Essay Formatting Guidelines for College Papers (MLA Style).
General Guidelines
- Remember to staple your essays and number your pages!
- Type your paper on a computer and print it out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper,
- Double-space the text of your paper, and use a legible font like Times New Roman. The font size should be 12 point.
- Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.
- Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner.
- Use either italics or underlining throughout your essay for the titles of longer works. Use quotation marks around shorter works, like essays or articles.
Formatting the First Page of Your Paper
- Do not make a title page for your paper unless specifically requested.
- In the upper left-hand corner of the first page, list your name, your instructor's name, the course, and the date. Again, be sure to use double-spaced text.
- Double space again and center the title. Don't underline your title or put it in quotation marks. Don’t write the title in all capital letters. Don’t use bold font or font larger than 12 point for the title. Instead, capitalize all of the words in the title except for articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so), unless they’re the first word in the title.
- Double space between the title and the first line of the text.
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Joe Smith
Mr. Krasny
English 780
5/15/12
Postwar American Loneliness in the Work of Raymond Carver
The contemporary critical reception to Raymond Carver’s work was by and large sensitive and laudatory, but there was also a subtle undercurrent of equivocation. Take, for example, the amusing batch of neologisms that took shape around Carver’s own work as well as the constellation of writers associated with his…
- For more detailed instructions on MLA paper formatting, refer to the Purdue Online Writing Lab's MLA Formatting and Style Guide:
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