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A standard MLA paper requires a works cited list. This is the list of sources you used in your research. It is similar to a bibliography. It comes at the end of the paper and on a new page. It should include the same header and pagination as the main text.
As always, you should check with your teacher before writing your final draft to find out about any specific instructions that differ from examples you find.
- Order of information is author, title, publisher, volume, date, page numbers, access date.
- If there is more than one author, the first author name is written Last, First name. The subsequent author names are written First name Last name.
- Book titles are italicized
Begin typing at the top left of your page. A standard choice for the font is 12 point Times New Roman, and you should keep your text left justified. It's also recommended that you do not use automatic hyphenation features and that you only use one space after a period or other punctuation mark unless you're told otherwise.
Page with Illustrations or Images
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2. Still using double spacing for the lines, type your title. Center the title, and do not use font treatments unless MLA style requires it, such as titles.
Place your report title about one-third of the way down your page.
You may use this format for your first page when your teacher requires one.
Double space after your title and begin your report. Notice that your last name and the page number go at the right top corner of your page in a header.
At the same time, the growth of privately operated correctional facilities has increased significantly in this country. Private prisons now hold 95,522 inmates in this country, which is 6.5 percent of total prisoners (Beck and Harrison 5). In Texas, 16,570 inmates (10 percent of its prison population) are held in private facilities, about 10,000 more than the next highest state. Furthermore, six states had at least 25 percent of their prison population housed in private prisons, led by New Mexico (44%), Alaska (31%), and Montana (29%). These current statistics show that while state governments have been forced to manage and operate overcrowded and over-capacity prisons at considerable costs, many have turned to the private sector to operate prisons (McDonald and Patten Jr.). According to the General Accounting Office, prison operating costs have grown steadily since 1980, increasing almost 550 percent since 1980 based on inflation-adjusted dollars (Austin and Coventry 1).
Whether you need MLA, APA citations, or Chicago style notes, look up the latest edition before turning in a paper.
correctional facility firms has grown to 14 (Austin and Coventry 3). The privatization of prisons occurs in two ways. First, state government can contract out (or outsource) specific services in a correctional facility to a private company after a bidding process. Second, and more radically, private companies build their own privately-managed prisons and contract with state governments to house their inmates. This latter approach, giving private correctional facility firms wide latitude over inmates, is taken in the Texas criminal justice system. In fact, many of these privately operated facilities “have no relationship at all with the state governments in these states, other than an obligation to pay corporate income taxes” (McDonald and Patten Jr. v).
The example research paper below is one that was written in college for a course on the Inklings. The Inklings were a group of writers in England before WWII, including C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
Visual Sample Paper
The abbreviated MLA paper below (linked here without annotations) is about J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how the author used myth, story, and song to link all of his works together. Tolkien is famous for creating a fantasy universe called Middle-earth, which readers can’t truly understand until they read all of the books about Middle-earth (The Silmarillian, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings).
Pay special attention to the MLA format works cited. We only used one type of source (books), but both citations are correct according to the 8th edition of MLA, published in 2016. When you’re writing your own paper, you need to make sure you always use the most recent edition of the style manual.
See below for an example paper or click below to download it as a Word Document.
The privatization of governmental services has increased dramatically in the past decade as local, state, and federal agencies have searched for ways to cut costs while still meeting their mandated responsibility to provide various public services. This privatizing trend has particularly affected the criminal justice system. Since the early 1990s, privatized correctional facilities have increased significantly, nationally and statewide. This policy has far-ranging consequences not only within the criminal justice system, but as an instructive example for government officials when considering the costs and benefits of privatization as a public policy option. By 2001, thirty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had privately-operated correctional facilities (Austin and Coventry 4). This movement has incited considerable debate and controversy, mainly because prison privatization calls for giving the private sector direct control over the lives of a captive human population.
Although some believe this interesting fact (A. Author 202), others note that something else may be true (B. Author, 203)
As the final page for your research paper, you will need to create a Works Cited page. This page should contain all the specific information regarding the whereabouts of the information that was cited in parenthetical citations throughout your paper. Use a hanging indent to create each entry.
The information in this example will correspond to an entry in the Works Cited section at the end of the paper formatted as follows:
Last Name, First Name. "Title of Article." Website. Month Day, Year. URL.
Works by Multiple Authors
Regardless of the arena you are writing for, it is agreed upon in all academic and scientific fields that when you borrow someone’s work in your own paper, you should credit the work properly to the original author. In the humanities, using MLA style is generally preferred.
The information in these examples will correspond to an entry in the Works Cited section at the end of the paper formatted as follows:
- Author.
- Title of source.
- Title of container,
- Other contributors,
- Version,
- Number,
- Publisher,
- Publication date,
- Location.
Whether you need MLA, APA citations, or Chicago style notes, look up the latest edition before turning in a paper.
Public policy concerning the criminal justice system has become more daunting and important in the last decade. The problems in the system are twofold: an overcrowding prison population, mainly due to “three strikes” legislation and reducing early parole
Surprisingly, there has been little objective and concrete analysis of the privatization of prisons in the United States. This is probably for two reasons: first, ideological arguments on the matter have pushed out substantive research, and second, because this trend has only recently accelerated in the U.S. and mainly on a state level. However, case studies and statistics at the state level are more accessible. With capacity for over 30,000 prisoners in 43 facilities, the state of Texas has privatized more of its prison system than any state in the nation (McDonald and Patten Jr. iv).
The privatization of governmental services has increased dramatically in the past decade as local, state, and federal agencies have searched for ways to cut costs while still meeting their mandated responsibility to provide various public services. This privatizing trend has particularly affected the criminal justice system. Since the early 1990s, privatized correctional facilities have increased significantly, nationally and statewide. This policy has far-ranging consequences not only within the criminal justice system, but as an instructive example for government officials when considering the costs and benefits of privatization as a public policy option. By 2001, thirty states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico had privately-operated correctional facilities (Austin and Coventry 4). This movement has incited considerable debate and controversy, mainly because prison privatization calls for giving the private sector direct control over the lives of a captive human population.
MLA Sample Paper #1
Check out our second sample paper below. It is a helpful and clearly labeled visual aid to refer to.
For starters, the essay is in MLA format. That means it follows the style manual of the Modern Language Association, which tells you how to format the paper itself and every source you cite. You’ll also see notes like how long a paragraph should be, how to use commas properly, and how to correctly punctuate a title.
The abbreviated MLA paper below (linked here without annotations) is about J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and how the author used myth, story, and song to link all of his works together. Tolkien is famous for creating a fantasy universe called Middle-earth, which readers can’t truly understand until they read all of the books about Middle-earth (The Silmarillian, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings).
A title page is not required in a standard MLA report. The title and other information go on the first page of your report.
Begin typing at the top left of your page. A standard choice for the font is 12 point Times New Roman, and you should keep your text left justified. It's also recommended that you do not use automatic hyphenation features and that you only use one space after a period or other punctuation mark unless you're told otherwise.
Double space after your title and begin your report. Notice that your last name and the page number go at the right top corner of your page in a header.
Place your report title about one-third of the way down your page.
MLA Sample First Page
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A standard MLA paper requires a works cited list. This is the list of sources you used in your research. It is similar to a bibliography. It comes at the end of the paper and on a new page. It should include the same header and pagination as the main text.
Place your name about 2 inches below the title, as well as the names of any group members you may have.
1. Starting one inch from the top of the page, left justified, place your name, your teacher's name, your class, and the date. Use double spacing for the lines between each item, and do not use any font treatments.