ESSAY FORMATTING
Font: ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Arial’ (‘Home’ tab)
Font Size: 12 (‘Home’ tab)
Line Spacing: (‘Home’ tab) First, click on ‘Line Spacing Options’
Secondly, make sure that both ‘Spacing - Before:’ and ‘Spacing - After:’ are set to zero (0 pt). Set ‘Line Spacing’ to Double. Click OK. Note: There should not be any extra spaces between paragraphs.
Paper Size: A4
Margins: Normal
(‘Page Layout’ tab)
(‘Page Layout’ tab)
Page Numbers: (‘Insert’ tab) Click on ‘Page Number’; scroll down to ‘Top of Page’; scroll over and click on ‘Plain Number 1’
The header will open automatically. Type in your last name and a single space before the number 1; align the number 1 to the right; then select all (Ctrl-A) and change the font accordingly.
Alignment: Left (for text) (‘Home’ tab)
Centre (for titles)
Right (for page numbers)
The text of your essay should be lined up evenly at the left margin (but not at the right margin). Remember to ‘Align Text Left’ and not ‘Justify’. Your essay should include a title, and it should be centered above the first line of your essay. Do not use “quotation marks,” underlining, italics, or bold.
Final Formatting: (‘Home’ tab) You will first need to ‘Select All’ of the text by holding the ‘Ctrl’ key and clicking the ‘A’ key or by following the directions below.
Then, once the essay is highlighted … check every option one-by-one until the format is perfect.