Essay Formatting

General Guidelines Essays should be typed and printed out on standard, white 8.5 x 11-inch paper. All text should be double-space and should use a legible font (e.g. Times New Roman or Arial) The font size should be 12 pt.

General Guidelines cont… Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks The margins of the essay should be 1 inch on all sides. Always indent the first line of each paragraph

General Guidelines cont.. Create a header that numbers all pages consecutively in the upper right-hand corner. Use italics throughout your essay for the titles of longer works and, only when absolutely necessary.

Styles of Formatting MLA & APA

MLA Style The Modern Language Association (MLA) style of writing was designed to be used by scholars of Language and Literature. MLA style has been widely adopted by schools, academic departments, and instructors for over half a century. The association's guidelines are also used by over 1,100 scholarly and literary journals, newsletters, and magazines and by many university and commercial presses. The MLA's guidelines are followed throughout North America, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries.

APA Style The American Psychological Association (APA) style of writing was created to be used by scholars of the social sciences. APA Style was first developed 80 years ago by a group of social scientists who wished to establish sound standards of communication through punctuation and abbreviations, construction of tables, selection of headings, citation of references, and presentation of statistics. . Since that time, it has been adopted by leaders in many fields and has been used by writers around the world.

Layout APA formatted paper consists of four parts: title page, abstract, main body and references. -The abstract is a single spaced 150 to 250 word summary of key points about the paper, including the research topic, research questions, methods, analysis and conclusion. MLA formatted paper consists of a the main body of the paper and a Works Cited page.

Title & Header APA- The title is on a “Title Page” it includes the title, author's name, and institutional affiliation. Headers are used at the top of every page, including the title page. Page numbers are flush right and the title of the paper is flush left. MLA- The title is on the first page, above the first paragraph. On the first page the header is on the left side, it includes the author name, instructor name, course and date. The remaining pages have a right side header that includes the last name of the author and page number.

In-Text Citations APA- citations includes the author's last name and year of publication in parenthesis after the cited text. (Jefferson, 1765) MLA-citations includes the page number in parenthesis after the text. (505)

Citing Sources APA- Uses a References Page a double spaced list of sources used in the paper in alphabetical order in the format of: Author’s Last name, first letter, date of publication in parentheses, Italicized title, place of publication, and publishing company. MLA- Uses a Work Cited Page a double spaced list of sources used in the paper in alphabetical in the format of: Author’s Last Name, First Name, title of the book, place of publication, name of publishing company, copyright date, and medium of publication.

Examples APA- Smith, J. (2007). How to Succeed in College. Littletown, Ohio: Jones Publishing. Authors Last name, first letter, date of publication in parentheses, Italicized title, place of publication, and publishing company. MLA- Fitzgerald, Scott. Tender Is the Night. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961. Print. Author’s Last Name, First Name, title, place of publication, name of publishing company, copyright date, and medium of publication.

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References http://www.apastyle.org/about-apa-style.aspx http://www.mla.org/style http://classroom.synonym.com/differences-between- apa-mla-writing-styles-1316.html