Formatting Papers YEP, YOU HAVE TO GET THIS RIGHT!

 1. Great Title  Never title your paper “My Essay” or “My Summer Assignment.” Give it a title that fits the work.  2. Page Numbers  Upper right-hand corner  In the header  3. Time New Roman 12 pt. font ONLY

 4. Double space  For some reason, there is a glitch in the program. Unless you do the following, your paper will not be double-spaced and you will get dinged for it.  Make sure you paper is set for double space. I know this may sound silly, but you don’t want to get too much in a hurry and forget.  Using the drop down box, you will note there are several choices. You will probably have the following: 1.0, 1.15, 1.5…etc. Under all of that, there will be a line and 2 more choices: Add/Remove space before paragraph, Add/Remove space after paragraph. If you see the word “Remove”, click on it to change to “Add”. For some reason, MS adds an extra.25 to your paper if you do not. Once you click “Remove”, you will see your paper shift up. Now you have a paper that is truly double-spaced.

 Heading  All Papers must have a heading. It is not in the header, but in the paper itself.  Your name  My name (spell it correctly or you lose 10 points)  Class and period  Due date (always date your paper for the day it is due)  Day Month Year (no commas)  Example  Billie Bob  Dr. Litfin  ELA 10 – Period 10 or ELA 9 – Period 16  31 Never 2024

 This is a formal paper  No extra white lines  Center the Title of you paper  Never have the following:  “In this essay I will discuss…” or anything similar  “In conclusion…” or “As I have stated…”  Always check the following – I will for your grade  Grammar  Transitions  Content  Introduction  Conclusion

 Titles are not:  In bold  In italics  Underlined  In quotation marks Make sure the title is appropriately capitalized.

1 Billie Bob Dr. Litfin ELA 10 – Period Never 2024 The Mysterious Life and Death of Edgar Allan Poe During his lifetime, Edgar Allan Poe was a literary inspiration. He transformed words from the English language into poetic expression that stimulated the minds, hearts, and spirits of many. Though a world of people may know of his literary accomplishments, there is a wealth of additional information on Poe that fewer people are aware of. In life and after his death, Poe drew attention and controversy.

Thesis Statement  One sentence stating what your paper is about.  It is the last sentence of the first paragraph and the first sentence of the last paragraph.

Grading Rubric for Essay Papers Form (20) __ Typed in MLA Format __ Title __ Length * __ Correct Margins (1 inch) __ Double Space __ Time New Roman 12pt Font __ 3 sentences per paragraph _______________________ Introduction (10) __ Smooth/logically leads to thesis __ One sentence thesis __ Thesis clearly states purpose _________________________

Body/Organization (50) __ Logical order of information __ Topic sentence for supporting paragraphs __ Adequate supporting information __ No unnecessary information __ Minimum of three supporting ideas of thesis statement ___________________________ Conclusion (10) __ No new information added to conclusion __ Summary of paper ___________________________ Grammar/Punctuation/Spelling (10) ** 3 errors allowed. –1 for each error after that up to a maximum of 10 points. * If your paper is not at the assigned length, then your grade will be reduced according to the shortage.