In the beginning, I was somewhat skeptical on the exact way to format a paper properly for MLA. Between all my classes, I was constantly switching which format I had to use, and sometimes lost track. However, after spending some time in class discussing and learning, MLA became quite easy. Within my paper, my MLA formatting was mainly focused on citing my work, and making sure that my heading and labels were correct. Being sure to provide proper text and full citations is very important within a paper. Without it, the reader may become lost, and not know who exactly said the quote that was presented. Incorrectly citing your sources could create a lot of confusion for things beyond just who said it, but also the message/topic you’re trying to prove.
In addition to citing your sources properly, making a paper MLA format also requires a proper heading and page number labels. This is important, but really only ensures that your paper follows MLA guidelines, and is organized in a way that someone aware of MLA format will expect. This along with citing your sources properly, are both local revisions that although may seem small, can play a larger role in your paper than people may know. Among other local revisions such as fixing sentence structure issues or fixing grammar errors, this may seem small. However, without addressing every aspect of local revision, your paper can portray a meaning far from what you’d hoped.
