Writing – Term Paper

The sample essay has multiple gross formatting and citation mistakes. As outlined by Abbott (275), the seventh edition of the MLA citation style has a set of rules regarding in-text citation, works cited formatting, and the general paper formatting. Notably, the sample essay has disregarded most of the MLA guidelines. For example, the essay is not paginated according to the MLA seventh edition guidelines. According to MLA guidelines, any MLA paper should have the writer’s surname and page number at the top right corner of the paper. Besides, the sample essay is not in-texted appropriately. As clarified by Abbott, MLA papers’ in-text citation should have the source author(s) surnames and the page number from which relevant information was derived (276). In that case, if the cited source has more than three authors, only the surname of the first author and the word “et al.,” are used. In the sample essay, the writer used direct quotation without proper parenthetical author-page number citation after the direct quote. The writer has also disregarded multiple MLA paper formatting guidelines. The work cited section is supposed to be on a different page while there should not be any spacing between paragraphs. The essay’s page margins should be one inch on all the sides. Finally, the cited print source is incorrect. The source does not have an author, year of publication, and other publication details. Abbott gives an overview of how publications detailed should be arranged in MLA format when referencing different sources including print and electronic sources.     

Work Cited

Abbott, Craig. “MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing.” (2009): 274-278.