Writing Book 8 · Lesson 23

The Basics of an MLA Paper

MLA is a set of conventions for presenting a paper and naming its sources.

What you read today

Advanced Academic Writing, pages 8–8 — the chapter The Basics of an MLA Paper.

This lesson's text is the book itself. Your teacher has the pages; read them with the class, then do the work on your sheet.

Remember
Read it as a writer: not only what happens, but what the author did to make it happen that way.

Ask yourself: “Could a reader find every source of mine without asking me?”

A format exists so a reader never has to wonder where to look.