Keys to Successful Writing | Essay, Thesis, Term Paper and Dissertation Writing

Nowadays more and more often teachers pay intent attention to the formatting of your essay as well as to the content. It sometimes happens that tutors give definite specific formatting guidelines which you should follow. But if no guidelines are set you have a choice in formatting your paper.

The title of essay

In most cases the topic of your essay serves as the title, the title can be placed in several ways. You have two options for the title section:

Write the title at the top of the first page.

Use a separate title page for the title section of your essay.

In case you are not using a title page, generally your name, the course name, professor or teacher’s name and the due date are placed at the upper left hand corner of the first page. Your title should be centered below that. Your essay begins after skipping one line below the title.

Example:

Joe Hopkins
English Literature
Professor Nicholas Brown
October 6, 2008

While using a separate title page, the title is the first information on it and horizontally centered at about the top third of the page. Speaking about other title elements : your name, the course name, teacher’s name and the due date, they may be either centered or left aligned in the final third of your title page. Remember that the essay title should be in the same font type and size as the rest of your essay and should not be bolded, italicized or underlined. Mind it while downloading custom essay in Internet.

Several Tips for Formatting Essay Text

• Use the standard margins of 1″ on the top and bottom margins and 1.25″ on the left and right margins.
• Mind that standard text in essay writing is double spaced, it provides room for your editor or tutor to circle or underline errors, add arrows connecting their comments to your text.
• Use a standard font such as “Times New Roman” size 12.
• Print your essay on only one side of paper.
• Use standard white paper (8.5″ X 11″).

Remember that these tips can be applied only to essays, if you need any dissertations help, for example, tips will be different there.

Page Numbers

While using mind that a separate title page is not numbered. The first page of text is page 1, it may be numbered at the bottom center, in the upper right hand corner, or left unnumbered. While paginating, remember that you should use only numbers. Abbreviations like “p. 3” or indicators like “page 2 of 5” are usually inappropriate for essays.

In the MLA style, the page number is preceded by your last name spaces, i.e. Brown 1. Also in the MLA style all pages that contain the essay text are numbered in the upper right hand corner.

Works Cited

You need to include a works cited page of the outside sources at the end of your paper if you have used any to gain information on your essay. The method of listing your sources depends on the type of publications (e.g. book, article, web page, etc.) you used while researching your topic.

Remember that all formatting rules above are not recommended for applying in other academic writings. If you need some research paper help, for example, you should better find proper articles.