MLA term paper is written according to the guidelines designed by the Modern Language Association. This style is mostly used to write assignments of the humanities and liberal arts stream. There are many sources from where you can gather material to make proper citations using this style. There are special style books which very minutely concentrate on each and every aspect of citation. You can get these style books in any writing lab or good library.. There are also special websites that have been dedicated to provide information on how to format essays using this template.

There are few general guidelines which you should always follow while formating your essay using this style. Apart from these guidelines always follow the instructions of your tutor.

Your essay should be printed on a page that is of 8.5 x 11 inch size and should be computer typed using commonly used fonts like Times New Roman or Courier. Leave a 1-inch margin on all the sides of the page. If your tutor has not advised anything about spacing of punctuation marks and periods then leave just one space every time you put a punctuation mark or period.  If your tutor has given any specific instructions regarding it then follow his instructions completely.

It is not necessary to make a title page if you are using this format to write your assignment. Generally the information that is written on a title page is put in the upper left hand corner of the first page of the assignment. The students are expected to write their name, the name of their tutor, the name of the course and the date of submission in this part of the assignment. After this information, write down the title of the essay in the center of the page. Remember not to write all the letters of the title in capital. The title should be written using the title case. Neither underline nor write the title in italics. Double-space all the parts of the assignment including the information about you and your course and the title.

All the pages of your assignment should be numbered. Some tutors prefer the first page without any number. If your tutor too has mentioned this point then do not number the first page. The page numbers should be mentioned on the upper right hand corner.

Each paragraph of the essay should begin with an indent of half inch. So press the tab or leave five spaces at the beginning of each paragraph. If there are endnotes then they should be written on the second last page, just before the works cited page. The reference page or bibliography is known as the works cited page in this style of writing.

MLA term paper follows the above-mentioned guidelines. If you want to know in more detail about it then you can research books and websites specially meant for it. Sometimes there are two options of citing a particular thing, so ask your tutor about his preference. If he leaves the decision on you then be consistent with one style instead of using both the styles.