Important Essay Writing Format Points You Must Know

One of the most misunderstood and often argued about topic is essay writing format.  Do essays have a specific or standard formatting or structures?  Are there particular page sizes and final appearance that your essay should take before presenting?  The answer is yes.

Although in most cases the essay instructions will include essay writing format and appearance guidelines, there is a standard essay writing format you should observe if not instructed otherwise.  Here are formatting requirements you should observe.

Essay Writing Format: Essay Title

The essay title is a very important part of the essay because it is what the reader interacts with first and forms the first impression.  A good essay writing format should emphasize on perfecting the essay title in one of the two options:

• Option 1:  The essay title can be displayed on top of the first page
• Option 2:  You can use a separate title page for the essay title

A very important essay writing format point to note is that the essay title must have the same font size and font type as the rest of the essay.  This means that the essay title should not be underlined, bolded, italicized or emphasized in any way.

Essay Writing Format Tips for the Essay Body

• The page formatting for the essay body should be standard letter size page with 1” margins for top and bottom margins and 1.25” for the left and right margins.
• A proper essay writing format should include double spacing of the text to give enough room for the lecture to add arrows, underlines and circles.
• Unless specified, use “Times Roman” size 12 font and print the essay on one side of the paper.  Left align your text to the left and keep a perpendicular alignment if writing by hand.

Essay Writing Format: Page Numbering

Standard essay writing format instructions advise not numbering the title page unless it is not separate from the essay text. The page number should be placed on the top left corner or bottom centre of the page.