College Paper Formatting General Guidelines

Presentation Matters

While the originality and organization of your ideas are the most important aspects of any paper you write, the way you present your ideas says much about the care that has gone into your work. To ensure that your paper appears well written and well thought out, thoroughly proofread and correctly format your final draft.

Formatting

Here are suggestions for the kind of formatting that’s standard for college papers. Disregard these guidelines if your professor or department has specified otherwise.

- Double-space your essay.
- Use a common 12-point font.
- Set your margins to 1-1 1/4” from the sides and 1” from the top and bottom (this standard is probably the default on your word processor). Resist the temptation to lengthen or shorten your paper by fiddling with the margins, spacing, or font. In so doing, you only draw attention to those efforts, while your argument and evidence remain the same.
- Text should be aligned or justified to the left margin, so that the right side of the text is ragged. Do not justify the right margin. (Justifying the right margin makes the document look nice, but it creates irregular spacing between words, which can be distracting to a reader.)
- Paragraphs should be indented five spaces (or one tab). Do not create extra spaces between paragraphs.
- Double space all text (unless it is specifically requested to use single space).
- Include your name, the course number, the professor’s name, and the date in the upper right-hand corner of your first page (this is helpful if your paper gets lost). Title pages are usually not necessary. Use the “header” or “insert page numbers” function so that this heading appears within the one inch margin.
- Plastic binders are cumbersome. Instead, simply staple securely once in the upper left-hand corner of your paper.
- Give your paper a meaningful and suggestive title. “The Rebellion of Reason: American Colonists Get Mad at King George” will catch your reader’s attention more than “King George and the Colonists.”
- Number your pages (this is a big help to your professor when commenting on your paper), but do not put a number on the first page (a stodgy old convention which most word processors accommodate nicely).
- Cite the page numbers from the original text rather than those added by a copy service for texts included in the course reader.
- Include a list of works cited at the end of your paper on a last, unnumbered page, unless your professor has instructed you otherwise.

Format for the First Page

The heading should appear in the upper left, consisting of the following four lines of information. These four lines should be double spaced.

- your name
- course and section
- instructor’s name
- date

The title appears next, double spaced from the heading, centered. If the title takes more than one line, it should be a single spaced. The title should not be in a larger font, and extra spaces should not appear above or below it. Do not underline your title or enclose it in quotes.

The text of your essay should start double spaced after the title.

Microsoft Office Templates

If you wish to get some assistance from Microsoft in formatting of the college paper, you can use one of the several templates available on the website, which is free to download and use to everyone, who has Microsoft Office installed on the computer.

Review the available templates: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/ct101172711033.aspx

Proofreading

It’s absolutely essential that you go through your final draft and check spelling, grammar, and readability—even if you feel you can’t bear to look at the essay one more time. As you proofread, resist the temptation to rewrite a section here, or move a paragraph there. Before you know it, you’ll be up all night tweaking. While editing and rewriting are important, you need to focus on the task at hand.

Use Spell-Check Wisely

These programs miss lots of mistakes. They may catch a blatantly misspelled word, but not a misused word. Whether or not you use a spell-check program, you must check your copy for spelling errors yourself. Read through your entire paper, paying special attention to your use of its/it’s, their/there, you’re/your, and other homophones (words that sound the same, but that have different meanings and sometimes different spellings).

Check Your Sentences

Be sure each sentence is a complete one. If you’re not sure, read your sentence aloud and out of its context. This will help you to identify fragments, run-ons, and excessively wordy constructions in your writing. Another helpful strategy is to have a friend read your paper. Although good mechanics by themselves do not make a good paper, poor mechanics will detract from your grade.

Sources and Additional Information:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/plan/college-success/960.html
http://www.nku.edu/~nkuwip/Students/format.html
http://www.essay-paper.net/college_essays.html