert automatic page numbering
• Align the content to the right

The running head should look like this:

The Works Cited list is included on a separate page at the end of your paper. You list all the sources you referenced in your paper in alphabetical order. Don’t include sources that weren’t cited in the paper, except potentially in an MLA annotated bibliography assignment.

Place the title “Works Cited” in the center at the top of the page. After the title, press ENTER once and insert your MLA references.

If a reference entry is longer than one line, each line after the first should be indented ½ inch (called a hanging indent ). All entries are double spaced, just like the rest of the text.

Generate accurate MLA citations with Scribbr

Prefer to cite your sources manually? Use the interactive example below to see what the Works Cited entry and MLA in-text citation look like for different source types.

Headings and subheadings are not mandatory, but they can help you organize and structure your paper, especially in longer assignments.

MLA has only a few formatting requirements for headings. They should

• Be written in title case
• Be left-aligned
• Not end in a period

We recommend keeping the font and size the same as the body text and applying title case capitalization. In general, boldface indicates greater prominence, while italics are appropriate for subordinate headings.

Chapter Title

Section Heading

Tip: Both Google Docs and Microsoft Word allow you to create heading levels that help you to keep your headings consistent.

Tables and other illustrations (referred to as “figures”) should be placed as close to the relevant part of text as possible. MLA also provides guidelines for presenting them.

MLA format for tables

Tables are labeled and numbered, along with a descriptive title. The label and title are placed above the table on separate lines; the label and number appear in bold.

A caption providing information about the source appears below the table; you don’t need one if the table is your own work.

Below this, any explanatory notes appear, marked on the relevant part of the table with a superscript letter. The first line of each note is indented; your word processor should apply this formatting automatically.

Just like in the rest of the paper, the text is double spaced and you should use title case capitalization for the title (but not for the caption or notes).

MLA format for figures

Figures (any image included in your paper that isn’t a table) are also labeled and numbered, but here, this is integrated into the caption below the image. The caption in this case is also centered.

The label “Figure” is abbreviated to “Fig.” and followed by the figure number and a period. The rest of the caption gives either full source information, or (as in the example here) just basic descriptive information about the image (author, title, publication year).

Source information in table and figure captions

If the caption of your table or figure includes full source information and that source is not otherwise cited in the text, you don’t need to include it in your Works Cited list.

Give full source information in a caption in the same format as you would in the Works Cited list, but without inverting the author name (i.e. John Smith, not Smith, John).

MLA recommends using 12-point Times New Roman , since it’s easy to read and installed on every computer. Other standard fonts such as Arial or Georgia are also acceptable. If in doubt, check with your supervisor which font you should be using.

The main guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA style are as follows:

• Apply double line spacing
• Indent every new paragraph ½ inch

The fastest and most accurate way to create MLA citations is by using Scribbr’s MLA Citation Generator .

Search by book title, page URL, or journal DOI to automatically generate flawless citations, or cite manually using the simple citation forms.

The MLA Handbook is currently in its 9th edition , published in 2021.

This quick guide to MLA style  explains the latest guidelines for citing sources and formatting papers according to MLA.

Usually, no title page is needed in an MLA paper . A header is generally included at the top of the first page instead. The exceptions are when:

• Your instructor requires one, or
• Your paper is a group project

In those cases, you should use a title page instead of a header, listing the same information but on a separate page.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2024, May 06). MLA Format | Complete Guidelines & Free Template. Scribbr. Retrieved August 8, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/mla/formatting/

Is this article helpful?

Raimo Streefkerk

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MLA Sample Paper: Detailed Template

• Icon Calendar 24 June 2024
• Icon Page 1843 words
• Icon Clock 9 min read

For many assignments, students need to have a good MLA sample paper to fill key parts of a main text with explanations properly. In this case, sample templates are used to replace an entire text with a user’s own work so that it will be formatted correctly in the end. To write an MLA sample paper, writers must follow its formatting guidelines, including double-spacing, 1-inch margins, 12-point size of words, Times New Roman font, proper in-text citations, and a Works Cited list. However, students may need to save time when formatting such documents. In accordance with the rules of the Modern Language Association, this guide provides a template and its formatting recommendations for all writers who want to organize their research essays correctly, covering an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and Works Cited.

What Is an MLA Sample Paper and Its Purpose

According to its definition, an MLA sample paper is a type of academic document formatted according to the guidelines set by the Modern Language Association Handbook. Basically, people use this style in the humanities field, particularly in literature, language studies, and cultural studies (Hatala). The primary purpose of writing an MLA sample paper is to provide a standardized method for organizing and documenting any scholarly work and ensure clarity, consistency, and credibility. In this case, a written document must follow specific guidelines for formatting its text, citing sources, and structuring a research paper itself, such as using double-spacing, 12-point size, Times New Roman font, and 1-inch margins ( MLA Handbook ). Further on, to avoid plagiarism, proper citation is crucial in a format style sample to give credit to original authors, and this objective can be achieved through adding in-text citations and a Works Cited page, which lists all sources referenced in a document. By adhering to Modern Language Association guidelines, writers demonstrate their academic integrity, avoid any form of plagiarism, and contribute to scholarly discourse in a professional and organized manner (P. Houghton and T. Houghton). Overall, an MLA formatted sample paper aims to follow academic standards and facilitate effective communication within a scholarly community. In terms of pages and words, the length of an MLA sample paper varies depending on academic levels, specific course requirements for essays, the subject’s nature, and the depth of the research, while general guidelines are:

High School:

• Pages: 1-5 pages
• Words: 250-1,250 words

College (Undergraduate):

• Pages: 5-10 pages
• Words: 1,250-2,500 words

University (Upper-Level Undergraduate):

• Pages : 10-15 pages
• Words: 2,500-3,750 words
• Pages: 20-30 pages
• Words : 5,000-7,500 words
• Pages: 50-300 pages, depending on an essay’s complexity or depth of an entire research.
• Words : 12,500-75,000 words or more.

Introduction Paragraph

To write an introduction for an MLA sample paper, people start with a hook to engage target readers, provide some background information on their topics, and end with a clear, concise thesis statement sentence that outlines a main argument or purpose of their compositions. For example, if students know key principles for a title section, an introduction paragraph in an MLA format example starts with a catchphrase to motivate others to read its content (Hatala). Then, second and subsequent sentences should provide background information. In this case, a good introduction should provide a focus on a topic and an overview of a research paper. Besides, this part of an MLA sample paper should be approximately 10% of an entire essay by considering an overall word count of a document. In turn, an introductory paragraph should end with a thesis statement, which provides a clear expression of a main argument or point of view.

Body Paragraphs in MLA Sample Papers

To write a body paragraph for an MLA sample paper, people start with a single topic sentence, provide evidence or examples to support their arguments, explain the significance of the evidence, and connect it back to their thesis statements. Hence, any body paragraph in an MLA formatted sample paper must begin with a topic sentence that relates to a thesis statement (P. Houghton and T. Houghton). As a rule, a topic sentence should contain a keyword used in a thesis statement of an essay. In this case, all body paragraphs support a single thesis statement. Then, a second sentence should provide evidence or an example that supports a topic phrase by following Modern Language Association citation rules. Basically, one must cite the evidence used in research to support a topic sentence. Moreover, a person must include page numbers that contain the quoted or paraphrased evidence in an MLA in-text citation (Hatala). After that, a writer should add one or two sentences to explain the evidence. Besides, explanation sentences should link the evidence to topic sentences. In turn, a last sentence must assert how a particular paragraph contributes to a thesis statement and provide a link to a next section of a sample essay.

Conclusion Section

To write a conclusion for an MLA sample paper, people restate their thesis statements in a new way, summarize the main points discussed, and provide a final thought or call to action. For example, a conclusion part of an MLA sample paper must explain that a particular work covers all the points in a thesis statement (P. Houghton and T. Houghton). Basically, conclusions should contain a summary of main points in an essay. As a rule, this paragraph should not have new ideas after a research process. Furthermore, concluding paragraphs must link an end of an essay to its beginning. However, this last paragraph may contain recommendations when appropriate. In essence, a normal sample conclusion should provide readers with a broader context of a discussed topic. Besides, one should not overwrite in conclusions. In this case, a reasonable conclusion should be approximately 10% of an entire paper’s word count. As a result, limiting concluding paragraphs to 10% ensures one lists only relevant information. Hence, a conclusion section should contain an accurate and consistent summary of a sample essay.

Separate Works Cited List

A Works Cited list of an MLA sample paper should appear on a separate page and must list all the sources cited. In this case, an MLA format Works Cited must start on a new page after a conclusion part. Moreover, all research sources used in in-text citations should appear in alphabetical order ( MLA Handbook ). In turn, every entry should have relevant bibliographic information. To achieve this objective, a listing of a source must have names of authors, titles, years of publications. Finally, online sources must contain Digital Object Identifier (DOI) numbers or Internet links.

Other Features

Entries of journal articles must provide a range of pages and volume and issue numbers. In this case, titles of sources and names of journals must have all major words capitalized ( MLA Handbook ). Hence, they should appear in a title case. Further on, entries for books in an MLA sample paper must contain relevant research and publication details. However, one must provide names of publishers. In turn, students should give cities of publication where applicable. Finally, a particular title, such as “Works Cited,” should appear at the center of a new page. It must be in a capital case, not bolded or underlined.   

Common Mistakes

• Incorrect Formatting of In-Text Citations: Omitting an author’s name or page number in in-text citations, leading to unclear references.
• Improperly Formatting a Works Cited Section: Not using a hanging indent or failing to alphabetize entries, making a list difficult to navigate within a sample research paper.
• Inconsistent Font and Spacing: Using different fonts or single spacing, which disrupts a normal appearance of an essay.
• Missing or Incorrect Header: Omitting a header or placing it incorrectly, which affects page numbering and identification.
• Incorrectly Formatting Block Quotes: Using quotation marks or not indenting block quotes, which misrepresents the formatting for extended quotes in a sample essay.
• Improper Title Formatting: Bolding, underlining, or italicizing a title, which is unnecessary and against Modern Language Association guidelines.
• Inaccurate or Incomplete Citations: Not providing all necessary citation details in research papers, which can lead to incomplete or misleading references.
• Incorrect Margin Size: Using margins larger or smaller than 1 inch, affecting an overall sample essay’s layout and readability.
• Failure to Include a Works Cited List: Omitting a Works Cited page or not listing all cited sources, which can lead to accusations of plagiarism.
• Not Using Italics for Titles of Longer Works: Using quotation marks instead of italics for titles of books, films, or journals, which goes against Modern Language Association style conventions.

This comprehensive guide on formatting an MLA sample paper covers a typical structure of an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion, emphasizing proper organization and adherence to its guidelines. What makes a sample paper MLA is adherence to standard Modern Language Association guidelines, including proper formatting, such as double-spacing, 1-inch margins, 12-point size of text, Times New Roman font, in-text citations from other sources, and a Works Cited component. Firstly, an introduction should engage readers and present a thesis statement. Secondly, each body paragraph should begin with a topic sentence, include evidence, and relate to a central thesis. Thirdly, an essay’s conclusion summarizes the main points without introducing new ideas. In turn, writers need to cite evidence and provide citation entries of sources used in a sample research paper with their Works Cited sections to follow academic integrity and avoid plagiarism.

Works Cited

Hatala, Mark. MLA Made Easy: Your Concise Guide to the 9th Edition . Greentop Academic Press, 2021.

Houghton, Peggy M., and Timothy J. Houghton. MLA, The Easy Way! Updated for the 9th Edition . XanEdu Publishing Inc, 2021.

MLA Handbook . Modern Language Association of America, 2021.

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