What is MLA format for Term Papers?
Every term paper must include facts to back up your thesis statements. However, since you are not an expert at the topic you are writing a term paper on, you must tell your professor where you took your facts from. This is done with in-text citation. In order to keep consistency at all colleges, universities and academic institutions that write term papers, the Modern Language Association (MLA)developed MLA format standards.
MLA format for term papers requires students cite information with the author’s last name and the page number of the book that the information was taken from within the text. An example would be as follows in parentheses (Smith, 29). At the end of the document, a bibliography or Works Cited list is added, which contains all the books used within the text for citation. The following is an example of an MLA bibliographic citation:
Smith, John. How the West Was Won in a Day. New York: Norton Publishing, 2005.
With this, the professor knows exactly what book, the author, and the edition of the book that you took the information from. It also protects you from being accused of stealing other people’s work or making up facts. While many students get frustrated with MLA format, it is a necessary and helpful part of writing term papers.
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