Typeset your MLA papers in LaTeX.

First, download mla.cls and copy or symlink it into the same directory as your .tex document.

Start with the following template:

\documentclass{mla}

\begin{document}
\makeheader

Your content goes here.

\end{document}

Compile as you like. The following example shows compilatation with XeTeX but all 3 engines are supported.

$ latexmk -pdfxe -interaction=nonstopmode <document>.tex

You will notice a number of placeholders in the PDF, for example there is \firstname{?} where your first name should be. To set your first name, put in the preamble:

\firstname{Joe}  % adjust name to taste

Similarly for \lastname, \professor, \class, and \title. By default, the current date is used; you can substitute another one by specifying \date.

Obtain bibliographic information in BibTeX format (you can download this from any reputable library database) and place it into a .bib file. Specify in the preamble \addbibresource{<file>.bib} to make those sources available. In the main text, you can cite them by their shortnames as \cite{<name>} or \cite[<pagenum>]{<name>}. Any cited sources will automatically be placed in a works cited if you include the command \makeworkscited at the end.

You can cause text to be justified rather than left-aligned by providing the [justify] documentclass option.

You can use Tinos for the main font rather than Times New Roman by providing the [tinos] documentclass option. This options only matters if you are using an OpenType-aware engine; compilation with PDFTeX will always use the New TX font.

You can prevent the Works Cited from being placed on a new page by providing the [workscitedsamepage] documentclass option.

You can put page numbers in the lower-right corner rather than the upper-right corner by providing the [lowerrightpagenumbers] documentclass option.

You can prevent the page number heading from being shown on the first page by providing the [nofirstpagenumber] option.

An bulleted outline can be created with the outline environment. The bulleting style follows the format documented here. The outline supports an indent level of three.

\begin{outline}
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item Hello world!
  \end{enumerate}
\end{outline}

\documentclass{mla}

% Header
\firstname{First}
\lastname{Last}
\professor{Dr. Example}
\class{EX 101}
\title{Using mla-tex to create an outline}

\begin{document}
\makeheader
Thesis: Lorem ipsum

  \begin{outline}
    \begin{enumerate}
      \item Item 1
      \item Item 2
        \begin{enumerate}
          \item Item 3
          \item Item 4
            \begin{enumerate}
              \item Item 5
              \item Item 6
            \end{enumerate}
        \end{enumerate}
    \end{enumerate}
  \end{outline}
\end{document}

To cause a field to be omitted in the printed document, with not even a placeholder, simply specify it as e.g. \title{} rather than \title{<text>}.

To substitute the value of e.g. your last name which you passed to \lastname, use the expression \get{lastname}. This may be useful if you want to use a custom header, as below, but still need to set \lastname for the page number formatting. To get the current date in MLA format, use \today{}.

You can replace the default header format with one more to your liking by using the header and centered environments rather than the \makeheader command. For example:

\begin{header}
  ID Number
\end{header}
\begin{centered}
  The title
\end{centered}

When adding a new feature, you should document it in the README. Any user-visible change should also be noted in the changelog. I have some information on how to write a changelog in the contributor guide for my projects.