PalomarCollege ESL Dept

Computer Literacy

Formatting a Multi-Paragraph Essay

In this lesson, you will change a multi-paragraph text to essay format. You will change the font and font-size, alignment, spacing, and save it to disk.

First, highlight the following three paragraphs; then copy and paste them into a new document. Now you can toggle between this text and your new document to follow the formatting instructions under the paragraphs.

Teamwork in ESL

In your ESL class, there might be times when you are asked to work in a team, helping and teaching each other.For some students, it is hard to do teamwork. They don’t like to work together because it sometimes means to wait for slower team members or that your opinion gets overruled by the majority. Regardless, it is a valuable skill to be a good team player not just in your classes but in daily life, for example at the workplace.

If there is a problem with your team, you need to try and solve it. The best way to do that is by communicating with each other. Speak about a problem with your team members; don’t be aggressive but use a direct approach without attacking each other. If you cannot solve the problem within the team, see your instructor. Don’t wait till it is too late and people get angry at each other!

Working together is great because you can save time and have the chance to find out other people’s ideas. It’s also a terrific way to practice your English speaking and listening skills! Isn’t that why you’re taking ESL classes?

Now format the text by doing the following:

  1. Save this new document as “Essay Formatting” on your floppy disk.
  2. Center the title and bold it.
  3. Indent the paragraphs and delete the empty lines between them.
  4. Change the font to Comic Sans MS or Impact.
  5. Choose size 14 for the first paragraph.
  6. Choose size 16 for the second paragraph.
  7. Choose size 11 for the third one.
  8. The spacing for the first paragraph needs to be 1.5.
  9. The second should be double spaced.
  10. Make sure the third paragraph is single-spaced.
  11. Write your name, the class number (for example ESL 98), and the date in the top corner of your document.
  12. Right align it. Leave it single spaced.
  13. Save your work onto your own floppy disk.
  14. Take your disk to your instructor so s/he can check your exercise.