Document text
[Lastname] 1
[Your First and Last Name]
[Instructor Name, e.g. Professor Lee]
[Course Name and Number, e.g. English 101]
[Day Month Year, e.g. 24 October 2026]
[Title of Your Essay: Capitalized, Not Bold, Not Underlined]
Begin the essay right under the title. Indent each paragraph by half an inch and keep the whole paper double-spaced. Introduce your topic, give the context the reader needs, and end the first paragraph with a clear thesis: [YOUR THESIS IN ONE SENTENCE].
Support each point with evidence and cite it in the text with the author’s last name and the page number, without a comma: one critic describes the novel as “[exact words from the source]” ([Lastname] [page]). If you name the author in your sentence, put only the page in parentheses: [Lastname] argues that [IDEA] ([page]).
For two authors give both names ([Lastname] and [Lastname] [page]); for three or more, the first name and “et al.” ([Lastname] et al. [page]). For a web source without pages, the author alone is enough ([Lastname]). If there is no author, use a short title in quotation marks (“[Short Title]”).
A quotation longer than four lines is set off as a block: start it on a new line, indent the whole quotation half an inch, drop the quotation marks and put the citation after the final period.
[Exact words of a long quotation, more than four lines in your paper, indented half an inch from the left margin and double-spaced like the rest of the essay.] ([Lastname] [page])
Finish with a conclusion that answers your thesis and explains why it matters. Do not add new evidence in the last paragraph.
Works Cited
[Lastname], [Firstname]. [Title of Book]. [Publisher], [Year].
[Lastname], [Firstname], and [Firstname Lastname]. “[Title of Article].” [Journal Name], vol. [0], no. [0], [Year], pp. [00]–[00]. [Database Name], https://doi.org/[DOI].
[Lastname], [Firstname]. “[Title of Chapter or Essay].” [Title of Anthology], edited by [Firstname Lastname], [Publisher], [Year], pp. [00]–[00].
[Lastname], [Firstname]. “[Title of Web Page].” [Website Name], [Day Month Year published], [URL].
[Title of Film]. Directed by [Firstname Lastname], [Production Company], [Year].
[Lastname], [Firstname]. “[Title of Video].” YouTube, uploaded by [Channel Name], [Day Month Year], [URL].
MLA 9 CHECKLIST — delete this page before submitting
• MLA 9 has no title page unless your instructor asks for one. The heading block (name, instructor, course, date) goes at the top left of the first page; the title is centered in plain text.
• Header: your last name and the page number, top right, half an inch from the top, on every page.
• Font: a readable one such as Times New Roman, 12 pt. Margins 1 in. Double-space everything, including quotations and Works Cited. Dates are written day month year: 24 October 2026.
• Works Cited: new page, title centered and not bold, entries in alphabetical order, hanging indent of half an inch.
• MLA core elements in order: Author. Title of source. Title of container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location. Leave out any element the source does not have.
• The Works Cited entries above are patterns, not real sources — replace each one with your own.
Field labels in [SQUARE BRACKETS, CAPITALS] must be completed or deleted. Alternatives are separated by a slash (e.g., [HIS/HER]). © Layers (layers.md), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). You may adapt and reuse this template with attribution. MLA 9 template — replace every [FIELD].
MLA 9 template — replace every [FIELD]. © Layers (layers.md) · CC BY 4.0