MLA Heading and Header: How to Format Your First Page

The MLA heading is the four-line block of identifying information that sits in the top-left corner of the first page of an MLA paper, and getting it right is the quickest way to show your instructor you know the format. Many students confuse the MLA heading with the running header and with a separate title page, so this guide walks through all three, plus the centered title, the font, the spacing, and the margins. By the end you will have a worked layout you can copy line for line. When you are ready to build your Works Cited entries, our MLA citation generator can do the formatting for you.

Heading vs Header vs Title Page

These three terms sound alike but mean different things, and mixing them up is the most common formatting error in MLA papers.

• The MLA heading is the four-line block (your name, instructor, course, and date) flush against the left margin at the top of the first page. It appears only once.
• The running header is your last name and the page number in the top-right corner of every page, including the first.
• The title page is a separate cover page. MLA 9 does not require one for most student work. Unless your instructor asks for it, you skip the cover page and put the heading directly on page one.

If your instructor does request a standalone cover page, see our companion guide on the MLA title page. For everyone else, the four-line heading is all you need.

The Four-Line MLA Heading

The heading goes in the upper-left corner of the first page, double-spaced like the rest of the paper, in the same Times New Roman 12 font. Type each item on its own line in this exact order:

• Line 1: Your full name (first and last)
• Line 2: Your instructor’s name, with title (Professor, Dr., Mr., Ms.)
• Line 3: The course name or number
• Line 4: The due date in day month year format

The date uses the international day-month-year order with no commas: 7 June 2026, not June 7, 2026. Spell out the month in full. Do not abbreviate, do not use slashes, and do not add ordinal suffixes like “7th.”

The Running Header (Last Name and Page Number)

Every page of an MLA paper carries a running header in the top-right corner: your last name, one space, then the page number. There is no comma, no “p.,” and no abbreviation. It sits half an inch (0.5in) from the top edge of the paper and aligns with the right margin.

The header appears on page one as well. MLA 9 does not suppress the number on the first page. The numerals are Arabic (1, 2, 3) and use the same Times New Roman 12 font as the body.

How to set the running header in your word processor

• Microsoft Word: Go to Insert, then Header, choose the blank top-right layout, type your last name and a space, then Insert, Page Number, Current Position, Plain Number. Set the header to align right and the font to Times New Roman 12.
• Google Docs: Use Insert, Headers & footers, Header. Press the right-align button, type your last name and a space, then Insert, Page numbers and pick the top-right option.

Let the word processor insert the page number as a field so it updates automatically. Do not type the numbers by hand.

The Centered Title

After the four-line heading, the title goes on the very next double-spaced line, centered. Do not add an extra blank line between the date and the title, and do not add extra space before or after the title. The title sits on its own line, centered, in plain Times New Roman 12.

Format the title in title case but follow the MLA rule that all prepositions stay lowercase regardless of length. Capitalize the first word, the last word, and all principal words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns). Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or), and prepositions such as between, through, and against.

Do not bold, italicize, underline, or put your title in quotation marks. Do not use a larger font or all capitals. The only italics or quotes allowed are for a source title that appears inside your title, for example a novel name you are discussing.

Page-Wide Formatting: Font, Spacing, and Margins

The MLA heading lives inside a page that follows these rules, and the heading must match them exactly so nothing looks out of place.

• Margins: 1 inch (1in) on all four sides, top, bottom, left, and right.
• Font: A readable serif font, conventionally Times New Roman, at 12 point. MLA 9 allows any legible font where the regular and italic styles differ clearly, but Times New Roman 12 is the safe default.
• Spacing: Double-space the entire paper, including the heading, the title, the body, and the Works Cited page. Set line spacing to 2.0 and remove any extra space before or after paragraphs.
• Alignment: Left-align the body text (flush left, ragged right). Do not justify.
• Indentation: Indent the first line of each body paragraph 0.5in with the Tab key.

These same font, margin, and spacing settings carry over to your MLA Works Cited page, where you also add a hanging indent. The full set of rules lives in our MLA format guide.

Worked First-Page Layout

Here is how the top of a finished first page reads from top to bottom. The running header is in the top-right corner at 0.5in; the four-line heading is flush left; the title is centered; the body begins on the next double-spaced line with a 0.5in first-line indent.

Common Mistakes

• Adding a separate title page when none is required. MLA 9 puts the heading on page one unless your instructor says otherwise.
• Writing the date as June 7, 2026 instead of 7 June 2026.
• Bolding, underlining, or enlarging the title. The title stays plain at 12 point.
• Forgetting the running header on page one, or leaving it off entirely.
• Single-spacing the heading or adding extra blank lines between the four lines.
• Typing page numbers manually instead of using the automatic page-number field.
• Confusing the heading with in-text citations. For citing sources inside your paragraphs, see our guide to MLA in-text citations.

Tips for a Clean First Page

Set your spacing and margins before you type a single word, then build the heading. Use the same font for the running header and the body. If you are comparing formats for different classes, our overview of APA vs MLA highlights where the two styles diverge, since the APA student paper uses a centered bold title and a different page-number setup, detailed in our APA title page guide. To understand how MLA fits among other systems, browse citation styles explained.

Once your first page is formatted, focus on the references. You can draft entries fast with the MLA citation generator, then handle other classes with the APA citation generator or the Chicago citation generator. A correct MLA heading takes under a minute to set up, and it frames a paper that looks polished before the reader has read a word.