Mrs. Nec
right-justified Period 3
9/1/10
How to Format an Essay
Many students have a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to format an essay. Every time they need to turn in a paper, they get very nervous and start guessing at how to do it, usually because they did not take enough notes in class. This method of formatting papers usually results in many mistakes and messy-looking papers. If you want to know how to format an essay, you can read this essay, but you can also look at how it is laid out for tips on how to make yours look exactly right. There are just a few steps you need to know to format a paper correctly.
To begin, pull up a blank, new document. Before you begin typing anything, you should go to the menus your word processing program offers and pick the four major options required for academic papers: 1) Times New Roman font, 2) size 12 font, 3) double-spacing, and 4) one-inch margins. If you have Microsoft Word, you will also have to go into the paragraph options and click “Don’t add space between paragraphs of the same style.” Once you have finalized these settings, you should “set it and forget it,” meaning that you should not touch these again. Set them as your defaults if you can. You will hardly ever need to change them again—almost every paper you turn in for the next eight years will be typed the same way.
After your settings are ready, you can begin typing. Use the right-justify option in the “Paragraph” box, and type your name on the first line, your classperiod on the second line, and the date on the third line. Then hit “enter” once, and type a centered title. Do not add any special formatting to your title. Then hit “enter” once again for another double space. You will
Nec 2
probably need to hit the left-justify button to shut off your centering option. Once your cursor is blinking on the left-hand margin again, you are ready to start typing your paragraphs.
When you get to your second page—and yes, you should need one—you need to have your name on that page, too. Mrs. Nec recommends that you wait until you finish typing the whole paper, then go back to the top of the second page. Put your cursor in front of the first character on that page. Then, hit “enter” to make an empty line: You may have to do this twice if the computer is still trying to link that line with the previous paragraph on page one. Once you get your blank line, right-justify the cursor again and type ONLY your last name and the number “2,” unless there is another student in the class with the same last name. If that is the case, type your first initial (or two), followed by a period, before your last name. An example would be if Bobby and Sally Smith were both in 9th grade: Their second pages would have “B. Smith 2” and “S. Smith 2” at the top. If there is both a Sally and a Suzie Smith, they would have to type “Sa. Smith 2” and “Su. Smith 2” on their pages. Continue in this fashion at the top of every page you have. Remember, there is no comma between your name and the page number.
As you can see, there really aren’t that many things to remember about formatting a paper. Mostly, the whole thing is a simple matter of formatting your paper correctly before you begin typing. Also, avoiding blank space between paragraphs and numbering subsequent pages are important steps. Saving all of your settings as your default will also prevent you from having to format these settings every time you create a paper. If you remember these tips, you will have a professional-looking paper that will communicate your message better, and therefore earn you a better grade!