Instructor Name
Class Number
Date
An Interesting and Unique Title Goes Here
Although we will discuss the paper in its entirety, we need to start from the beginning. Make sure that you format your heading (not your header) the way you see it above. If your instructor specifies, you may need to include a section number as well (example: 1010E-53). These elements should be left justified. Your margins are set to 1” all around; these margins allow you to use the most space on your page but also leaves room for comments, staples, and hole punches. You should not add extra space above or below the title. MLA formatting, the paper should be set to a standard double-space, 12-point font. If your professor does not specify a font, you should default to Times New Roman.
You are probably thinking that I said not to have excess space, but your word-processing program is probably already set up to a “Multiple” spacing and automatically adds space between lines. To remove excess spacing, first highlight the entire paper by pressing CTRL+A. Once you have highlighted the page, you should right click and scroll to the “Paragraph” tab in the dropdown menu. Under the second section, “Spacing,” you should select “Double” from the dropdown menu. Then, directly below that, you should select “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style,” by clicking on the box. Make sure you click “OK” at the bottom to save this change.
To set your running header, you should go to the “Insert” tab on the ribbon at the top of your word-processing program. About ¾ of the way across the new menu, you should see a “Header & Footer” option. The third item in the list, “Page Number,” is where you need to click. To properly set your page number/ running header, choose a plain header that runs across the top right of the page. Once you have selected this, make sure that you type your last name ahead of the page number so that it shows up on every page. Similarly, since the paper should be formatted to MLA, you will need to highlight the section and changing the font to Times New Roman 12-point font.
Titles should never be the name of the assignment (example: Essay 1 or Compare and Contrast Essay). Each title should be unique and function as a part of the paper. Your title is a first impression for your reader, and it allows you to catch their attention by being more creative than a paper might allow. If, for example, a paper is on The Iliad, you wouldn’t title your paper “Iliad Essay,” because this title does nothing for your paper; however, you might title your paper “The Importance of Looking a Gift Horse in the Mouth.” The second title is a bit humorous but it also tells your reader that a) you are discussing The Iliad, b) the paper specifically deals with the Trojan horse, and c) you are going to be discussing the sacking of Troy after bringing the “gift” into the city.
Moving beyond the title, each of your paragraphs should begin with an indent. The indent should be one “tab” or approximately five spaces. While your first or introductory paragraph functions slightly different than your main body paragraphs, the basic premise is the same excluding concluding paragraphs. For your introductory paragraph, you should use the formula Hook, Introductory Matter, Thesis (or HIT). For your remaining paragraphs, you should consider the formula Topic Sentence, Additional Information, and Transition (TAT). Ignore the old “rule” your high school teachers taught saying that a paragraph is 3-5 sentences. That rule of a standard one-size-fits-all paragraph is a lie. Paragraphs should be as long as they need to be, which means you should consider one paragraph to be a topic sentence introducing the reader to the main idea of the paragraph, as many sentences as you need to truly unpack that information, and a sentence to transition your reader and your paper into the next idea.
Once you finish your paper (that means you didn’t just meet a word count/ page count minimum and stop typing), you should build a concluding paragraph. Different essays require different endings which makes it difficult to give a standard formation. The trick to a good conclusion requires that you round out your “argument” (because that is what you are doing in most papers) by reiterating your main points and wrapping up. Notice, I didn’t say that you should restate your thesis. Students often interpret “restate” as copy and paste. Don’t fall into the trap. Instead, consider what message your paper conveyed and leave your reader thinking about that.
Now, we are going to move on to the works cited page, which may be a bit difficult, but with a little practice, I am sure you will be comfortable with these in no time. They simply take patience and practice. Note: it is dangerous to trust programs to cite for you. Many times, these programs are not up-to-date on the latest editions of the pages, and it causes students to lose points unnecessarily. Don’t fall into that trap either.