How to Format an Essay: An Expert Guide

Essays aim to tell a story. It can be about a life experience, a book you read, or an analysis to prove a particular theory. Above all of these is the format of the essay. Most students fail to structure their essays properly and consequently fail to make an impact. 

The question every student has in mind is how to format an essay. Since essays involve a lot of information, you need to arrange and distribute them properly to convey your message. 

Don’t worry; we have got you covered. In this blog, you will learn about the ideal format of an essay, a typical college essay format, and how an essay in MLA format differs from that of APA format. Also, you will learn about the different formatting styles for essays. 

Let’s dive right in!

What is the Basic Format of an Essay? Steps and Guidelines

Before we get to the structure, understand what an essay format is. Simply put, the essay or assignment format is a set of guidelines for writing an essay. You must follow all the formatting guidelines to ensure your piece is the best and has all the necessary elements to bag the best grades. 

Here are a few steps that can act as a proper essay format guide for you. These will help you learn how to write a short essay and all other types of essays:

A. Choose a Topic

The first step to writing an essay is to choose a topic you are comfortable with. Don’t make the mistake of selecting a topic you don’t have any clue about. Go through the web to find a list of topics and select one that will be easy for you to write. 

B. Research

It is impossible to justify an essay without relevant information. Therefore, before you start writing the essay, conduct extensive research to find appropriate information. 

C. Arrange the Points

Writing your say will be difficult if you don’t arrange the points properly. Since these pieces are segregated into different sections, you must use appropriate data for each of them. 

D. Write the Introduction

Present the essay’s main idea and prepare readers for the rest of the discussion. Use a hook or question you will answer in the next few sections. 

E. Body Paragraphs

These are the sections where the main discussion happens. Justify your essay using the points gathered from your research to convince your readers about your views on a topic. 

F. Conclusion

Summarize all your points in this section. Do not introduce a new point or start a new argument in this section. 

Now you know about the steps to write an essay. Let’s take you through a proper college essay format to help ease the writing process. Here are a few essay formatting rules you must follow:

Document Layout

a. Margins – between 2cm and 2.54 cm (approximately 1 inch)

b. Line spacing – 1.5 or double spacing is preferred

c. Paragraph spacing – Use one clear line between or at least 8 point spacing after every paragraph (will be more in case you are using double spacing)

d. Alignment – Left aligned is the preferred alignment over justified alignment

e. Indents – There should not be any indents for the first lines of paragraphs, except for APA formatting.

Text Formatting

f. Font – Students can use the default  MS Word font for academic writing. However, the preferred ones are Times New Roman or Arial.

g. Font size – Preferably 11 or 12

h. Font style – The sizes for headings and subheadings are recommended to be 2 points higher than the body text. Also, you can italicize a few words or phrases, if there’s a need to do so. 

Quotations

You do not need to italicize shorter texts. Use double quotation marks in such cases. For quotations that are 30 words or more, use a separate paragraph. 

Citation

Use the style as instructed by your instructor. Follow the essay formatting guidelines and write the piece based on the citation style. 

This is the traditional format for every essay. Please don’t confuse it with a research paper outline. However, there are certain guidelines depending on the style you are asked to follow. In the next section, we will understand the differences between APA and MLA essay formats. 

You can format your essay easily once you start implementing the points mentioned in the previous section. Also, you must understand what is spatial order in essays and other formatting elements to move forward. Further, you must look into the instructions and understand if you are using MLA style or the APA style. Here’s how the Modern Language Association is different from the American Psychological Association: 

Differences in General Formatting Guidelines

As far as the font styles and spacing are concerned, both follow the same parameters, that is, 12 pt. Times New Roman, double spacing, and 1-inch margins. The difference is in a few other parts. Let’s take a look at them: 

→ Title Page and Header

In APA essay format, you have to attach a separate cover page with the title of the essay, your name, institution and department, the course, your instructor’s name, and the due date.

You don’t need to add a title page in the case of MLA. Instead, you have to add a four-line header on the first page. The MLA formatting guidelines state the header to be left-aligned, double-spaced, and must have your name, course, name of the instructor, and due date. 

→ Running Head

APA needs a right-aligned page number at the top of every page. A running head is not necessary in academic papers. 

MLA needs a running head with your last name and page number at the top of every page. This must be right-aligned.

→ Block Quote Formatting

Long quotations are called block quotes.

In the case of APA, any quotation of 40 words needs to be formatted as a block quote.

MLA instructs writers to format quotes with more than four lines for prose or more than three lines for verse as block quotes.

→ Bibliography

APA terms a bibliography as ‘references’ and lists all authors alphabetically and their works chronologically.

MLA terms it as ‘works cited page.’ It lists the authors and titles alphabetically. For parenthetical citations, use punctuation marks.

That will help you write any type of essay, be it academic, informative or an extended essay and complete it before the submission date. Follow the title case format while creating your title. Also, you must check and remove all traces of plagiarism before you submit the final paper. You can ask for essay writing help from an expert to gain a better understanding and learn how to write these essays.