formatting lab

Formatting Lab

During this lab, you will correct the formatting errors in this document and turn the corrected document in for a grade. You may work with another student, but each student will turn in his or her own document. To begin, enter your name into the heading and follow each of the directions in the following paragraphs. Read through each paragraph in its entirety before making changes.

First, you will add a header to the document. To do this, click on Insert -> Page number -> Top of Page, and choose the most basic page number style (You can either choose the style that is already right aligned, or you may choose to align it after you enter the information). Notice that you are inserting a page number, not a header – this is because on multiple page documents, if you enter it this way, the page numbers will automatically change for each page. Headers also include your last name. In order to add your last name, simply type it before the page number (You may need to double click on the header area if you have already clicked somewhere else on the page). Another thing that you need to remember about the header is that by default, it is usually in Calibri typeface. The appropriate size and font for a header is 12pt Times New Roman. Occasionally, your instructors may require a different first page header (by removing it) because your name is already listed in the heading. If this is the case, you can make this change by double-clicking on the header and then checking the box next to Different First Page at the top of the screen. NOW, follow the directions above to add an appropriately formatted header to your document.

Once you have added a header, you want to check the spacing on the document. Margins should be one-inch all around. Often, this is not the default setting. There are two ways that you can check the margin settings; the easiest is by clicking on Page Layout -> Margins ->Normal (1”), but You can also click on View and check the box next to Ruler. By adding a ruler to your view, you will see measurements/numbers at the top of the page with “sliders” that you can move around to format the spacing. NOW, take a minute to try both ways of changing margins. Move the different sliders and see what happens. Then, set your margins to one-inch. Spacing of the document also includes the spaces between the lines of text. Word defaults to 10pt. spacing after lines. This is not correct spacing for MLA documents. If you do not change this setting, you will end up with extra spaces in your heading and with extra spacing every time you hit “enter”: between the heading and the title, the title and the first paragraph and between each paragraph. To fix this, first click on Select in the top right corner of the Home tab and Select All. Next, click on the small box in the corner of the Paragraph section of the Home tab. Look for where is says Spacing and check to see that Before and After are set at 0 pt. After you make this change, look back at your document to make sure you do not have any additional spaces between lines (if you do, remove them). Once you have removed all unnecessary spaces, you must double space the entire document by clicking Select All again and going back into Paragraph settings. NOW, take a few minutes to check the line spacing and to double space your document. **Tip: the best way to check to make sure you have removed all extra spacing is by putting the entire document in single spacing to look for any space between lines – once all space between lines is removed, apply double spacing to the entire document.

You are almost done! Now, you must look at paragraph indentions, typeface, title settings, alignment, and punctuation spacing. First, all paragraphs must be indented one half inch using the TAB key (not by hitting the space bar five times). Check the first line of each paragraph now and use the TAB key to indent. The text of your document, including the title and heading, should be set to 12 pt Times New Roman. To change this, you will need to Select All, and simply find Times New Roman and 12 in the drop down menus of the Fonts section. Once you have checked the font and style of the entire document, Select All (or highlight the text) and click on left alignment so that all of the text is aligned on the left side of the page. Then, center the title and remove any additional formatting such as bolding, italics, or underlining. Last, you need to check the spacing after punctuation. Some students are taught to add two spaces after a period – even in the U.S., students are often taught to do this in high school – but academic writing requires only one space after punctuation. You can check the document by clicking on Replace in the top right of the screen while you are on the Home tab; a screen will open and you must enter the fields of Find What and Replace With. This is a way to search the entire document and make changes all at once. If you enter “. ” into Find What and “. ” (without the quotation marks) into Replace With, and then click on Find Next (to review each instance separately) or Replace All (to change all without review), every instance of extra spacing will be changed. This can be helpful when you use the wrong term multiple times, or spell a name incorrectly - instead of searching the entire document with your eyes and possibly missing something, you can have the computer change it for you. Now, check to see if there are multiple spaces after periods (and replace them with single spaces).

When you are finished with each of these steps, save your document to the desktop and submit it through the assignment link in Canvas. Make sure you double check everything before submitting it! You will receive a lab grade based on your work.