East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses Constructing your Essay in MLA Format Your First and Last Name Instructor’s Last Name Title of the Class Due Date (e.g. 4 January 2007) Creative and Relevant Title (Centered) The first line of the essay must be indented by pressing the “tab” button. Then, the rest of the essay is “left flush.” This means that the line goes all the way to the margin, just like this. You can use your imagination for the rest. Make sure to press “enter” only once between paragraphs so that you conform to the double-spacing requirement throughout your paper. Also, be sure to leave TWO SPACES after “sentence-ending” punctuation. There is only ONE SPACE after a comma (,), semi-colon (;), colon (:), or quotation mark (“”). Use ONE INCH margins on the top, bottom and sides of all pages. How to Make a Header 1. Open Microsoft Word 2. Left click “View” on the toolbar to bring up the pull down menu 3. Left click on “Header/Footer” 4. The Header will automatically appear 5. Click on “Align Right” button 6. Type your last name, space and left click on “Insert Page Number” 7. Left click “Close” 8. You are now ready to type your MLA Heading in the top left hand corner (not in the Header)
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East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses
Constructing your Essay in MLA Format
Your First and Last Name
Instructor’s Last Name
Title of the Class
Due Date (e.g. 4 January 2007)
Creative and Relevant Title (Centered)
The first line of the essay must be indented by pressing the “tab” button. Then, the rest of
the essay is “left flush.” This means that the line goes all the way to the margin, just like this.
You can use your imagination for the rest.
Make sure to press “enter” only once between paragraphs so that you conform to the
double-spacing requirement throughout your paper. Also, be sure to leave TWO SPACES after
“sentence-ending” punctuation. There is only ONE SPACE after a comma (,), semi-colon (;),
colon (:), or quotation mark (“”). Use ONE INCH margins on the top, bottom and sides of all
pages.
How to Make a Header
1. Open Microsoft Word
2. Left click “View” on the toolbar to bring up the pull down menu
3. Left click on “Header/Footer”
4. The Header will automatically appear
5. Click on “Align Right” button
6. Type your last name, space and left click on “Insert Page Number”
7. Left click “Close”
8. You are now ready to type your MLA Heading in the top left hand corner (not in the
Header)
East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses
Introductions
A good introduction, generally speaking, does two things: it defines for the reader what
the essay (or other written work) is going to address, and it divides the topic of the essay into
parts that will be discussed. Remember: a good introduction leaves readers with a good idea of
what the essay is all about and how the writer intends to “tackle” his or her topic.
Different Ways to Approach Introductions
Begin with a quotation
Although this approach can be overused, it can be very effective when you have an
appropriate quotation. That quotation may relate directly to the subject or it may be only
indirectly related (and thus require further explanation). Do not force a quotation into this spot;
if an appropriate quotation is not available, select another method.
Ex. “Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul” (11). These opening lines of
Lolita reveal the essence of Humbert Humbert’s complexity and compulsion, his saving grace
and his damning passion.
Begin with a concession
Start with a statement recognizing an opinion or approach different from the one you plan
to take in your essay.
Ex. Many critics have pointed to the unrelenting word games and puns throughout Lolita as
proof of Vladimir Nabakov’s major concern has always been language and art. Although these
subjects certainly loom in all his works, a close examination of Lolita reveals that morality – the
way people treat each other – is just as major a concern for him as language and art.
Begin with a paradox
In 1959, Vladimir Nabakov’s novel Lolita had been banned in several cities as
pornographic. Today, it is required reading not only in literature courses, but also in philosophy
courses that explore the nature of love. Since its publication, the novel’s subject has not been
recognized to be love, not lust; art, not perversion.
Begin with a short anecdote or narrative
When the original movie version of Lolita was released in the early 1960s, Sue Lyon, the
young actress who starred as the provocative “nymphet” of the title, was judged too young to be
allowed to see the movie in the theater.
Begin with an interesting fact or statistic
Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabakov – two acknowledged masters of English prose –
were not even native speakers of English. Conrad’s native tongue was Polish; Nabakov’s,
Russian.
East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses
Begin with a question or several questions that will be answered in the paper
How could a book now acknowledged as a masterpiece not only of fiction but also of
English prose have been banned when it was published? How could a novel that dealt with love
and art be thought of as pornographic? Why would a society, so mindful of free speech as a
America, ban any book in the first place?
Begin with relevant background material
Background material should be presented concisely and should be clearly related to your
thesis. A rambling discussion of material only remotely related to your main point will confuse
and bore your readers.
Ex. Although he was born in Russia and lived for many years in England, Germany, and France
before coming to America in 1941, Vladimir Nabakov is now considered one of the great
American novelists of the 20th
century. This opinion, however, is not based solely on his
mastery of English prose. His novel, Lolita, has been said to have captured the essence of
American life in the 1950s better than any novel written by a writer born in this country.
Begin by stating a long-term effect or effects without immediately stating the cause
It caused howls of protest from the guardians of public morality in the 1950s. Indirectly
it helped bring about both artistic and personal freedom in the 1960s. Today, it is a recognized
classic of art and thought – Vladimir Nabakov’s Lolita.
Begin with an analogy
Like a hurricane that brings fear and panic along with its powerful winds, uprooting trees
and disrupting belief in an all-merciful God, so Lolita swept across America in the 1960s,
bringing fear and panic that pedophilia would be loose on the land. Instead, the novel, like a
hurricane, blew over trees of thought that were not deeply rooted in American experience,
exposing their gnarled premises while helping to clear the way for the artistic freedom of the
1960s.
Begin with a definition of a term that is important to your essay
Avoid simple dictionary definitions. Create an expanded definition that explains how the
term applies to your topic and essay.
Ex. Every few years the ugly charge of “pornography” is aimed at some novel or movie. Never
was the term more inappropriately used than in the case of Lolita, yet the taint of that word still
lingers in the minds of many when they hear the book’s title. What exactly is “pornography”
that it should still stir such feelings and be so hated? The problem, of course, is that no one can
agree on what pornography actually is. That it has something to do with sex is clear; beyond
that, there is a chaos of opinion. When the small-minded or special-interest definitions are
pushed aside, however, we are left with D. H. Lawrence’s provocative definition: pornography is
anything that “does dirt on sex.” By definition, Lolita is the opposite of pornography – it is a
celebration of sex and love.
East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses
Words for the wise:
If readers don’t understand what the writer is up to, they won’t be very interested.
Make sure your lead-in introduces your thesis.
In general, the beginning should offer clues not only to the subject of the essay, but
also to the way it is to be treated, and the opening sentences should set the tone of the
discussion.
Both the writer and the reader must have a sense that the starting is logical and/or
natural. Don’t apologize or complain about your assertions.
East Los Angeles College MLA Essay Packet English Composition Courses
Titles and Conclusions Reference Sheet
A Great Title Will:
Attract the reader’s attention/interest (catchy, creative, and relevant)
Announce the tone of the essay
Suggest content
Not be underlined (should be in the same size and font as the rest of the essay)
Be capitalized according to MLA guidelines (first word capitalized, and then all
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are capitalized)
How to Write a Good Concluding Paragraph
A reemphasizes both the thesis and the essay’s major points
An evaluation of the importance of the essay’s subject
A call to action
A witticism that emphasizes or sums up the point of the essay
A quotation that emphasizes or sums up the point of the essay (should not come at
the end of the paragraph)
An image or description that lends finality to the essay
A rhetorical question that makes the reader think about the essay’s main point (a
rhetorical question is a question that is not meant to be answered; only to make
you think. The answer to the question should be obvious)