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Formatting Guidelines
This handout is formatted properly as an example
Must be a typed final draft in MLA format (see below)
12 pt. Times New Roman font
Double spaced
a. formatparagraphspacingdouble or 2 times
1” margins
a. filepage setup marginsleft (move down to 1.0do the same for left, top,
bottom
Page numbers
a. Viewheader and footeralign to the righttype your last name spacehit
the # button on the toolbarenter (it will # for you)
Personal heading
a. Align to the left
b. First Last Name
c. Teacher’s Name
d. Class Title
e. Date ( day month year; 20 October 2011)
Title
a. Align to the center
b. Do NOT change font/boldness/underline etc.
c. Creative Title
Tips for writing an essay
No 1 person (I, me, we, etc.)
Don’t say “you,” say “one” which applies to everyone
Don’t start a sentence with “Because”
Make sure you write in complete sentences
Avoid run-ons (Say the sentence in your head/out loud, and if there is a pause, that
usually means you need punctuation. A sentence is one complete thought, not a chain of
thoughts.)
Quotes—don’t write a quote like this: “…words from the quote…”—instead: “words
from the quote.” (No ellipses before and after the wording, the “ “ indicates that it is
wording from the piece of lit and it starts and ends at the marked point; it doesn’t mean
it’s an entire sentence.)
Don’t say “In this quote…” “In this paragraph…” “What this means…” etc.
Spelling counts! Don’t rely on spell check—look up words you aren’t sure how to spell
Avoid redundant vocabulary especially in the same sentence (and beware of selecting a
word from the thesaurus—in context that may not be the correct word choice).
You aren’t texting a friend, no slang!
Said is DEAD! No said/say/says/states/quotes…be concise; what is really going on
Write in simple present tense/the ACTIVE VOICE—except for quotes (For example: The
lawyer reads many books. Not The lawyer read many books.)
Remember you need a citation with every CD or it = plagiarism or simply CM
Remember you are writing to a reader who doesn’t have prior knowledge of the
literature, so be sure to include enough contextual clues to set the story up, but don’t
over-summarize either
st
Concluding Sentence
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Last sentence of the body paragraph
Wraps up the ideas of this particular subtopic of the essay (this paragraph)
Similar to TS but uses sentence and vocabulary variety
Transition=As a result
Must address the “So What?” why is this example important in proving your thesis?
Concluding Paragraphs
Notes:
 Reference—don’t restate-- your thesis as the first sentence of this
paragraph
 Re-state the full title of the work, and the full name of the author
 Reference your Hook to tie it all in and to leave no loose ends
 Tell the reader “So what!” Now that they have read this, how does it apply
today? Why is this important? What does this mean to the story? Why is
this topic presented in the story? Make this essay relevant to your reader.
Think of a call to action.
 Your conclusion is a wrap-up of the entire essay. It takes your introduction
and essentially says to the reader, "See, I told you so."
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You should have:
--------Echo: of the thesis/main idea
Do not restate your thesis=boring!
---------Broadening Transition: broaden the topic from
the specific topic of the thesis to the general
topic in the hook
---------Link back to hook; answer the “So
what?” question. This is your claim/assertion?
Why is this topic important?