Sample Essay Structure (MLA)

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Do you have an essay or writing assignment but are not sure how an essay should look? Many

students who are new to university writing often lose marks unnecessarily due to improper formatting

or an unclear writing structure. This handout will help you to visualize a typical essay written in MLA

format, as well how to organize your ideas effectively.

Formatting Style

When assigning an essay, instructors usually specify to students that they should format their paper

in a certain way. While there are many commonly assigned formats, such as APA and Chicago Style,

this handout will focus on the MLA (Modern Language Association) Style. Formatting an essay

according to a certain style affects the way your assignment looks physically and to how you format

your citations.

How to Format your paper in MLA

The guidelines below are the general MLA formatting guidelines; however, make sure to prioritize

following any specific formatting instructions that your instructor has assigned.

1. Font type: Times New Roman

2. Font Size: 12 pt. font size

3. Spacing: Maintain double spacing throughout your entire essay, including between

paragraphs

4. Indent the first line of every paragraph

5. Set your margins (the spaces above, below, to the right of, and to the left of your writing and

the edge of the page) to 1 inch (2.54 cm) all around.

6. Your “Works Cited” page should list your citation entries in alphabetical order

7. You must provide an in-text citation and a corresponding Works Cited entry for every time you

use any ideas or information from another source. Refer to the library’s “MLA Citation Guide”

for specific instructions on how to format your citations.

8. Titles of large works, such as books, albums, or movies are written in italics, whereas titles of

smaller works, such as songs, short stories, or Journal Articles, should be placed in italics.

Example: Titanic / “O Canada”

9. Commas and periods are placed within the closing double quotations; colons and semicolons

are placed on the outside.

Example: “surprise,” & “surprise.” / “surprise”: & “Surprise”;

10. Only use the double quotation marks to identify the title of a work, a direct quote, or a specific

word or term that you want to discuss or analyze. Avoid using the double quotations to indicate

sarcasm, emphasize a term that you don’t intend on analyzing or discussing, or to distance

yourself from an idea or statement. Example: “Someone might think that Michael is “smart,”

but he really isn’t.”

How to use this Handout

The sample essay portion of the handout provides you with basic suggestions for how you should

organize your thoughts in order to write an effective essay. Always keep in mind that your

instructors may have given you specific instructions on where to place certain ideas and

statements, so be sure to follow their instructions primarily.

Example: Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Smith 1

[email protected] Learning Aid

John Smith (<-Your first name and Last Name)

Dr. Jane Doe (<- Your instructor’s name)

Your course (Example: ENGL ####)

March 8, 2018 (<-Date)

Your Essay Title

This is your first paragraph, which is also called your introduction paragraph. Here,

you will introduce the topic or issue you will be exploring in your paper, as well as identify

why this topic is relevant. Also, you will introduce any key texts and authors that you will be

focusing on in this essay. Finally, you will state your thesis statement (the main point of which

you want to convince the reader, as well as the 3-4 ways you will prove this point (these 3-4

points will each be the topics of your individual body paragraphs).

This is your first body paragraph. Your topic sentence (the first sentence of your

paragraph) should state the main idea (one of the 3-4 ways stated above in your thesis) that you

will be exploring in order to prove your main point/argument stated in your thesis statement.

Make your first claim; put forward an original idea that you came up with. Provide evidence

from a scholarly source; this can be a quote or paraphrased idea from a book or journal article

(provide in-text citation). Explain and discuss how the evidence that you provided supports

your claim. Make a second claim and repeat the evidence-interpretation process. Conclude

your paragraph by restating the main point that you discussed in this paragraph, as well as relate

it back to the thesis statement.

Use a transition like “in addition,” “moreover,” and “consequently,” to introduce your

second body paragraph. Repeat the structure of your first body paragraph to discuss one of the

other 3-4 ways that you identified in your introduction.

Indent

the

first

line

Double

space

between

lines

Double

space

between

paragraphs

Your last name

and the page

number

1 inch margins

Smith 2

[email protected] Learning Aid

Repeat the body-paragraph process to create as many body paragraphs as you need to

prove your point (if you identified 3 ways in your thesis, then write three body paragraphs).

This is your conclusion. Your conclusion aims to summarize the argument that you

made, as well as to emphasize the main ideas or the main subtopics that you discussed in order to

prove your main argument.

Smith 3

[email protected] Learning Aid

Works Cited

Here, you will provide a citation entry for all of the sources that you used to support

your ideas. Refer to the Library’s MLA Citation Style guide for information on how to properly

format each source. Remember to list the entries in alphabetical order.

Here is an example of a citation entry for a book and a journal article:

Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, year of publication.

Last name, First name. “Title of Journal Article.” Name of Journal, vol. 34, no.7, 2016, pp. 27

47. Ebsco, doi:XXXXXXXX.

Additional Resources:

KPU Library “MLA Style Guide”: http://libguides.kpu.ca/ld.php?content_id=33914842