Chinese Name _____________ English Name_______________ Student #___________
Assignment______________________Draft_____ Due Date______________ Class____
How to Format Your Essay
Properly formatting your written work is very important for the reader, whether the
reader is your peer, teacher, or editor. It makes it look more professional and it shows the
writer’s respect for the work and the reader. Double spacing the lines and having margins one
inch wide make it easy for your teacher to write comments and suggest corrections on the
paper.
Most of the lines of this document are double spaced. However, this is single spaced
text. Notice how crowded the lines are and it is difficult to read. Your teacher will not be able
to give you helpful comments if you single space your text.
This paragraph is set at 1.5 spaces between lines. It may look nice, but it is also too
close for marking and for teachers and editors that spend hours a day reading people’s
writing, it is not as comfortable to read as double spaced text.
The lines of all of the other paragraphs in this document are double spaced. Your
essay should look like this. The most standard font that is used for academic writing on a
computer is Times New Roman. It should be 12 point size. What you are reading is Times
New Roman 12 pt. This is 11 pt. This is 14 pt.
A new paragraph shows that a new idea is being discussed. The first line of every
paragraph should be indented, including in the first paragraph. Do you see how the first line
of each paragraph is further in to the right than the rest? That is called an indent. Be sure to
indent five spaces, not three. Depending on how your computer is set up, you can use the
“tab” key on your keyboard to automatically indent five spaces, or ½ inch.
Be sure your language preferences are set properly in English. Your setting should be
“E” and “half.”
Use a “header” to include your name and other information. Place the page number at
the bottom center of the page.
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