Now that you have your document set up with Times New Roman size 12 font, double-spacing, a header, and one-inch margins, you are reading to begin typing your document.
Be sure to click out of the header area (at the very top of the paper inside the top margin) and set your cursor to the very top right corner of the document. First you will type a heading. The first line of the heading is your name – first and last. The second line of the heading is your instructor’s name. The third line is the course name, and the fourth line is the due date for the essay.
In MLA format, the date is written with the day first, the month second, and the year last – like this:
6 December 2022
No punctuation is used in the date written this way.
Once you have completed the heading, hit the space bar once and drop down to the next line. Center your cursor, and type your essay title. The first and last word of the title are always capitalized, along with any other words that are not conjunctions or small prepositions. Do not bold, italicize, or underline the title, and do not use quotation marks.
Hit the space bar again to drop down to the next line. Be sure to justify left, so that your cursor is at the left side margin. Use the tab key to indent the first line of a paragraph and begin typing your essay. Each time you begin a new paragraph, hit the space bar once so that the spacing between all of your lines is even. There should be no large gaps between paragraphs. At the same time, every new paragraph must be indented by hitting the tab key once.
Your paper is formatted, and you can get busy typing. Tomorrow, we will talk about using citations in an essay.
The heading in the upper left corner of an essay includes writer’s name, instructor’s name, course name, and date. The essay title must be centered, one line down from the heading. The essay must be justified at the left side margin, one line down from the title and indented by one press of the tab key.