–A Formatting Checklist 

•  MLA guidelines for formatting this essay and citing sources
• Use Times 12 
• Set margins at 1” or 0.25cm; don’t “justify” your right-hand margin.
• Double space the text of the essay.
• Indent each new paragraph one half inch from the left-hand margin. Do not include additional spacing between paragraphs.
• Center the essay title. Do not underline, italicize, use boldface, or place your title in quotation marks. 
• Use an automatic pagination function to number your pages.
• Proofread your writing carefully for typographical, grammatical, and punctuation errors. Check the accuracy of your quotations, your in-text citations, and all proper names.
• Remember to italicize the titles of book-length works. Titles of shorter poems, essays, journal articles, and book chapters are placed in double quotation marks (“”) without italics.  
• If you convert a Google Doc file to Microsoft Word, check your formatting an additional time before submitting your essay.
  

Quotations

• Quotations of more than four lines should be set off from your own writing, indented and double-spaced, and without quotation marks unless these are part of the quotation. Use a colon to introduce the quotation. Do not indent your writing, because you’re not starting a new paragraph, after a block quotation. 
• Quotations of less than four lines can be incorporated into your own sentences. Use double quotation marks to separate the quoted words from your own. 

Example of a block quotation:

The Count explains how a person might acquire grace:

I have found quite a universal rule which in this matter seems to me to be valid above all others, and in all human affairs whether in word or deed: and that is to avoid affectation in every way possible as though it were some rough and dangerous reef; and (to pronounce a new word perhaps) to practice in all things a certain sprezzatura so as to conceal all art. (1.26)

Warning his audience against behavior that is ostentatiously artificial, the Count advises actions that appear effortless to the viewer.   

Example of an incorporated quotation:

The Count explains how a person might acquire grace by avoiding “affectation in every way possible as though it were some rough and dangerous reef” (1.26). 

In-Text Citations

If you’re using MLA format, in-text citations follow these conventions:

• For the Decameron and the Heptameron, your parenthetical reference would be to page number. (36) refers the reader to quoted material on page 36 
• For the Courtier, your parenthetical reference would be to book and paragraph or section number. (1.28) refers the reader to quoted material in book 1, paragraph or section 28
• For poems, your parenthetical reference would be to inclusive line numbers. (11-14) refers the reader to lines 11-14 of the poem you’re quoting from 
• For critical essays and articles, your parenthetical reference would be to page number

If it is clear from the context which work you’re citing, there’s no need to include the author’s name in the citation. 

Combining the punctuation of your own sentences with quotations and parenthetical references can be tricky. I encourage you not to worry too much about this, but here are the editorial conventions for those who are curious or interested:

“your quotation” (5), then the next clause
“your quotation” (5). Then the next sentence
“your quotation” (5); then the next independent clause
“your quotation” (5): then the next independent clause
“your quotation exclaims!” (5). Then the next sentence

– This essay should aim to:

1. 1. Identify a topic, theme, or interpretative puzzle that is worth addressing. Why might someone want to read an essay on this topic, puzzle, or theme? 
   2. Formulate a claim related to your essay’s topic, theme, or puzzle. Why might it be important for someone to hear your particular thesis argued? What enhanced perspective or advance in understanding is your essay promising to its readers?
   3. Use textual  evidence to support and explore your claim. Here, you’ll want to think especially about:
      • sharing relevant evidence with your readers by means of quotation; 
      • analyzing or interpreting your evidence sufficiently for readers to understand its significance;
      • communicating clearly the relationship between your evidence and your essay’s overarching thesis or ideas; 
      • using your textual or visual examples not just to argue the same thing over and over, but to expand, complicate, sharpen, disrupt, turn against, or reflect critically on your essay’s central insights or claims; 
   4. Be organized into paragraphs, each of which has a single governing idea;
   5. Conclude with a full and accurate Works Cited page.