MLA Format Heading Example: Getting Your Paper Right the First Time

You've spent hours scouring JSTOR. Your coffee is cold. The cursor is blinking at you like a rhythmic, judgmental heartbeat. Now, you’re stuck on the one thing that should be easy: the top of the page. Honestly, finding a solid mla format heading example shouldn't feel like decoding the Enigma machine, but here we are.

Modern Language Association (MLA) style is the bedrock of humanities writing. It’s the gatekeeper of your English, Philosophy, and Art History papers. If you mess up the heading, you're basically telling your professor you didn't read the manual before starting the car. It’s about more than just aesthetics; it's about academic professionalization.

The Anatomy of the Standard MLA Heading

Let’s get one thing straight immediately. In MLA 9 (the current standard), you don't need a title page unless your instructor explicitly asks for one. If you’re writing a standard 5-page essay, you start right on the first page.

The heading sits in the upper left-hand corner. It’s double-spaced, just like the rest of your paper.

Here is exactly what it looks like, line by line:

• Your Full Name
• Your Instructor’s Name
• The Course Name (include the section number if you have one)
• The Date

Basically, it's a stack of four lines. No bolding. No italics. No extra-large fonts. Just standard 12-point Times New Roman or whatever legible font your syllabus demands.

Why the Date Format Matters

The date is the part that trips everyone up. Most of us write dates as "January 18, 2026." In MLA world, we do things a little differently. You’ll use the Day-Month-Year format.

Think: 18 January 2026.

No commas. It looks a bit European or military, but that’s the rule. If you use the standard American format, your TA might not fail you, but they'll definitely notice the lack of attention to detail. Detail is everything in academia.

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Let’s Look at a Real MLA Format Heading Example

Imagine you're a student named Alex Rivera. You're taking a Gothic Literature course with Dr. Sarah Jenkins. Today is the day you turn in your masterpiece. Your heading would look like this:

Alex Rivera
Dr. Sarah Jenkins
English 2340: Gothic Traditions
18 January 2026

See? It’s clean. It’s professional.

Immediately after this, you hit enter once (remember, the whole paper is double-spaced, so no extra gaps), and you center your title. Your title isn't bolded either. It shouldn't be "Essay 1." Give it some life. Maybe something like "The Shadow of the Abbey: Architecture as Character in Radcliffe’s Fiction."

Then, you start your first paragraph on the next line, indented half an inch.

The Secret Resident: The Running Head

While your main heading stays on page one, the "running head" lives on every single page, including the first one. This is in the top right header, half an inch from the top of the paper.

It’s just your last name and the page number.

Rivera 1

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You use the "Insert Page Number" function in Word or Google Docs to do this. Don't type it manually on every page or you will go insane when your text shifts and "Rivera 2" ends up in the middle of a paragraph. It happens. It’s embarrassing.

Common Blunders to Avoid

People overthink this.

They really do.

One of the biggest mistakes is adding a "Header" (the stuff in the top margin) and thinking that is the heading. They aren't the same thing. The heading is part of your main text body. The running head is in the margin.

Another weird thing people do? Bolding their own name. You aren't a brand; you're a scholar. Keep it humble. Keep it plain text.

Also, check your course name. If your syllabus says "Intro to Psych," don't just write "Psych." Use the formal designation. It shows you’re treating the course with the respect the department expects.

Does the 9th Edition Change the Heading?

Kinda, but not really. The 9th edition of the MLA Handbook, released by the Modern Language Association in 2021, focused way more on how to cite weird internet sources like TikToks or Tweets than it did on the page layout.

The heading has remained remarkably stable for decades. Why? Because it works. It gives the professor exactly what they need to grade the paper and return it to the right person.

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If you are using a template from 2015, you’re likely still fine on the heading, though your Works Cited page will probably be a disaster.

Handling Multiple Authors

What if you’re doing a group project? This is where the mla format heading example gets a bit crowded.

If you have two authors, list both names on the first line. If you have a whole squad, it's often better to list each name on its own line, but check with your professor. Some prefer a separate title page once you hit three or more authors because four lines of names plus the instructor and course info takes up half the page before you've even said "Hello."

Subheadings: The Invisible Guide

If your paper is long—let's say over 10 pages—you might want subheadings. MLA is pretty chill about these. The main rule is consistency.

If you use bold for one subheading, use bold for all of them at that level. Usually, people use centered, bold text for level-one headers and left-aligned italics for level-two. Just don't go overboard. This isn't a corporate white paper. It's an essay.

Actionable Next Steps for Your Paper

Stop staring at the blank page. You have the formula now.

1. Open your document and set the font to 12pt Times New Roman.
2. Set line spacing to exactly 2.0 (Double).
3. Go to the Header (top right), type your last name, and insert the page number.
4. Back in the main body, type your name, professor, class, and the day's date (Day Month Year).
5. Center your title on the very next line.
6. Start writing.

If you're ever in doubt, the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) is the gold standard for double-checking these rules. They stay updated with every tiny tweak the MLA committee makes.

Now, go get that 'A'. You've got the format down, so the content is all that's left. No big deal, right?