Essay Preparation Guide
2018-19

Margins

• Use one-inch (or 2.54-cm) margins, for top, bottom, left, and right.

Font

• Use a 12-point font throughout the essay: for everything.
• Do not attempt to fool your grader by making your punctuation a larger size.
• Use a serif font throughout the essay. Use Times New Roman, or use a very similar-looking font.
• Make the 12-point Times New Roman font the default for your document (and the normal template), to make your life easier.
• In Microsoft Word, open the “Font” dialogue box, and click on the “Set As Default” button in the lower left corner.

Line spacing

• Use double space lineation throughout the essay.
• Do not attempt to fool your grader by increasing the space between lines.
• There no reason to have quadruple spacing: don’t hit return twice in a row.
• The main exception to this is for starting a new sub-section (which you usually won’t need in essays under 20 pages in length).
• There is regular double spacing before and after your essay’s title.

Paragraph spacing

• Make sure your word processor is not adding extra space after (or before) each new paragraph.
• Microsoft Word is usually set (as a default) to add this space. Tell your processor to stop.
• Go to “Paragraph” (on the Home ribbon or with a right-click context menu) dialogue box, and then the “Indents and Spacing” tab.
• Find the “Spacing” option. Make sure “Before” and “After” are set to 0.

Text justification

• Use left justification (align text left) for almost everything in the essay.
• Centre the essay’s title and the title of the Works Cited page.
• Do not use full justification (“Justify” in Microsoft Word).

Paragraph line protection

• Turn off widow and orphan line protection.
• In Microsoft Word, you can go to the “Paragraph” dialogue box, and then the “Line and Page Breaks” tab.
• Find the “Pagination” option: make sure “Widow/Orphan control” is not checked.

Length of the page

• Your essay should have 23 lines of text on each page.
• Your grader will become suspicious if there are only 22 or 21 lines on the page and might return the essay ungraded.
• Your essay will be returned ungraded if there are 20 or fewer lines on a page.

Submission information

• MLA requires four lines of submission information.
• your name
• your instructor’s name
• the course code/name
• the date you submit the essay
• This is included on the first page only (when there is no title page), starting on the first line and justified with the left margin.

MLA header

• Use a header for the page number and your last name.
• The header should be half an inch (1.27 cm) from the top.
• Note that the inclusion of a header should not affect the number of lines of text on your page.

Page breaks

• Your processor will take care of your page breaks: you shouldn’t have to worry about them.
• The header, if done correctly, will be automatic and will not interfere with what you are typing.
• Your Works Cited page should start on a new page. Insert a page break to start that new page.
• A forced page break can be inserted by pressing Ctrl and Enter on a Windows computer and the Command key and Enter on a Mac computer.
• In Microsoft Word, you can go to the Insert menu: you’ll see “Page Break” as one of the first options.

Indentation

• The first lines of all paragraphs are indented from the left margin by half an inch. You can use the tab key to do this easily.
• See the next section for block quotation indentation.

Block quotations

• Prose quotations of more than four lines of your essay are presented as block quotations.
• Poetry quotations of more than three lines of the poem are presented as block quotations.
• Block quotations have all lines indented from the left margin by half an inch.
• In Microsoft Word, go to “Paragraph” (on the Home ribbon or with a right-click context menu) dialogue box, and then the “Indents and Spacing” tab.
• Find the “Indentation” option. Set “Left” to half an inch (or 1.27 cm).

Titles

• Titles of books, movies, Web sites (as distinct from Web pages), video games, recorded albums (CDs), and other similar items are indicated by an italic font (and nothing else).
• Titles of shorter works, such as chapters, stories, poems, Web pages, and songs, are indicated by (double) quotation marks (and nothing else).

Quotation marks

• Single quotation marks are only used for quotations within quotations.
• If you must use “ironic” or “scare” quotation marks, use double quotation marks.

Words as words

• When talking about a word (as a word), italicize that word.
• If the word is part of a quotation that you are discussing, you can put the word in (double) quotation marks instead.

Quotations

• All quotations must be perfectly accurate. There is no reason (except for typing errors that should be fixed) for inaccurate quotations.
• You are permitted to alter silently three things: the capitalization of the first letter of the first word of the quotation, the final punctuation of the quotation if it is not an exclamation mark or a question mark, and the style of quotation marks (from single to double or from double to single).
• All other alterations to the quotation must be indicated by editorial brackets ( [ ] ).
• Place all quotations within double quotation marks.

Bibliography

• You are using MLA style, so your bibliography is a “Works Cited” list.
• Only include in this list items that you cite in your essay.
• If you are using an item (such as a Web page) when writing your essay that is not cited in your essay, include it in your bibliography and indicate in your essay where you are using it.
• Your bibliography starts on a new page (after a page break).
• Everything in the bibliography is double-spaced: no quadruple spacing.
• Use hanging indentation for the entries (this is where the first line of a paragraph is at the left margin and all subsequent lines of the paragraph are indented by half an inch).
• In Microsoft Word, you can select hanging indentation by going to the “Paragraph” dialogue box and changing the “Special” option under “Indentation.”
• Avoid using software that will automatically produce a bibliographic entry for you: the software is often wrong. (This includes EasyBib.)
• Make sure you include how you are accessing something. If you are holding the physical book or journal issue, you don’t have to indicate this. If you are using a digital version or any other type of reproduced version, you need to indicate this. You must include the name of the Web site you are using, and you usually have to include a URL.
• Include URLs as much as possible (for online content). There are only a small number of exceptions to this rule.

Printing

• When you print your essay, make sure to print it out at 100% zoom (neither shrunk nor expanded).
• This is particularly important when printing a PDF file: make sure you select “Actual size” on the “Print” dialogue box.
• Your instructor may request a properly printed copy if you accidentally print it out smaller than it should be.

Language

• You are writing a formal, academic essay: your language must be formal and academic.
• You are aiming for error-free writing as much as possible.
• Note that when we talk and write informally, many grammatical problems are permissible; when we write formally, they are not.

Specific to this instructor

• Please do not use a title page: start your essay on your first page.
• Please do not submit the essay in a folder, binder, etc.
• Please use dark ink: black or something very dark.
• A staple is preferable to a paperclip, but either is fine.
• Printing on one side of a page is highly preferable, but double-sided is fine.
• You are welcome to single space the MLA submission information on the first page.
• You are welcome to single space block quotations (with double spacing before and after the quotation).
• Do not use archaic-sounding words that are used to make you seem smart, such as amongst, amidst, whilst.